# Campaigns Explained (/docs/guides/concepts/campaigns-explained) Campaigns are the core building block in careCycle. Almost everything else (Pulse workflows, automations, routing groups, calendars) exists to support a campaign. This page explains how campaigns are structured and how they run. What is a Campaign? [#what-is-a-campaign] A campaign brings together a few key elements into one place: * The **customers or callers** the campaign serves * **Who does the talking**: an AI employee or your own agents * An optional **Pulse workflow** for proactive calls and texts * Your **settings** for transfers, appointments, and escalation How a Campaign Is Configured [#how-a-campaign-is-configured] Each campaign defines who communicates, which direction it operates in, and what work it performs: **1. Who talks.** A **Voice AI campaign** puts a trained AI employee on the phone. An **Agent Queue campaign** paces outbound dialing to your own agents' availability and connects them through the careCycle softphone. On normal outbound calls, careCycle dials the customer first, runs mandatory answering machine detection (AMD), and rings agents only after confirming a live person. Uncertain or failed screening can also proceed to agents. Requested callbacks are the exception: the agent accepts first, then careCycle dials the customer. **2. Incoming calls and outreach.** Choose **Inbound Agent Queue** for arriving calls or **Outbound Agent Queue** for proactive contact. That primary direction is fixed at creation. Outbound queues can receive return calls, and inbound queues can have deliberately configured Pulse follow-up. An incoming call does not automatically enroll its caller in that sequence. Ordinary Voice AI campaigns use AI during operating hours and can select AI or unavailable incoming handling after hours. Their proactive after-hours dialing permission is configured under **Configuration > Calling rules**. Receptionists can select AI or a team during operating hours, then AI or unavailable handling after hours. Agent Queue selects a team during operating hours and ordinarily uses unavailable handling after hours. New AI selection is marked Coming soon; existing saved AI handling can remain. Its Pulse executor remains human. **3. What job it does.** Use campaign tags to organize welcome calls, check-ins, sales outreach, and other work. The Pulse workflow defines whether a campaign sends a single text or runs a multi-step call and text sequence. Customers can participate in multiple active campaigns at once. Enrolling a customer in another campaign preserves their existing enrollments and workflow progress. There is one enrollment record per customer/campaign pair. How Customers Enter: Automations [#how-customers-enter-automations] **Campaign automations** can enroll customer records when a supported event or date condition matches. Manual, import, or API enrollment can also be used. Incoming queue calls and campaign enrollment are separate relationships. **Example:** For welcome calls, you may want to trigger a new member welcome call 24 hours after the enrollment date. You can configure this under your campaign's **Configuration > Enrollment** editor by setting the trigger to be time-based: 24 hours after enrollment date. Triggers can be: * **Time-based**: e.g. X hours after enrollment date, a customer's birthday, or a fixed date each year * **Event-based**: e.g. a new policy is created or a policy status changes Automations are also how campaigns chain together: when one campaign completes, an automation can enroll the customer into the next one. That chain is what turns individual campaigns into a member journey. The Campaign Lifecycle [#the-campaign-lifecycle] A campaign moves through a set of statuses: | Status | What it means | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Draft** | Being built; nothing dials | | **Active** | Applicable incoming/outgoing work is enabled, subject to configuration and delivery checks | | **Paused** | Proactive work stops; progress is retained, connected calls continue, and dedicated incoming calls can still arrive | | **Completed** | Finished its run (or reached its end date) | | **Archived** | Retired and out of the way | | **Cancelled** | Stopped permanently before completing | You control status from the campaign's **Overview** tab. Edit campaign details from the shared header. Voice AI capacity is configured in **Calling rules**; blank means automatic capacity. Ordinary Agent Queue setup does not expose the Voice AI limit control; its dialing disclosure explains any retained cap. Inline Campaign Configuration [#inline-campaign-configuration] Configuration groups related settings into compact rows. Edit calling limits, caller ID, team selection, answering choices, and dialing ratio directly on the page. Expand dispositions, number pools, rotation, voicemail, enrollment/data, or scenarios when you need their details. Collapsing a section preserves its pending edits. Pulse and complex shared team routing open full-screen editors. Unsaved edits are not applied configuration. The Configuration header **Save** applies registered edits and reports failures or partial completion. Shared routing/calendar editors save independently. Pulse keeps **Save draft** separate from **Publish**, enrollment, and campaign activation. Pulse at a Glance [#pulse-at-a-glance] Pulse is the omnichannel workflow builder that brings all of a campaign's communications together in one place. Within Pulse you can set time delays, loop conditions, contact cadences, and SMS messages. Call steps route customers based on **dispositions** (the outcome of each call, determined automatically for Voice AI campaigns or set by your agent at wrap-up for Agent Queue campaigns). Deterministic system outcomes such as No Answer and Voicemail are set automatically for both campaign kinds. For example, "No Contact" can trigger an SMS or a redial. Explore Campaigns [#explore-campaigns] Voice AI, Inbound Agent Queue, Outbound Agent Queue, and the special Receptionist setup. Entry, Call, SMS, Wait, Loop, and Exit steps; disposition routing. Routing groups, calendars, scripts, and the shared building blocks. Welcome Call, Approval Check-In, and ACA-specific campaigns. Inbound and outbound prequalification campaigns. Cross-sell and ancillary revenue on your existing book. A step-by-step walkthrough, starting with a Welcome Call.