Ready to make your content live? The publishing process in Candu is relatively simple, but success depends on getting a few key things right such as your URL rules (which control where content appears) and your audience segments (who sees it).
In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know about placing content, publishing it, and verifying it's live.
Before you get started
Before diving into the how-to, it helps to understand what needs to be set before you launch content with Candu.
Publishing State → Makes content available on your site
When you click “Publish” and select segments, you’re turning content on for specific audiences.
Placement → Defines where content shows on your page
To tell Candu exactly where on your page to insert content, you must select an element (div/selector). In most cases, we recommend placing Candu content using the Chrome Extension or a Snapshot.
Segments → Controls who sees your content
Define your audience based on their attributes (like plan type, role, or user journey stage). By default, you can publish to "Everyone" to show content to all users based on URL rules.
URL Rules → Controls which pages of your site content shows on
URL rules determine which specific pages display your content. Even with a div or selector placement, content only appears on pages that match your URL targeting rules.
Adding and Editing Placements
In most cases, you'll define where content appears when creating content and after taking a snapshot. To add or edit placements after content has been created, head to Settings > Placements.
In this section, you can define where content should appear (selector), when it triggers, and how often it displays.
💡Tip: You can also open placement settings directly from the Toolbox (or press the P key) to view and confirm your HTML Selector, placement URL, and position of Candu content. This is especially useful when working with snapshots.
Define when content should appear (Triggers)
Triggers, or display settings, don't define a specific location on the page (like a div). Instead, they define trigger conditions such as:
On page load: Display automatically when users visit a specific page.
Click to trigger: Shows content when users click on a specific element on your page. You can configure additional options such as Only trigger once and Block default events.
Only trigger once: Shows the content just once per user, even if they revisit the page.
Block default event: Prevents the original click action when using click triggers (for example, stops a link from redirecting if your content is triggered by clicking a link).
Trigger this content via code or another piece of Candu content: Only available for product tours and the tour starts when triggered by code or Candu content. More on triggering tours via code or Candu content in this guide.
Define how often
Until dismissed: User dismissed content by clicking 'X' or a button set to dismiss the content.
On every page load: Content displays automatically when users visit the page, even if dismissed.
Define where
Set URL rules: URL rules determine which specific pages display your content. Even if a selector exists on multiple pages, you can control exactly on which page content shows up. See URL Targeting guide.
Pick an HTML selector: Selectors tell Candu where to insert your content on a page. In most cases, we recommend placing Candu content using the Chrome Extension or a Snapshot.
📌 Note: Some content doesn’t need a placement. For example, overlays triggered by a Candu CTA, modals triggered programmatically, or content used in “change content” interactions need to be published without a placement. However, in most cases, content must be published to segments, have a placement on the page, and match URL rules to appear to users.
Removing placements
Navigate to Settings > Placements and click the trash bin icon next to the placement. Your content remains published. If you add a new placement later, it will appear immediately wherever you place it.
📌 Note: Placement changes take effect immediately. You do not need to republish content.
Publish Your Content
When you're ready to go live, click Publish. In the launch modal, you can confirm:
Segments:
You should have defined your audience by creating a segment. To double check your segment conditions, go to the honeycomb icon on the top section of the editor.
URL:
Confirm the URL matches the right environment (e.g., prod, staging) and the page you're targeting.
And that's it! Content can take up to five minutes to appear. During this time, try doing a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows or Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) to ensure you're not seeing cached content.
If you still do not see it after five minutes, follow the verification steps below.
How to verify content is live
Once you have published your content, you might want to confirm if it’s live for a specific segment or page. Some best practices if you cannot see it live after publishing:
1. View the page where content should appear
Navigate to the specific URL where your placement and URL rules should match. If using wildcards, confirm your current URL matches the pattern.
2. Verify Candu installation
Open the Chrome Extension to check that Candu is properly installed. Confirm that the workspace shown matches both where you built content and the environment you're viewing (for example: staging vs. production).
3. Verify you're in the target segment (if using segmentation)
If you've published to specific segments, make sure you're actually in those segments. To confirm your user matches the segment criteria, go to Segments > User Feed where you can search for your specific user.
4. Verify selector exists
The selector is the specific spot on your page where Candu will insert your content. If that spot doesn't exist (or has changed), your content won't show. See this guide for more details.
Still not working? See our Troubleshooting Guide or reach out to Candu Support.
Unpublishing content
Unpublishing removes content from all users in all segments, but does not delete the content itself.
Open the content in the Editor
Click the dropdown next to the Published button
Select Unpublish
Confirm that you want to unpublish
The button will change from "Published" (gray) back to "Publish" (turquoise), indicating content is no longer live.
Once your content is live, you can make updates, change placements, or retarget to different segments without unpublishing. Learn how to make changes to published content.
Need Help?
If you've followed this guide and are still experiencing issues, check the troubleshooting guide or reach out at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!