Starting a Run

Sending a campaign means starting one of its runs, either immediately or at a future date and time. This page covers the Start Run flow, the warming-up window, scheduling, and what happens while messages send.

Prerequisites

Before a run can be started:

• The run needs to be in a Ready to Run status. Create one from the campaign if there is not one already.
• The audience has to resolve to at least one contact. See When a run cannot start.
• For SMS under the Sender Selection strategy, the campaign's chosen sender has to still be available on the provider and in the Outreach available sender list. This is checked when the run is started, not when it is created. See Unavailable senders.

Another run is never a blocker. Any number of runs can send in parallel, including several runs of the same campaign, with no per-campaign or per-channel limit. See Concurrency and Throughput.

The Start Run Page

Starting a run opens the Start Run page (breadcrumb: Campaign → Run → Start Run), titled Send Messages in [run name], with a Start button. It has three sections.

1. Preview Your Template

A preview of exactly what will be sent. For SMS under Sender Selection, the Sender is shown. For email, the preview includes the subject, sender details, body and any attachments.

2. When Should Messages Be Sent?

Option	Behaviour
Now	Start sending immediately. The run first enters a 5-minute warming-up window.
Later	Pick a date and time. The run can be cancelled or rescheduled any time before it starts.

When Later is selected, choose an At date and time and a Timezone:

• The earliest schedulable time is at least 15 minutes from now, in 15-minute intervals. At 13:02, for example, the earliest available slot is 13:30.
• The run respects the selected timezone when it starts.

3. Accept Terms and Conditions

The run disclaimer has to be accepted before starting. It confirms that the required consents and permissions are in place and that the send complies with applicable spam, privacy and telecommunications law. See Terms and Conditions.

With everything set, select Start.

Starting a Run Against a Dynamic Audience

A run whose campaign sends to all contacts or a segment builds its messages at this point rather than when the run was created. It moves through Preparing while the messages are generated from the most recent contact data, then sends. Larger audiences spend longer in Preparing.

On a run started Now, Preparing follows the warming-up window rather than replacing it: the 5 minutes elapse first, then the messages are generated. A run that starts at a scheduled time has no warming-up window, so it goes into Preparing at its start time. A run against a segment also recalculates that segment first, so the recipients come from current membership.

Every message in a dynamic run sends at Normal priority. Priority comes from a column in an uploaded contact file, so a run against all contacts or a segment has none to read. See Message Priorities.

The audience summary on the run page shows the estimated recipients before you commit, and a Refresh now link brings the figures up to date. See Dynamic audiences and, for the full list of states a run passes through, Run Statuses.

When a Run Cannot Start

A run is stopped before it sends anything in these cases:

Situation	What happens
The audience resolves to no contacts	The run does not start and stays in Ready to Run. Add contacts, or refresh the segment, then start it again
The campaign's segment could not be recalculated	The run does not start and stays in Ready to Run. Start it again once the segment refreshes. See When a refresh fails
The campaign targets a segment that no longer exists	The run does not start. Point the campaign at a segment that does exist, or at all contacts, by editing the campaign
The SMS sender is unavailable	See Unavailable senders below
The campaign's template has no sender	The run cannot be created in the first place. See A template with no sender

An empty audience is the most common of these, and the most avoidable: check the estimated recipients on the run page before starting.

Neither an empty audience nor a failed segment refresh damages the run. It stays intact and startable, so nothing has to be rebuilt. Where either surfaces on a run that was already started or scheduled, the run returns to Ready to Run and the person who started it is emailed. It is not started again automatically, because sending to a stale audience is worse than not sending, so start it again once the underlying problem is fixed.

A sender that has gone missing behaves differently, because sending has already been committed to: the run moves to Setup Failed and the campaign owner is emailed. See When a Run Fails to Begin Sending.

A Template with No Sender

A run needs a sender on the template it will send from, and a brand that supplies that sender can have it cleared afterwards. Where that leaves the campaign's template with no sender, the run cannot be created, so the problem surfaces before there is a run to start.

What to do depends on where the template lives:

• A template built in the campaign can be given a sender by editing the campaign.
• A saved template has to be corrected in the Templates library, which a Campaigner cannot open. Ask a Campaign Manager or an administrator to set a sender on the template, then create the run.

A campaign in this state also cannot be saved, covered in Editing a Campaign.

Warming Up

Runs started Now enter a Warming Up state for 5 minutes before any messages send. This is a window to catch problems. A run can be cancelled during warming up, which returns it to Ready to Run and sends nothing, so a mistake caught early costs nothing. Once the window elapses, the run moves to In Progress and messages begin dispatching.

Scheduled runs do not warm up

A run scheduled with Later has no warming-up window. The Scheduled state is itself the cancellation window, so the run goes straight to sending when the scheduled time is reached.

Scheduled Runs (Start Later)

When a run is scheduled for later:

1. The run moves to Scheduled and waits.
2. The scheduled start time can be updated, or the run cancelled, while it is scheduled. Cancelling reverts it to Ready to Run rather than deleting it, so the prepared run is kept and can be started manually later.
3. When the scheduled date and time is reached, the run starts automatically, with no manual action needed.

What Happens During a Run

SMS

1. Messages are queued and sent in batches.
2. Each message moves through Queued, Sending, Sent and Delivered, or Failed or Opted Out. Sent means the message was handed off to the recipient's carrier with no confirmation back yet, and it only becomes Delivered once a delivery confirmation is returned. See Message Statuses.
3. Message statuses update in near real time as delivery progresses.
4. Messages sitting in Sent for more than 10 minutes without a delivery confirmation are updated to Delivered (Assumed), because not all carriers report final delivery.
5. Messages sitting in Sending for more than 10 minutes are updated to Failed with a reason of "Timed Out".

Email

1. Messages are queued and sent in batches.
2. Each message moves through Queued, Sending and Delivered, or Failed, Opted Out or Retrying.
3. Message statuses update in near real time as delivery progresses.
4. Messages the receiving server temporarily refuses enter a Retrying state until delivery succeeds or permanently fails.

Throughput and Queuing

Even after a run starts, individual messages may be queued if the available sending capacity is already fully used. The run still moves to In Progress and its messages wait their turn: sending is pending, not failed. Starting a run shows approximately how many messages are ahead of yours and an estimated wait time. High-priority messages in a starting run are dispatched ahead of normal-priority messages in other active runs, covered in Message Priorities. How capacity is shared between runs is covered in Concurrency and Throughput.

Failure Handling

• Messages that fail before reaching the delivery provider are retried automatically up to 3 times before being marked as Failed.
• Messages that fail after being sent, such as an undeliverable address or a bounce, are marked as Failed with a specific reason.
• SMS messages to recipients who have opted out are detected and marked as Opted Out.

Unavailable Senders

Under Sender Selection, the chosen sender is not checked when a run is created, so a run can always be prepared. It is checked twice around starting instead:

1. When start is selected. The sender is validated immediately. If it is unavailable, an error is shown there and then, the run is left unstarted in Ready to Run, and no email is sent, so the problem can be fixed while you are still in context.
2. When sending is due to begin. The sender is checked again, at the end of the warming-up window for a run started now, or at the scheduled time for a run started later or created automatically from a Repeat schedule. If it has been removed in the meantime, the run moves to Setup Failed and an email is sent to the campaign owner.

The second check catches a sender removed or de-listed after start was selected, and means an automatic run on a broken schedule never fails silently.

When a Run Fails to Begin Sending

A run that fails at the point sending is due to begin moves to Setup Failed, and the campaign owner is emailed. This class of failure happens when nobody is watching the screen, on a scheduled run or once the warming-up window has elapsed, which is why it is reported by email rather than on screen. A problem caught by the immediate check when start is selected is shown at the time and sends no email.

The email names the campaign and the run, when it started, and whether a user or a schedule started it. It also gives the reason and what to do next.

Reason	Recommended action
The SMS sender is no longer available	Update the campaign with an available sender, then create and start a new run. See Unavailable senders
One or more sender or reply-to email addresses are no longer available	Update the campaign with addresses that are still verified, then create and start a new run. See Domains and Senders
The Outreach channel configuration is invalid or has expired	Ask an Org Admin to check it, since channel configuration is theirs to change. See Settings
No more specific reason applies	Create and start a new run

A Segment That Could Not Be Refreshed

A segment that could not be recalculated is reported separately, because the run survives it. The run returns to Ready to Run rather than Setup Failed, nothing is sent, and an email about the failed segment refresh goes to the person who started the run. Starting it again once the segment refreshes is all that is needed.

Because a Campaigner cannot open the segment page in Contacts, the email they receive leaves out the link to it. See When a refresh fails.

Stopping and Cancelling

State	Action	Effect
In Progress	Stop	Only queued (unsent) messages are removed from the sending queue. Messages already sending or sent are unaffected.
Scheduled	Cancel	The run reverts to Ready to Run and can be started manually later. It is not deleted.
Warming Up	Cancel	The run reverts to Ready to Run and no messages are sent.

warning

Stopping a run that is In Progress does not recall messages that have already been sent. Only unsent messages are cancelled.

Next Steps

• Monitoring and Messages. Track delivery progress and handle failures
• Campaign and Message Statuses. What each status means
• Terms and Conditions. The run disclaimer in full