OuterSignal Playbooks can send custom HTTP requests (webhooks) to any endpoint you control whenever a customer enters or exits a segment — making it possible to pipe enriched OuterSignal data into your CRM, data warehouse, internal tooling, or any third-party service that accepts JSON.

Unlike Slack, Klaviyo, or Shopify Playbook actions, webhooks don't require connecting an integration first. As long as you have an HTTPS endpoint, you can start sending data immediately.

Prerequisites

An HTTPS endpoint that can receive POST requests with a JSON body
Familiarity with the data your endpoint expects (so you can shape the payload accordingly)

Step 1: Create a Playbook

In your OuterSignal dashboard, navigate to Playbooks.
Click Create Playbook.
Choose your Segment — either an existing saved segment from Signal Feed, or create a new All Customers Playbook.
Click Add (First) Action.

Step 2: Choose the Custom Webhook Action

Under the Built-In section at the bottom of the action list, click Custom → Webhook.

Webhooks are always available — no integration or connection setup is required.

Step 3: Configure the Webhook

Fill in the following fields:

Action Name — Defaults to "Webhook." You can rename this to something more descriptive (e.g., "Send VIPs to CRM").
Trigger — Choose when the webhook fires:
- On enter — Fires once when a customer first matches the segment.
- On exit — Fires once when a customer leaves the segment.
- Live Sync — Fires on every new matching order while the customer is in the segment.
Webhook URL — Your HTTPS endpoint (e.g., https://your-webhook-endpoint.com/webhook). HTTPS is required.
HTTP Method — POST is the default and recommended for most use cases. GET is not supported, since webhooks are expected to mutate state.

Step 4: Add Custom Headers (Optional)

If your endpoint requires authentication or specific content negotiation, add custom headers under the Custom Headers section.

You can use the quick-add buttons for common headers (Content-Type, Authorization, X-API-Key, Accept) or click + Add Header to define your own.

Step 5: Customize the Payload Template

The Payload Template controls the JSON body sent to your endpoint. You can use the default template or build your own using template variables.

Click any variable to insert it at your cursor. Available variables include:

Profile — profile.name, profile.email, profile.phone, profile.biography, profile.social_profiles, profile.property_value
Demographics — profile.gender, profile.age, profile.persona
Location — profile.city, profile.state, profile.country
Professional — profile.job_title, profile.company_name
Segment — segment.name
Order — order.name, order.count, order.total_spent, order.avg_value
System — triggered_at

The template supports up to 10,000 characters and uses standard #{{variable}} syntax. Click Use Default at any time to reset to the default payload structure.

Example default payload:

{
  "event": "segment_entered",
  "triggered_at": "#{{triggered_at}}",
  "profile": {
    "name": "#{{profile.name}}",
    "email": "#{{profile.email}}"
  },
  "segment": {
    "name": "#{{segment.name}}"
  }
}

Step 6: Add a Signing Secret (Optional but Recommended)

For production use, we strongly recommend adding a Signing Secret so your endpoint can verify that incoming requests are actually from OuterSignal.

When a signing secret is set, OuterSignal signs each request with HMAC-SHA256 and includes the signature in the X-Webhook-Signature header. Your endpoint should compute the same HMAC over the request body and compare it to the header value to authenticate the request.

Step 7: Review Advanced Options

Expand Advanced Options to configure:

Timeout — How long OuterSignal will wait for your endpoint to respond. Default is 30 seconds; max is 60 seconds.
Retry Policy — Failed webhooks are automatically retried up to 3 times with exponential backoff (1s, 2s, 4s delays). This is handled by the backend and cannot be configured.

Step 8: Add the Action and Create the Playbook

Once all required fields are filled in, click Add Action.
On the final screen, enable Run for existing members if you want the webhook to fire for all customers already in the segment, not just future entrants.
Click Create Playbook.

Your webhook will start firing as soon as customers match the segment trigger condition.

Example Use Cases

A few ways brands use webhook Playbooks:

Sync VIP customers to a CRM — When a customer matches a high-value segment, push their profile data to HubSpot, Salesforce, or any internal CRM.
Trigger custom workflows — Kick off internal automations in tools like Zapier, n8n, or Make whenever a key customer milestone is hit.
Feed a data warehouse — Stream segment events into Snowflake, BigQuery, or your internal data lake for downstream analytics.
Send to an internal Slack alternative — If your team uses something other than Slack for alerts (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Discord, or a custom dashboard), webhooks let you push notifications anywhere.

Need Help?

If you run into any issues setting up your webhook or designing your payload, reach out to your OuterSignal CSM or email us at [email protected].

Webhook Integration