Campaigns Overview
A campaign is the reusable definition of a send: who it goes to, and what they receive. Nothing leaves Outreach until a campaign run is created from that definition, so the same campaign can be sent once or hundreds of times without being rebuilt.
Campaigns, Runs, and Messages
Outreach separates the definition of a campaign from each send:
- Campaign: the definition. Its name, delivery channel, audience, template, schedule and, for SMS under Sender Selection, its sender.
- Campaign run: a single execution of the campaign, with its own messages, status and history.
- Message: one SMS or email sent to one recipient. Messages belong to a run rather than to the campaign.
Because messages belong to a run, the same campaign can be sent repeatedly, on demand or on a schedule, and the history and status of every send stays separate. See Campaign Runs for the full lifecycle.
What a Campaign Contains
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Name and description | Identifies the campaign. The description sits in an info tooltip beside the name rather than in a column of its own. |
| Delivery channel | SMS or email. Set at creation and fixed afterwards. |
| Audience | Who the campaign sends to: all contacts, a segment, or an uploaded file. See Choosing an Audience. |
| Template | The message content, either a saved template applied from the library or one built in the campaign. See Adding a Template. |
| Schedule | Manual (you start each run) or Repeat (runs are created and started automatically). |
| Sender | For SMS when the organisation uses Sender Selection, the phone number or alpha sender ID messages send from. |
| Created by | The user who created the campaign, so ownership is clear when several people manage campaigns. |
| Status | Whether a run is currently active (Ready to Run or Run In Progress). |
Campaign Types
| Type | Template format |
|---|---|
| SMS | Plain text with variable insertion |
| HTML built in the design or code editor, with sender settings, attachments and an unsubscribe link |
Each campaign uses a single channel, and SMS and email recipients cannot be mixed in one campaign. The channel is shown in the campaigns list and on the campaign itself.
The Campaigns Page
The campaigns page lists every campaign in the organisation. Alongside the name, channel, schedule, status and creator, a contact source column shows at a glance whether a campaign sends to all contacts, a segment or a file. The same value appears in the campaign summary modal, so the audience is visible without reopening the wizard.
Campaign and run descriptions are shown in info tooltips next to the name. Selecting the info icon reveals the full text, which keeps long descriptions out of the table.
Campaign Schedules
The schedule set on a campaign controls how its runs are triggered:
- Manual: nothing sends automatically. Each run is created and started by hand. Suits one-off sends and campaigns without a fixed timetable.
- Repeat: runs are created and started automatically on a cadence, defined as daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Runs can still be created and started manually on top of the cadence.
See Scheduling for the repeat rules, the calendar preview, and how to skip individual occurrences.
Campaign Status
At the campaign level, status reflects whether a run is currently active:
- Ready to Run: no run is active. The campaign is idle and available to run.
- Run In Progress: at least one run is active, meaning preparing, warming up or sending.
Each individual send carries a richer set of statuses on its run. See Campaign and Message Statuses.
What You Can Do with Campaigns
| Action | When available | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Create | Any time | Start the campaign wizard to build a new campaign |
| Edit | Any time, including while runs are sending | Change the audience within the rules, the template and the schedule. The name and channel are fixed |
| New run | Any time | Create a run and choose whether to start it now or later |
| View schedule | Repeat campaigns | See a calendar of upcoming runs and skip individual occurrences |
| Delete | Not available while the campaign has a Run In Progress | Remove the campaign and its runs |
Why You Can Edit but Not Delete During a Run
Editing and deleting are gated differently because of what each one reaches:
- Editing is never blocked. A run keeps its own copy of the campaign as it stood when the run was created, so an edit cannot change a run that already exists. Edits apply to runs created afterwards. See Editing a Campaign.
- Deleting is blocked while a run is in progress. Deletion removes the campaign along with every run and message belonging to it, including the run that is still sending. The active run has to finish, or be stopped, before the campaign can be deleted.
Most run-specific actions, such as starting, scheduling, cancelling, duplicating, monitoring, exporting and retrying, happen on a run. See Campaign Runs.
Concurrency and Throughput
Runs are not limited to one at a time, on a channel or on a campaign:
- Any number of runs can send in parallel. There is no per-campaign or per-channel limit, so a run is never blocked waiting for another run to finish, including another run of the same campaign.
- Throughput is managed by sending capacity. Under Sender Pool capacity is based on the messaging service pool. Under Sender Selection, rate limiting is calculated per sender, so a run on a sender with no other active runs sends immediately, while runs sharing a sender share that sender's throughput.
- High-priority messages jump the queue. When a run starts, its high-priority messages are dispatched ahead of normal-priority messages in other active runs. Priority comes from a column in an uploaded contact file, so it belongs to campaigns that use a file as their contact source. Runs against All Contacts or a segment send everything at normal priority.
Capacity and Queue Visibility
A live capacity indicator on the campaigns page shows, per delivery channel, how many runs and messages are currently in progress, how many are queued, and how much capacity is available. Starting a run also shows roughly how many messages are ahead of yours in the queue and an estimated wait time, so you can judge when the run will actually begin sending.
Where the Rest Lives
The pages in this section follow the campaign lifecycle, from Creating a Campaign through to Terms and Conditions. The material a campaign draws on, or produces, sits in its own section:
- Contacts. The contact store and the segments a campaign can target
- Templates. The library of saved SMS and email content
- Contact Files. File formats, limits and message priority
- Delivery. Monitoring a run in flight, status definitions and provider reporting