# Creating a campaign

Build a campaign step by step — pick a channel and sender, write and personalize the message, preview it, and hand off to scheduling. Your work is saved as a draft as you go.

**Language:** en
**Audience:** platform
**TLDR:** To create a campaign, open New campaign, pick a channel and sender, then step through Audience, Message, and Review & schedule; nothing sends until you confirm on that last step. Each step autosaves as a Draft, so you can leave and pick up where you left off.
**Translation key:** platform.campaigns.creating-a-campaign
**Search keywords:** create a campaign, new campaign, campaign builder, campaign editor, choose channel, pick sender, sender, consent policy, message editor, personalization, attributes, variables, merge fields, unsubscribe link, quick actions, rcs buttons, write with ai, ai compose, live preview, draft, autosave, rich cards
**Related pages:** /platform/es/campaigns/creating-a-campaign, /platform/en/campaigns, /platform/en/campaigns/audience-targeting, /platform/en/campaigns/test-sends, /platform/en/campaigns/delivery-settings, /platform/en/campaigns/compliance-policies, /platform/en/channels/rcs/what-is-rcs, /platform/en/channels/rcs/sms-fallback
**Docs index (every page):** https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt
**This zone's index:** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/llms.txt
**This page:** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/campaigns/creating-a-campaign/ (HTML) · https://docs.instasent.com/platform/en/campaigns/creating-a-campaign.md (Markdown)
**Other language (es):** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/es/campaigns/creating-a-campaign.md

Creating a campaign starts with a **short setup form** — name, channel, sender and
consent policy — and continues in a three-**phase** editor: **Audience**,
**Message** and **Review and schedule**. Nothing sends until the end, and
everything you do is saved as a **draft** as you go, so you can leave and come back
without losing work.

To start, open **Campaigns** and click **New campaign**.

## Set up the campaign

The first dialog captures the essentials:

| Field              | What you set                                                                                                                                                                 |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Campaign name**  | An internal name for your own reference (with an optional emoji). It isn't shown to recipients, but it can be used in the tracking parameters (UTM) of your shortened links. |
| **Channel**        | **SMS** or **RCS**. WhatsApp is shown but marked *coming soon*.                                                                                                              |
| **Sender**         | The sender the message goes out from. For **RCS** you also pick the **SMS fallback** sender for contacts who can't receive RCS.                                              |
| **Consent policy** | Who the campaign is allowed to reach and what happens on opt-out. Usually **Basic** (depends on the project's configuration).                                                |

Pick the channel first, since it determines which senders and options are
available in the rest of the form. Choosing RCS adds the second, **SMS fallback**
sender so no one is left out; the SMS fallback message itself is written later, in
the message composer. The consent policy is summarised here and explained in full
in [Compliance policies](/platform/en/campaigns/compliance-policies).

Click **Continue** to open the editor.

![The New campaign dialog: name, channel, sender and consent policy](/platform/en/campaigns/images/creating-a-campaign--1-new-campaign-dialog.png)
*Setting up a campaign: channel, sender and consent policy.*

## The three steps

The editor is a guided, three-step flow, shown as numbered steps at the top:

1. **Audience** — who receives the campaign.
2. **Message** — what you send.
3. **Review and schedule** — confirm the cost and choose when it goes out.

You move forward with the **Continue to message** / **Continue to review** button,
or jump between steps from the numbered steps. Each step is **saved automatically**
when you move on, so you can pick the campaign back up where you left off.

### 1. Audience

The first step is where you choose who the campaign reaches — your whole audience,
a segment, or an ad-hoc filter, with the estimated number of recipients shown as
you go. This is covered in full in
[Audience & targeting](/platform/en/campaigns/audience-targeting).

### 2. Message

This is where you write what gets sent. The first thing you do is **write the
message**: expand the **message block**, type your text, and keep an eye on the
character counter — it reflects the channel's limit and, for SMS, how many message
parts you're using.

With the text written, you **personalize** it with each contact's data. From the
toolbar you insert **Attributes** (for example, a first name); each inserted
attribute can carry options such as a **default value** (used when a contact's
field is empty), a **maximum length**, an **uppercase** transform, and **Unicode
replacement** for SMS.

The message toolbar gathers the rest of the tools:

- **Unsubscribe link** — insert an opt-out link the contact can use to unsubscribe.
- **Links** — add a tracked link (shortened URL) inline.
- **Emoji** — insert emojis into the text.
- **AI** — **AI Copy Writer** drafts a message from scratch and **AI Copy
  Enhancer** polishes the copy you already have.

You can also send the same message in **several languages**. **Language tabs** in
the message block let you add a per-language version: each language has its own
tab, and a **+** button adds another one. Each contact receives the version for
their language only if they have a matching language among the ones you added;
otherwise they receive the default version. When you add a language, AI generates
a first translation that you can edit.

For **RCS** you also choose the **content type**. Right now, RCS campaigns can send
**text** content with up to four **Quick actions** (buttons below the message,
added with **Add action**). The **Rich cards** type — which includes carousels —
is shown in the editor but marked *coming soon*.

> **Note**: If a message goes over its channel limit — **10 parts** for SMS, **3072
> characters** for RCS — the **Continue to review** button is disabled until you
> shorten it.

#### The SMS fallback

On an RCS campaign you can turn on the **SMS fallback**: the automatic plan B so
the send also reaches contacts who can't receive RCS. It's a second **message
block** inside the composer, not a separate tab. Between the RCS block and the SMS
fallback block, the **If RCS is undeliverable** connector holds a **switch**: leave
it on to reach those contacts, or turn it off to skip the SMS fallback. When it's
on, expand the SMS fallback block and write its **SMS** version the same way you
wrote the main message. See
[SMS fallback](/platform/en/channels/rcs/sms-fallback).

A **live preview** on the side shows your message as it will look on a phone, with
a country selector and an **Android / iOS** toggle so you can check how it renders
for different recipients and on either device (your platform choice is remembered). Before
you confirm, it's good practice to send yourself a **test send** to a real device
to check the content, personalization and links — see
[Test sends & preview](/platform/en/campaigns/test-sends).

![The message composer with the toolbar, RCS options, the 'If RCS is undeliverable' connector with its switch, and the live device preview](/platform/en/campaigns/images/creating-a-campaign--2-message-editor.png)
*The message step: compose, personalize, and preview on a device.*

### 3. Review & schedule

In the **Review & schedule** step you see the message preview, the campaign details
and the **estimated cost**. When everything looks right, click **Schedule or send**:
a panel opens where you choose to send the campaign now or schedule it, set the
delivery speed and scheduling options, and **confirm right there** — that's the
final confirmation, there isn't another one after it. On confirm, Instasent prepares
the messages and, if you chose a future date, the campaign moves to **Scheduled**
until that date. Timing, send speed and local-time delivery are covered in
[Delivery settings](/platform/en/campaigns/delivery-settings); what happens after —
preparation and sending — is in the
[campaigns page](/platform/en/campaigns).

> **Note**: You don't have to finish in one sitting. A campaign is saved as a **Draft** as
> you move through the steps, and you'll find it in the campaigns list to pick up
> where you left off.

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This is one page of the Instasent documentation. For the complete machine-readable index of every guide and API reference, fetch https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt — start there for full context.