How Campaigns Run
What happens after you click Activate, when people actually get called, and what takes someone out of a campaign.
This is the stuff we get asked about the most: "I turned my campaign on, so when do people get called?" and "Why did this person stop getting calls?" Here's how it all works behind the scenes.
Turning a campaign on
Go to your campaign's Overview tab, open the status menu, and pick Activate. You'll get a quick confirmation (Yes, activate campaign), and that's it. Your campaign is live.
If Activate doesn't go through, you'll see a message telling you what's missing. The usual suspects:
- No transfer destination or appointment configuration picked on the campaign's escalations. Pick them and try again. See Transfer Destinations and Appointment Settings.
- No phone number to call from. Add one on the campaign's Phone Numbers tab.
- Billing. Your account needs to be in good standing with a balance.
Once a campaign has been active, it can't go back to Draft. You can pause it, though, as many times as you want.
How people get into a campaign
A campaign only calls the people who are enrolled in it. There are a few ways in:
- Automations. Rules on the campaign's Automations tab that add people when something happens (like a new policy) or on a schedule (like 24 hours after their enrollment date). See Automations Explained.
- By hand. From a customer's profile, or by selecting a bunch of customers on the Customers page and using Add to campaign.
- Imports. When you upload a file, you can add everyone in it to a campaign.
- The API. If you've got a developer, see the Campaign API guide.
- Special buttons. Some features add people for you. For example, the Plan Crosswalk has an Add to campaign button that drops members into your AEP campaign by color.
You can add people to a campaign that's still a draft. They just wait there until you turn it on, and then they all get started at once.
Who gets skipped
Some people get added but skipped right away, because we can't legally or practically call them:
- No phone number on file.
- No time zone or state on file. We need one of these to know what time it is for them.
- Missing info the script needs. If the campaign's script depends on a field (like their carrier) and it's empty, we skip them instead of having an awkward call.
- Do Not Call or suppressed numbers.
If someone's not getting called and you're not sure why, Why Wasn't My Customer Called? walks through every check.
When people actually get called
Two clocks have to line up before we reach out to anyone:
- Your business hours, in your agency's time zone. These come from Business Hours and Holidays.
- 8 AM to 9 PM in the member's time zone. That's a legal rule (TCPA) and it can't be turned off.
When both are open, things move fast:
- Texts usually go out within seconds.
- Calls usually start within a few minutes.
When either one is closed, nothing's lost. Everyone just waits, and goes out in the first few minutes after you open. So if you activate at 7 PM, expect calls to start the next morning.
Big lists ramp up
If you add a few thousand people at once, they won't all get called in the same minute. Each campaign runs a limited number of calls at a time (about 125 by default, less when you've got a bunch of campaigns running). You can set your own number with Max concurrent calls on the Overview tab. Texts don't count against that limit.
Your Pulse sets the pace after that
The first step happens as soon as someone's eligible. After that, your Pulse decides everything: how long to wait between calls, when to text, and when to give up. If your Pulse starts with a Wait step, that wait happens first.
Scheduled automations run overnight
Automations based on a date (like a birthday, a day of the year, or "X days after" something) check once a night, overnight Pacific time. Anyone they add gets called once your hours open the next day. Automations based on an event (like a new policy) run within seconds.
What takes someone out of a campaign
People leave a campaign when they hit an Exit step in your Pulse, but a few things end their journey early, automatically.
A good outcome ends the journey
When the AI gets the job done on a call, we stop calling them. These outcomes end the journey right away, marked as completed:
- Appointment Scheduled
- Transferred
- Inquiry Raised
- Inquiry Resolved and Inquiry Unresolved
That's why you won't see these on your Pulse call steps. You don't have to route them anywhere, they're handled for you. The idea is simple: if someone booked or talked to your team, the last thing you want is the next call in the cadence going out the following morning.
Booking an appointment ends every campaign
If a member books an appointment, from any campaign, an inbound call, a booking link, or your team booking it for them, we end all of their active campaign journeys. They've got a time on the books with you, so every other campaign backs off.
Do Not Call and bad numbers
If a member asks to be taken off the list, or we find out the number is invalid, they're stopped right away. Do Not Call members also won't get any appointment callbacks.
Everything else follows your Pulse
Outcomes like No Answer, Voicemail, Not Interested, or Wrong Number go wherever your Pulse sends them. Usually that's a retry text, a wait, and another call, or an Exit. See Dispositions and Routing.
Pausing and stopping
Pause from the Overview tab whenever you need to. Calls already in progress finish normally, and everyone else holds their spot. When you Activate again, they pick up where they left off.
People you add while a campaign is paused can take up to an hour to get going after you turn it back on.
Completed, Archived, and Cancelled are permanent. Anyone still in the campaign is stopped, and turning it back on isn't an option. If you just need a break, pause instead.