Campaigns

Common questions about creating, running, scheduling and managing campaigns.

What Is the Difference Between SMS and Email Campaigns?

SMS campaigns send text messages through Twilio, email campaigns send HTML email through SendGrid. A campaign uses one channel and cannot mix the two. See Campaigns Overview.

Who Am I Sending To?

Whoever the campaign's audience covers. There are three choices: All Contacts, a Segment, or a File uploaded for that campaign alone. The first two read the contact store, so a run reaches the contacts that qualify at the time it starts, not when it was created. See Choosing an Audience.

Which Audience Should I Pick?

Use a Segment for anything targeted and repeatable, All Contacts where the whole store should receive the message, and a File for a one-off list of people who are not in the store and do not need to be. See Choosing an Audience.

There Is No Segment for the Group I Need

Segments are created by a Campaign Manager, Admin or Org Admin, so ask one of them for the group you need. A campaigner can select an existing segment but cannot build one. See Building a Segment.

Do I Have to Save a Template Before I Can Use It?

No. A campaign can apply a saved template from the library, or the content can be written in the campaign itself. Content that will only ever be used once is fine written in the campaign. See Adding a Template.

Can I Edit a Saved Template From Inside a Campaign?

No. A saved template applied to a campaign is read only, and changes are made in the library instead. To change wording for one campaign only, build the template in that campaign. See Adding a Template.

What Is a Campaign Run?

A campaign defines who is being messaged and what they receive. A run is a single execution of it. Messages belong to a run, so one campaign can be sent many times, each run with its own messages and status. See Campaign Runs.

Can I Run Two Campaigns at the Same Time?

Yes. Any number of runs send in parallel, with no per-campaign or per-channel limit, including two runs of the same campaign. Runs sharing a sender share that sender's throughput. See Campaigns Overview.

Can I Send the Same Campaign Repeatedly?

Yes. Create a new run each time, or set a Repeat schedule so runs are created and started automatically. A past run can also be duplicated to reuse its content exactly.

How Do I Schedule a Campaign?

Choose a Repeat schedule on the campaign to run it daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, or start an individual run later by picking a future date and time. See Scheduling and Starting a Run.

What Sender Do My SMS Messages Send From?

It depends on the organisation's sender strategy. Under Sender Pool Twilio picks a sender, under Sender Selection the campaign uses one approved sender. Applying an SMS brand can set that sender for you.

Why Did My Run Show "Setup Failed"?

A run shows Setup Failed when it could not be prepared or could not begin sending. The usual causes are messages that failed to create, a sender or sender address that was no longer available when sending was due to start, and channel configuration that is no longer valid. Whenever a run fails at that point, the campaign owner is emailed with the reason and the suggested fix. See When a Run Fails to Begin Sending.

A segment that could not be recalculated, or an audience that resolves to no contacts, does not produce Setup Failed. The run returns to Ready to Run so it can be started again, and the person who started it is emailed. See When a run cannot start.

Why Can't I Create a Run?

The most likely reason is that the campaign's template has no sender, which happens when a brand that supplied one has since had it cleared. A template built in the campaign can be given a sender by editing the campaign; a saved template has to be corrected in the library by a Campaign Manager or an administrator. See A template with no sender.

Can I Change the Delivery Channel After Creating a Campaign?

No. The channel is fixed at creation. A different channel means a new campaign. See Creating a Campaign.

How Do I Stop a Run That Is In Progress?

Open the run, select Stop and confirm. Queued messages are cancelled, while messages already sent or sending are unaffected. A run that is Scheduled or Warming Up can be cancelled instead, which returns it to Ready to Run without sending anything. See Starting a Run.

Can I Edit a Campaign While It Is Sending?

Yes. Every run sends from its own copy of the campaign, taken when the run was created, so an edit cannot reach a run that is already underway. Edits apply to runs created afterwards. See Editing a Campaign.

Can I Delete a Campaign?

Yes, but not while it has a run in progress. The run has to finish or be stopped first. Deleting then removes the campaign along with its runs and their message history, so export anything worth keeping first. See Editing a Campaign and Monitoring and Messages.

Is There a Limit on How Many Contacts a Campaign Can Reach?

Not on the contact store or on segment membership. The limit belongs to a File audience: 300,000 rows and 50 MB per file, whichever is reached first. A larger one-off list has to be split across files. See Contact Files.