Schedule Tab: Feature Glossary of Best Practices

Look up a particular feature from the Schedule tab below to find out the best practices that go along with it. (The features are listed below in the same order as on the Schedule tab of the editor.)

Event type

There are four event type options: Recurring, One-time, Specific dates and times, and On-demand only. Your event type determines the overall structure of your webinar schedule and how sessions become available.

If your goal is to fully leverage automation, Recurring and On-demand only are typically the most powerful options because they allow sessions (scheduled, on-demand, just-in-time, or replays) to be available on an ongoing basis rather than tied to a single date.

Of the two, Recurring has an advantage. It lets you offer scheduled session times at convenient times of day (in the attendee’s local time zone), giving visitors a fallback option if they can’t watch immediately. Instead of leaving, they can choose a time, add it to their calendar, and return later.

You can enable on-demand, just-in-time, or replay options with any event type.

For One-time events and events with Specific dates and times, on-demand options will not appear until the first (or only) scheduled session begins — meaning they won’t appear in the session preview or on the registration page before that first session starts.

One-time and Specific dates are most useful when you want to “launch” an automated webinar around an initial promoted session — for example, a guest host is there to respond live in chat for that first session only — and then make the webinar evergreen afterward by enabling on-demand options.

Choose your event type — each is described in greater detail below — based on whether your webinar is ongoing and evergreen, or tied to a specific launch or campaign moment.

Recurring (Recommended)

This is the most common configuration and recommended event type in most cases.

Best for ongoing marketing, sales, training, or onboarding webinars.

Use this when:

You want continuous registration.
You plan to run sessions weekly or indefinitely.
You want to combine scheduled, on-demand, or just-in-time sessions.

One-time

Best for special events or date-specific campaigns.

Use this when:

The webinar is tied to a specific launch or announcement.
You want to make the webinar available as an evergreen asset after the main event.

Specific dates and times

Allows you to manually define exact session dates.

Best for:

Campaign-based webinars
Limited-run events

Like with a one-time event, you can make the webinar available as an evergreen asset after the fact.

On-demand only

Removes scheduled sessions. You may still enable On-demand, Just-in-time, and Replays (your “on-demand options”).

Best for:

Fully asynchronous experiences
Self-serve libraries
When you do not want to offer future session times

Why “On-demand only” might not be enough

Even with On-demand and Just-in-time enabled, removing scheduled sessions eliminates the ability for someone to choose a future time and commit to it.

If a potential registrant cannot watch immediately, they may leave and never return.

Offering a handful of scheduled times in the next day or two allows someone to:

Choose a specific time
Put it on their calendar
Receive reminder emails
Commit to attending

This captures future intent.

On-demand and just-in-time capture immediate intent.
Scheduled sessions capture future intent.

Combining both usually results in better attendance than relying on on-demand options alone.

Starts / Ends

Starts

Defines when the webinar becomes available.

Best practice:

Set this intentionally for campaigns.
Avoid accidentally making webinars live before landing pages are finalized.

Ends / Never / End date

Controls when registration closes.

Best practice:

Use “Never” for evergreen webinars. You can always unpublish in the future, if needed.
Use an End date for time-bound promotions.

Scheduled webinars

When creating scheduled sessions, you are defining four things:

Recurrence pattern
Days of the week
Session times
Time zone

Together, these determine how often and when your webinar appears as a future session option on your registration page.

Recurrence

Recurrence controls how often sessions repeat. Options include:

Every day
Weekdays (auto-selects Monday–Friday)
Every week (you manually select one or more days)
Every two weeks (odd or even weeks)
Once a month (e.g., first Tuesday, last Thursday, etc.)
On a specific date

You can combine multiple recurrences. For example:

Every two weeks (odd): Monday & Wednesday
Every two weeks (even): Tuesday & Thursday

This allows highly customized scheduling when needed. However, for evergreen webinars, simplicity typically performs better than complex recurrence patterns.

Session times

For each recurrence, you define one or more times of day.

You can add multiple times per day. However, we generally recommend limiting this to three or four.

Why:

Too many options can create decision fatigue.
A long list of same-day sessions can push future dates out of view, keeping the registrant from realizing additional options exist.

Using 3–4 well-spaced times per weekday (for example, 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m.) allows:

Multiple options per day
Visibility into the next few days
A clean, scannable registration experience

If you want high frequency throughout the day, consider using just-in-time webinars instead of adding excessive scheduled times. Just-in-time creates constant availability without overwhelming the registration page, since only one just-in-time appears in the sessions drop-down menu at any given time.

Time zone

Time zone determines how scheduled sessions appear to registrants.

Attendee’s local time zone

Sessions appear in the registrant’s local time.

Best practice:

Use this in most cases. With scheduled sessions, it ensures times always appear at convenient times of day for each attendee, so scheduled sessions work as a true fallback when someone cannot watch on-demand immediately.

Also useful for:

Audiences across multiple U.S. time zones
Global audiences

Be mindful of:

Just-in-time sessions appearing at odd local hours (use Hours of operation if needed).

Fixed time zone

Sessions appear in one defined time zone for everyone.

Best for:

Strict chat coverage alignment
Teams with defined business hours
Compliance or SLA-driven environments

Using a fixed time zone gives you more operational control but reduces flexibility for audiences in other time zones, resulting in lower attendance rates.

Best practices for scheduled sessions

While eWebinar supports complex scheduling patterns, most evergreen webinars perform best with:

A predictable weekly pattern
Multiple weekday options
Clear spacing between times

We often recommend weekdays at 11am, 2pm, and 6pm.

Why:

11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. are consistently strong webinar times.
6:00 p.m. provides an after-work option.
Weekdays align with most business audiences and help avoid creating the expectation of live chat coverage on weekends.

Scheduled sessions as a fallback for on-demand

On-demand, just-in-time, and replays capture immediate intent.

Scheduled sessions capture future intent.

If someone lands on your registration page but cannot watch immediately, offering scheduled sessions in the next day or two allows them to:

Choose a specific time
Put it on their calendar
Receive reminder emails
Commit to attending

Without nearby scheduled options, they may leave and never return.

For this reason, scheduled sessions often perform best when used alongside on-demand, just-in-time webinars, or replays.

On-demand webinars

On-demand webinars let people begin watching your webinar the moment they click to join it after registering.

On-demand is one of the simplest ways to increase attendance because it removes the delay between interest and access.

Best practices for on-demand webinars

On-demand is recommended in most cases, especially when:

You want to capture visitors at the moment of highest intent
You want your webinar to be available outside scheduled times
You want to increase total registrations and attendance (views)

On-demand is especially effective when paired with scheduled sessions, so attendees have both:

Immediate access (on-demand)
A future option they can commit to (scheduled)

Why on-demand may not be enough

Even with on-demand enabled, some visitors cannot watch immediately.

If your schedule includes no scheduled sessions, a potential registrant who cannot watch right away may leave and never return.

Offering a handful of scheduled times in the next day or two allows someone to:

Choose a specific time
Put it on their calendar
Receive reminder emails
Commit to attending

On-demand captures immediate intent, which scheduled sessions capture future intent.

In many cases, combining both produces better attendance than on-demand alone.

Operational note about on-demand webinars

On-demand sessions can be watched at any time, including outside your team’s coverage hours.

If you enable chat, you may want to set expectations using:

Your housekeeping script
An auto response message
Hours of operation (to block sessions outside of those hours)

Enable ungated on-demand webinar link

This setting generates an ungated on-demand link that can be shared publicly.

Ungated links allow someone to start watching without registering.

Best practice:

Enable this only if you intentionally want a public, no-registration viewing experience.
If you want to use an ungated link, you must enable it first.

For details, see the help article on ungated links.

Just-in-time webinars

Just-in-time webinars ensure there is always a session about to start when someone lands on your registration page. They display a countdown to the next session — both in the session dropdown (showing how many minutes remain) and typically on the registration button itself.

This creates urgency and a live-event mindset, which is different from on-demand sessions where attendees simply press play and begin watching immediately.

Best practices for just-in-time webinars

Just-in-time is recommended when:

You want a live-style experience without scheduling many sessions
You want to increase registration conversion from your landing page
You want to offer high availability while keeping your schedule simple

Just-in-time works especially well when combined with:

On-demand (immediate access)
Scheduled sessions (future fallback)
Hours of operation (to prevent odd-hour appearances)

When selecting the time interval for your just-in-time webinars, we recommend:

On the next 5-minute mark
On the next 10-minute mark
On the next quarter hour (most popular)

Choosing the next quarter hour more firmly differentiates just-in-time from on-demand webinars and puts the emphasis on the urgency of an upcoming session to motivate registrants to sign up and join right away.

When to enable hours of operation with just-in-time

Just-in-time sessions always run in the attendee’s local time zone. This can cause just-in-time sessions to appear at odd local hours (for example, late at night).

In many cases, enabling Hours of operation is recommended to prevent just-in-time sessions from appearing outside the hours you want your webinar to be available.

This is especially important for teams that want to avoid giving the impression that someone may be available to respond in real time.

Just-in-time and chat expectations

Just-in-time sessions start at a specific time. Because of this, attendees may have higher expectations around chat responsiveness, as opposed to an on-demand webinar which people will immediately assume is pre-recorded.

If you enable just-in-time sessions, it is especially important to manage chat expectations using:

Hours of operation
A clear housekeeping script
An auto response message
A moderator coverage plan

Replays

When attendees register to watch a replay, they receive a link that allows them to watch your webinar at any time and control the video playback.

Replays differ from other session types because viewers can freely pause, skip forward, and move backward through the video.

Best practices for replays

Replays behave like traditional replay links from live webinars. Attendees receive a link they can watch at any time, and they have full control over playback — including skipping forward and backward.

Although replay links can be watched later, most attendees watch them immediately. So, in practice, they function similarly to on-demand sessions, but with full video control.

Keep in mind that, even if replays are disabled in your Schedule, replay links can still be included in follow-up emails. (They are included in your follow-up emails by default. If you do not want that, you must remove them.)

Enable replays in your Schedule when:

You are comfortable with attendees having full control to skip forward and backward.
You want to meet the expectations of experienced webinar goers looking for a “replay link.”
You want to offer immediate access with maximum flexibility.

Disable replays in your Schedule when:

You want to preserve the event-style structure of your webinar
You want attendees to watch in sequence during their first viewing
Pacing, narrative flow, or timed progression are important

For more details, read the guide to replays.

Set replay links to expire

By default, replay links can be watched indefinitely.

This setting allows you to set an expiration window so replay links stop working after a defined period of time.

Best for:

Sales webinars with time-bound offers
Campaigns where replay access should be limited
Launches where messaging or pricing may change after a certain date

Best practice:

Use expiration when replay access should align with a real offer window.
Avoid expiration for evergreen training or onboarding webinars.

Enable ungated replay link

This setting generates an ungated replay link that can be shared publicly.

Ungated replay links allow someone to watch a replay without registering.

Best practice:

Use this when you want to share a replay publicly (for example, on a landing page or in an ad).
If you want to use an ungated replay link, you must enable it first.

For details, see the help article on ungated links.

Availability

Max number of scheduled sessions to display in registration form

This setting controls how many upcoming scheduled sessions appear on your registration page.

Best practice:

Show enough to include up to three days of scheduled sessions (typically 9 - 12)
Showing too many sessions can overwhelm the registration form.
Showing too few may limit perceived flexibility.

The goal is to provide enough options to feel flexible without creating clutter or decision fatigue. You must also be careful not to add more than three or four session times per day to prevent this from happening.

Blackout dates

Blackout dates prevent sessions from occurring on selected holidays or specific date ranges.

You can block:

National holidays (by country)
Individual dates
Custom date ranges

Best practice:

Use blackout dates to prevent sessions from appearing when your team is unavailable.
Review holiday selections annually, as some dates change from year to year.

Blackout dates help ensure your schedule reflects real operational availability. At the very least, they can manage expectations around chat responsiveness on days when you know your team is less likely to respond or may be understaffed.

Hours of operation

Hours of operation limit when sessions appear on your registration page.

If enabled, sessions that fall outside those hours will not appear to registrants.

Hours of operation can apply to:

Scheduled sessions
Just-in-time sessions
On-demand sessions (unless on-demand is allowed outside hours)

Replays are not affected by hours of operation. If you want to prevent people from registering for a replay, you must remove the option from your schedule altogether.

Set hours of operation in a fixed time zone

This toggle only appears when your webinar uses Attendee’s Local Time Zone.

By default, when your webinar uses the attendee’s local time zone, hours of operation also follow the attendee’s local time.

If you enable Set hours of operation in a fixed time zone, you can choose a specific time zone (for example, Eastern Time) and apply hours consistently in that time zone for all attendees.

Best practice:

Use attendee-local hours when your goal is to prevent sessions from appearing at odd local hours (especially just-in-time).
Use fixed-time-zone hours when your goal is to align session availability with your team’s working hours.

Allow on-demand sessions outside hours of operation

This toggle appears when:

Hours of operation are enabled, AND
Your webinar uses the attendee’s local time zone, AND
Hours of operation are not set in a fixed time zone

This setting allows on-demand sessions to appear even when outside your defined hours.

Best practice:

Enable this when you want 24/7 on-demand access but still restrict just-in-time sessions to business hours, so as to not give the impression of live chat at odd local hours.
Keep this disabled in strict SLA or coverage-controlled environments.

This setting is especially useful when you want to protect brand integrity for live-like sessions while maintaining maximum accessibility for clearly recorded ones.

Best practices for hours of operation

Enable hours of operation when:

You want to prevent sessions from appearing at odd local hours
You want session availability to align with your team’s working hours
You want to manage expectations around chat responsiveness

When using the attendee’s local time zone, hours are especially useful for controlling just-in-time visibility.

When using a fixed time zone, hours help align webinar availability with your operational coverage.