How to add a countdown timer to Customer.io
Customer.io messages are usually triggered by an event, which means every recipient receives them at a different second. A calendar deadline rarely fits; a countdown that starts from each person’s own trigger does — and in tikio that is one URL parameter, not a second campaign.
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Design your countdown in tikio
Create a timer in the tikio editor: pick colors, fonts, labels and the languages you need. What you see in the editor is exactly what lands in the inbox — the timer is delivered as a regular animated image.
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Publish and copy the image URL
Hit Publish and copy the public image URL. The deadline lives in the URL as a parameter, so the same link works for every campaign — change the date, not the link.
https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?target=2026-08-01T20:00 -
Insert the timer into your Customer.io message
In the code or rich-text editor, paste the snippet below. Liquid inside the URL is evaluated per person at send time, in campaigns, broadcasts and transactional messages alike.
<img src="https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?target=2026-08-01T20:00" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="max-width:100%;" />
Per-recipient evergreen deadlines
Use {{customer.id}} as the recipient key — it is stable per person and, unlike an email address, is not personal data sitting in an image URL. Each person’s countdown then starts at their first open.
<img src="https://tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?duration=86400&uid={{customer.id}}" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="max-width:100%;" />FAQ
Can I drive the deadline from event data?
Yes — put a Liquid expression in target= that resolves to an ISO date or unix seconds, for example a trial end date carried on the triggering event.
Do I need a fallback filter?
It is good practice. Customer.io fails a send when referenced data is missing, so use a default filter on any attribute you interpolate into the URL.
Does it work in transactional messages?
Yes. The timer is an image URL with no dependency on campaign context, so transactional sends behave the same as campaigns.
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