Countdown timers

Countdown timers are animated gifs served in your email at the time of opening, displaying the time remaining until a set end date. For example, you can show a live countdown to an event such as the beginning of a sale or a product launch!

Countdown timers are located in the Personalize section of the Litmus platform. From the Personalize tab, select Timers on the left side. Here, you can create a new timer and find any timers you've already created.

Create a countdown timer

In the Timers section of the Personalize tab, select New Timer in the upper right corner.

Select a Timer design template from the options provided.

Customize the Timer using the colors for the background and text to match your email campaign. Here you can also set the Timer’s expiration, including the timezone.

When you are ready, select Next: Preview your timer to check your time, colors, and countdown settings.

If your timer is set up and ready, select Next: Save and get HTML to generate your tag! You can copy the tag using the button below the text box, and your new timer will appear in the Timers section of the Personalize tab in your account.

Add a countdown timer to your email

To add a timer to your email, simply copy the HTML tag for your Timer and add it to your email's code. You can quickly copy the tag by hovering over the timer's thumbnail and selecting Copy HTML.

The tag itself is a simple img src element and can be added to your code the same as you would add any other image link.

You can also add a timer with Visual Editor in Litmus Builder using the image link from the HTML code rather than the entire tag. Copy the image link and add it in Visual Editor to replace a placeholder image with your timer.

Impression usage

A countdown timer is a single image, so any time the image is loaded this will count as one impression.

Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)

Countdown Timers are set up with a transparent pixel for subscribers who have MPP enabled to ensure they are not served a blank or static image. The Timer will not appear for those users. MPP-impacted opens will count towards impressions usage.