Create SMS Campaign

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Prerequisite

Ensure to complete the one-time configuration of Configure SMS channel before you send SMS using MoEngage.

To create an SMS campaign,

Navigate to MoEngage Dashboard > Campaigns,
Click Create Campaign > Outbound > SMS
Click on one of the campaign types below to create the SMS campaign:

Target Audience

Follow these steps to create a name and select the target audience for the SMS campaign:

Type the name, select the user attribute such as the mobile number and create campaign tags to easily search for the created SMS campaign.
If the campaign type is an Event Trigger, then SMS campaigns are sent based on trigger conditions. For example, you want to trigger an SMS when the user has opened the app and has not made a purchase within two hours of opening the App.
Select the target audience from one of the following:
- All users - This allows you to target all your users
- Filter users by - Allows filtering of users based on the following options:
  - User Property - Allow you to target your user based on user property such as first seen, last seen, city, and so on.
  - User Behaviour - Allow you to target your user based on user behavior based on the event such as app/site opened, viewed product, and so on.
  - User Affinity - Allow you to target your user based on user affinity such as predominantly notification clicked, the minimum number of times email is viewed on the browser, and so on. For more information on user affinity, refer to Affinity Segments.
  - Custom Segment - This allows you to target a pre-created custom segment.
Click the Global control group in Enable control groups to create an SMS campaign for a particular control group.
For more information, refer to Global Control Group.

Click Next or use the tabs on the top of the create campaign navigation.

Content

Follow these steps to create the content for the SMS campaign:

Select the SMS Connector from the SMS sender drop-down.
. In the case of connectors that come under DLT regulations such as ICS, GupShup, and Kaleyra, it is mandatory to display the Template ID information as shown below. For more information on DLT regulations, click here.
Follow these steps to create the content for the SMS:
- Type the content that is displayed in the SMS in Message.
- Personalize your message by typing @ in the message box.
- In case the attribute chosen is not available for the user or there is some failure in displaying the attribute, we can choose a fallback option as shown above. We can choose 'No Fallback' in which case there is no alternative to the failed attribute, we can choose not to send the SMS or we can replace the failed attribute with a text of our choice using the 'Replace text' option.
- You will see the character count of your message as well as SMS count.
- Add the URL in the SMS message to track SMS click for the URL.
  MoEngage will use URL shortening services to shorten your URL and then track the users who clicked the URL.
Test your SMS campaign (Optional)
Test campaigns enable previewing the campaign on a test device to make sure your intended message is being conveyed in your desired way. You can test the campaign you have just created by selecting the mobile number registered with MoEngage and providing the value for a test user.

Click Next or use the tabs on the top of the create campaign navigation.

Schedule and Goals

Follow these steps to set the schedule for which the SMS campaign is sent and conversion goals for the SMS campaign.

In Send Campaign, select one of the following:

Three types of schedules are available for SMS Campaigns: One Time, Periodic, and Event Triggered.

Field

Description

As soon as possible

Sends the campaign immediately to the target users.

At a particular date and time

Send the campaign at the specified time, time zone, or predicted time.

Select one of the following:

Field

Description

At fixed time

Follow these steps to send the campaign on a specific date and time.

Select the campaign time zone
Set the start date
Set the send time at which the campaign is sent.
Select AM or PM

Send in the user time zone

Follow these steps to send the campaign on a specific date and time within the time zone of the user.

Select the campaign time zone
Set the start date
Set the send time at which the campaign is sent.
Select AM or PM
Select Yes, send it to deliver the campaign in the time zone
OR
Select No, don't send it to not deliver the campaign in the time zone.

Best time to send (Sherpa)

Follow these steps to send the campaign based on the MoEngage intelligence determined date and time.

Select the campaign time zone
Set the start date
Set the start time at which the campaign is sent.
Select AM or PM
Set the time until which the campaign is sent to users. (Send messages based on best time only till)
Select AM or PM
Click View best time distribution to see how the best time is distributed in a graph.
Select Send message at start time or end time to send the campaign outside of the user's best time.
OR
Select Do not send message to not send the campaign.
Select Yes, send message at 2:28pm to send the campaign at the set time when the user is not available during the best time.
or
Select send at the app best time to send the campaign based on the set best time in the app.
OR
Select Do not send to not send the campaign.

For more information, refer to the Best time to send.

Field

Description

At fixed time

Follow these steps to send the campaign on a specific date and time.

Select the campaign time zone
Set the start date
Set the send time at which the campaign is sent.
Select AM or PM
Frequency Selection: Select either Daily, Weekly, or Monthly in the Send Campaign radio button on the left pane as shown below.
- Send Daily - Select the number of days after which the campaign should be repeated
- Send Weekly - Select the day(s) of the week on which the campaign is to be sent (Eg. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and the number of weeks the campaign should be repeated.
- Send Monthly - Select the method at which the campaign is sent using 'Repeat on' and 'Repeat every'.
  - Days of month: For repeating campaigns that are date specific. Select the date(s) of the month on which the campaign is to be sent(eg. the 5th and the 25th).
    Note: For date(s) selected applied months shorter than the selected date, one campaign would be sent on the last date. (eg. If 30th and 31st are selected and the month is February, one campaign would be sent on the 28th)
  - Days of week: For repeating campaigns that are specific to first, seconds, last, etc days of a week in a month. Add a week and select the week in a month in a dropdown (eg. first, second, last) and select the day(s) in the week that the campaign is to be sent.
    Note: In case of a day of the week not existing in a month (Eg. Fifth Saturday), the campaign would be skipped for that instance. And in case of overlap (eg 4th Monday and last Monday), only one instance would be sent.
- Select the number of days after which the campaign should be repeated
Ends on
Select Never to not set any end date
OR
Select On and set the end date
OR
Select After to set the number of occurrences post which the campaign will end.

Send in user time zone

Follow these steps to send the campaign on a specific date and time within the time zone of the user.

Select the campaign time zone
Set the start date
Set the send time at which the campaign is sent.
Select AM or PM
Frequency Selection: Select either Daily, Weekly, or Monthly in the Send Campaign radio button on the left pane as shown below.
- Send Daily - Select the number of days for which the campaign is sent to the user in Repeat every as shown below.
- Send Weekly - Select the days of the week on which the campaign is sent to the user every week and the number of weeks for which the campaign is sent in Repeat every.
- Send Monthly - Select the frequency at which the campaign is sent using 'Repeat on' and 'Repeat every'.
  - Days of month: Select the days of the month on which the campaign is sent to the user in Repeat on. Select the number of months for which this campaign needs to be sent using Repeat every. For example, choosing '7' in the calendar in the 'Repeat on' section and '3' months in 'Repeat every' means the campaign will be sent on the seventh of every month for the next three months. Note: Multiple days can be selected in a month.
  - Days of week: Select the days of the week on which the campaign is sent to the user in Repeat on. Select the number of months for which this campaign needs to be sent using Repeat every. With this feature, marketers can send campaigns on the first Mondays of every month or the second Tuesdays and Wednesdays of every month and so on.
Select Never to not set any end date
OR
Select On and set the end date
OR
Select After to set the number of occurrences post which the campaign will end.
Select Yes, send it to deliver the campaign in the time zone
OR
Select No, don't send it to not deliver the campaign in the time zone.

Best time to send (Sherpa)

Follow these steps to send the campaign based on the MoEngage intelligence determined date and time.

Select the campaign time zone
Set the start date
Set the start time at which the campaign is sent.
Select AM or PM
Set the time until which the campaign is sent to users. (Send messages based on best time only till)
Select AM or PM
Click View best time distribution to see how the best time is distributed in a graph.
Select Send message at start time or end time to send the campaign outside of the user's best time.
OR
Select Do not send message to not send the campaign.
Select Yes, send message at 2:28pm to send the campaign at the set time when the user is not available during the best time.
or
Select send at the app's best time to send the campaign based on the set best time in the app.
OR
Select Do not send to not send the campaign.
Frequency Selection: Select either Daily, Weekly, or Monthly in the Send Campaign radio button on the left pane as shown below.
- Send Daily - Select the number of days for which the campaign is sent to the user in Repeat every as shown below.
- Send Weekly - Select the days of the week on which the campaign is sent to the user every week and the number of weeks for which the campaign is sent in Repeat every.
- Send Monthly - Select the frequency at which the campaign is sent using 'Repeat on' and 'Repeat every'.
  - Days of month: Select the days of the month on which the campaign is sent to the user in Repeat on. Select the number of months for which this campaign needs to be sent using Repeat every. For example, choosing '7' in the calendar in the 'Repeat on' section and '3' months in 'Repeat every' means the campaign will be sent on the seventh of every month for the next three months. Note: Multiple days can be selected in a month.
  - Days of week: Select the days of the week on which the campaign is sent to the user in Repeat on. Select the number of months for which this campaign needs to be sent using Repeat every. With this feature, marketers can send campaigns on the first Mondays of every month or second Tuesdays and Wednesdays of every month and so on.
Select either Never to not set any end date
OR
Select On and set the end date
OR
Select After to set the number of occurrences post which the campaign will end.

For more information, refer to the Best time to send.

Click Active continuously under Send campaign and do the following:

Field	Description
Campaign Time Zone	Select the campaign time zone in which the campaign is sent
Start Date	Set the start date at which the campaign is sent.
Send Time	Set the send time at which the campaign is sent. Select AM or PM
End Date	Set the end date at which the campaign is stopped.
End Time	Set the end time at which the campaign is stopped. Select AM or PM

Supported formats for Date and Time Attributes

Date/Time Format sent using MoEngage SDK
Date/Time values sent in String formats as under:
- “EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy”
- “EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy zzz”
- “EEE, MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy zzz”
- “EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “EEE,dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:sszzz”
- “EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss”
- “EEE, dd-MMM-yy HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.SSS zzz”
- “yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.SSS”
- “yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss”
- “yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm”
- “MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss. zzz”
- “MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “dd MM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz”
- “dd.MM.yyyy; HH:mm:ss”
- “dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss”
- “dd.MM.yyyy zzz”

ZZZ - Represents the reported timezone
EEE - Represents Day of the Week e.g. Tue
MMM - Represents Month of the Year e.g. Jun
HH:MM:SS - Time that represents the hour of the day, minutes of the hours and seconds of the minute
DD:MM:yyyy and DD:MM:YY are the date formats as most commonly used

warning

We do not support MM/DD/YYYY formats. In case if time-zone is not mentioned in your event property, it will be considered as UTC and notification will be sent accordingly.

To sum up, an Event-Triggered campaign is a great way to engage the right users (through segmentation) at the right time (through event triggering).

The campaign will be sent only when

The event property/attribute which is being used to create these types of triggers (like flight_time example), is in a valid date-time format. If it is not in date-time format, the string should have data in one of the supported formats. If the selected attributes do not contain data in any of these formats, the campaign won't be sent to your users.
The date/time value from the attribute is greater than the time at which the trigger condition is fulfilled
The date/time value from the attribute is less than 30 Days + the time at which the trigger condition is fulfilled e.g. If your trigger condition is fulfilled at date D, your notification will be sent only when the attribute value is less than D+30
The Intelligent Delay Optimization does not work for campaigns sent on the relative timing

Conversion Goals

Set the conversion goal for the SMS campaign. You can set up to 5 conversion goals to be tracked for a specific campaign

Set Attribution window

Attribution Window is the maximum time duration, from the time user received/clicked the campaign, for which a conversion goal will be tracked. The default duration is set for 36 hours while the maximum attribution window can be set up to 10 days. In the example below, the attribution window is set to 36 hours.

Click Ignore Frequency Cap to ignore the capping for your SMS campaign when you want to ignore the capping but want this campaign to be counted. For example, the frequency capping value is set to three. You have sent three campaigns today to a group of users. You realize that the SMS triggered by this campaign is urgent and should go on high priority even though some customers have already received three campaigns. If you will use Ignore Frequency Cap, people who have already received 3 campaigns will receive this one as well. If you use Count for Frequency capping, people who would have received 2 communications already and send this as well, their receipt count will become 3 after this campaign is sent.
Type the number of requests per minute sent for the SMS campaign. For example, send the request URL with a default of 60,000 rpm (minimum of 60,000 requests per minute and maximum of 200,000 requests per minute).

If you have successfully created the campaign, you will be taken to the Analytics page. For more information refer to Campaign Analytics.