Reference
Campaigns
One-time broadcasts on WhatsApp or email. Timed follow-ups belong in Journeys; campaigns are for the send you decide to make today.
Short answer
A campaign is one channel, one audience and one template. Preflight checks consent and template readiness before anything sends. Sends are batched and paced, not fired at once, so your WhatsApp quality rating survives the campaign.
The builder, field by field#
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Internal only. Name it so you recognise it in a results table weeks later. |
| Channel | WhatsApp or email, one per campaign. For both, send two and keep audiences from overlapping. |
| Audience | A saved segment, a lead-score band, a CSV with attested consent, or a manual selection. |
| Template | Approved Marketing templates only. Utility templates cannot power broadcasts. |
| Schedule | Send now, or schedule for a future time. |
Preflight#
Preflight runs before launch, and it can block it.
A bad broadcast does no visible damage on the day, then costs you for weeks. Preflight is the most useful check in the product.
- Consent coverage: blocks the launch when too much of the audience has no recorded consent or has opted out.
- Template readiness: the template must be approved, with every variable mapped.
- Audience size: confirms how many will actually receive it, after exclusions.
- Send allowance: warns when the campaign would go past your plan’s remaining cycle allowance.
Batching, pacing and priority#
- Batching
- Large audiences are processed in batches rather than all at once, so a big campaign does not block everything else in the queue.
- Meta pacing
- Sends are rate-limited to stay inside Meta’s limits and protect your account. This applies on every plan and is not something a higher plan removes.
- Send priority
- Higher plans are dequeued ahead of lower ones when the queue is busy. It changes ordering, not the Meta rate limit.
Reading the results#
| Metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sent | Accepted by Meta for delivery. |
| Delivered | Reached the customer’s phone. |
| Read | Opened. Expect this to be far higher than email open rates. |
| Failed | Rejected — usually an invalid number or a contact who blocked you. |
| Revenue | Orders attributed to the campaign on last touch. |
A large gap between sent and delivered means list quality, not a platform problem. Clean the invalid numbers out before your next send.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between a campaign and a journey?
- A campaign is a one-time send you decide to make, to an audience you pick, now or at a scheduled time. A journey is automation that runs whenever a Shopify event happens, for as long as it is published, without you touching it again.
- Can one campaign send on both WhatsApp and email?
- No, one channel per campaign. To cover both, create two campaigns and keep the audiences from overlapping, so the same customer does not get the same message twice on two channels within minutes.