Create an SMS Campaign

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Prerequisites

Before you start creating SMS campaigns, make sure you have configured the SMS channel.

SMS is a concise and effective channel for delivering timely alerts and key announcements to your audience. To create an SMS campaign in MoEngage, perform the following steps:

Click + Create new, and then click Campaign. The Campaign page is displayed.

You can also navigate to the left navigation menu in the MoEngage dashboard, click Engage, and then click Campaigns. On the All campaigns page, click + Create campaign. The Create campaign page is displayed.
Under Outbound, click SMS and select one of the following campaign delivery types:
- One Time
- Periodic
- Event Triggered
- Business Event Triggered
  For more information about delivery types, refer to Delivery Types.

The SMS creation page is displayed:

Steps to Create an SMS Campaign

The following are the steps to create an SMS campaign:

Target users: Define the target audience for the campaign.
Content: Define the content of the SMS campaign to be sent.
Schedule and goals: Define the campaign's delivery schedule and goals.

Step 1: Target Users

This section contains the following:

Campaign Details

Define the campaign details section using the following fields:

Field	Description
Teams	If your organization has teams enabled, select a team from the dropdown list. For more information, refer to Teams in MoEngage.
Campaign name	Enter the name of the campaign to manage and identify the campaign. The campaign name must have at least five characters, and the limit is 256.
User attribute that stores user’s mobile number	MoEngage automatically selects the attribute configured in your settings as the default user attribute for mobile numbers. However, you can override this default at the campaign level by selecting an alternative attribute containing the mobile number.
Campaign tags	Select campaign tags from the drop-down list. You can select a maximum of five tags. For more information, refer to Campaign Tags.
Trigger criteria	This field appears only if you have selected Event Triggered as the delivery type. You must add the specific trigger criteria that launch your campaign. For more information, refer to Create an Event-Triggered Campaign.
Select business event	This field appears only if you have selected Business Event Triggered as the delivery type. You must select a business event for your campaign. For more information, refer to Create a Business Event Triggered Campaign.

In the Select Audience section, you can select the target audience for your campaign using the following segmentation filters:

Select this filter option to send the campaign to all app users. When you use this option, you cannot add multiple filters.

all users.png

Select this filter option to target users based on user properties such as first seen, last seen, city, and so on. Click the User property tab and perform the following:

Select the desired attribute in the drop-down list. This enables the filters based on the attributes selected. For example, attributes that are numbers can have filter conditions such as 'is equal to', 'is not equal to', 'is between', and so on, while string attributes have different filters.
Enter the filter value(s) to create the desired user segment.
Click + Nested Filter to add a filter to create nested AND or OR conditions (this is optional).

For more information, refer to Create Segments.

Select this filter option to target users based on their behavior, such as app/site opened, viewed product, and so on. Click the User Behavior tab and perform the following:

Select the execution condition and the desired user activity (event).
Enter the event frequency and time duration for the event execution.
Click + Attributes and add an event attribute with a filter condition.
Enter the filter value(s) to create a rule.
Use the + Aggregation button to add the aggregation functionality. For more information, refer to Aggregation Operations.
Click + Nested Filter to add a filter to create nested AND or OR conditions (this is optional).

For more information, refer to Create Segments.

Select this filter option to target groups of users created based on the user performing an action with a specific attribute value. For more information, refer to User Affinity. Click the User Affinity tab and perform the following:

Select the desired user event or attribute.
Select the user affinity parameter from the following:
- Predominantly: Select the affinity attribute with a filter condition and provide the affinity values.
- For a minimum of: Select the affinity attribute with a filter condition and provide the affinity values.
- Most no. of times: Enter a value or use the arrows to provide the top percentage of users.
- Least no. of times: Enter a value or use the arrows to provide the bottom percentage of users.
Enter or use the arrows to provide the time duration for the event execution.
Click + Attribute to add more attributes to the filter.
Click + Nested Filter to add a filter to create nested AND or OR conditions (this is optional).

For more information, refer to Create Segments.

Select this filter option to select a custom segment as the target audience.

Select a custom segment as the target audience from the list of custom segments available.
Click + Nested Filter to add a filter to create nested AND or OR conditions (this is optional).

For more information, refer to Custom Segments.

If teams are enabled for your account, you will be able to see the custom segments created by your team. The segmentation criteria specified for the team for which you are creating the campaign will get appended to the segmentation filters with an AND condition. For example, if the segmentation criteria for your team is the set of users whose last known city is Los Angeles and you have selected users who've purchased a product within the last 3 days as the target audience for your campaign, your target audience would be users who have purchased a product within the last 3 days and whose last known city is Los Angeles. For more information, refer to Teams in MoEngage.

info	Information This is an add-on feature. Please contact your MoEngage Customer Success Manager (CSM) or the Support team to enable it for your account.

After selecting the filter criteria, you can perform the following:

Create Multiple Filters: You can create and combine multiple user property rules, user activity rules, and custom segment rules to create a complex user segment using this option.
1. Click + Filter.
2. Click AND or OR.
3. Select the attribute or event and define the filter conditions.
Exclude Users: Select this checkbox to define the filter criteria for users to be excluded from the campaign.
Send campaign to the users opted-out in subscription management: Turn this toggle on to automatically include opted-out users from the campaigns. For more information, refer to Subscription Management.
Reset filters: Click this option to reset the segmentation filters.
Show count: Click this button to display the total number of users who are currently in the configured segment.

Control Groups

This section contains information about control groups for the campaign. A control group is a set of users added to an exclusion list. These users will not receive the marketing campaign. Control Groups are enabled only for promotional campaigns and are not applicable to transactional campaigns. You can enable the control groups to which you want to send the promotional campaign.

In the Enable control groups section:

A global control group is a list of users who will not receive any of the marketing campaigns.
Turn on the Global control group toggle to not send the campaign to all the users in the control group.
A campaign control group is created by combining the user base that qualifies for the campaign.
Turn on the Campaign control group toggle to not send the particular campaign to the control group.

For more information, refer to Control Group.

Click Next or use the tabs at the top of the create campaign navigation to move to Step 2: Content.

Step 2: Content

This section describes how to create content for your SMS campaign. You can create the content for the SMS campaign using the following options:

Default template
Custom template

Create Content Using Default Template

Perform the following steps to create the content for the SMS campaign:

Select a blank template. The Content tab is displayed.
From the SMS sender list, select the SMS connector (service provider). 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.
In the Message field, enter the content that is displayed in the SMS.
To personalize your message, enter @ in the Message field. The SMS Personalization pop-up window is displayed. For more information, refer to Personalization.
In case the attribute chosen is not available for the user or there is some failure in displaying the attribute, we can select a fallback option as shown above. Select No Fallback if there is no alternative to the failed attribute. You can choose not to send the SMS or 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 the SMS count.

Create Content Using Custom Template

Early Access

This is an Early Access feature. To enable it for your account, contact your MoEngage Customer Success Manager (CSM) or the Support team.

Custom templates are uploaded to MoEngage using the Custom Template API. This option helps you have a pre-defined set of templates that are created outside the MoEngage ecosystem. You can reuse these templates, preview them on the dashboard, and use them for sending campaigns to your customers.

You can do the following in the custom templates section:

Select a template: Click a template to select it.
Sort templates: Click the icon to sort the templates in ascending or descending order of the last modified time of the template.
Search templates: Enter the template name in the search box at the top right corner of the custom templates section to search for a specific template.
Preview a template: You can preview a template by hovering over it and clicking the icon that appears, as shown below.

After you select a custom template, it will be loaded in the UI with details of all the fields in the template. You will be able to view the fields but only edit them if you have the 'Edit Templates' permission.

info	Information Any user with the following roles can edit the templates: Default Admin, Manager, and Marketer. To enable edit access for other users, they must have the 'Edit Templates' permission.

URL Addition and Shortening

Add the URL in the SMS message to track SMS clicks for the URL. MoEngage uses URL shortening services to shorten your URL and then track the users who click the URL.

The following points are to be noted for URL Shortening:

Shortened Links expire in fifteen days and cannot be tracked after expiry. When a customer opens a link beyond its expiry, they see a "This link is no longer active" message.
If user and event attributes are used in the shortened links, the attributes' names must abide by the following:
1. They must not contain spaces.
2. If the attributes contain links, their values should not contain http:// or https://. These can be added before the attribute to shorten the link.
Special characters such as apostrophes and commas are not supported in shortened links.
Multiple JINJA operations are not supported in links that are to be shortened. For example, using a Content API link in a Product or vice versa (in a link that is to be shortened) is not supported.

Add a Locale

To add a locale to the campaign, click + Locale at the top right corner of the content creation step. You can add a new locale or add an existing locale to the campaign. For more information, refer to Localize campaign message.

Add a Variation

To add a variation to the campaign, click + A/B test at the top right corner of the content creation step. You can add a new variation or copy the existing variation. After adding a variation, you can see the variations as tabs on the top ribbon above the content editor, as shown below.You can specify the user distribution for each variation by clicking User Distribution, available at the top right corner. For more information, refer to A/B Testing.

arrow_drop_down Test Campaign (optional)

Test campaigns enable previewing the campaign on a test device to ensure that your notification is conveyed in the manner that you desire.

You can test the campaign you created by selecting any of the following options and providing the value for the attribute chosen for your test user:

Unique ID
Email ID
Mobile Number (Registered With MoEngage)
Mobile Number (External/Not Registered with MoEngage)
Google Advertising identifier
iOS Identifier for Advertising
Device Push Token
Custom Segment

Click Next or use the tabs at the top of the create campaign navigation to move to Step 3: Schedule and Goals.

Step 3: Schedule and Goals

This section contains the following:

Delivery schedule: Choose when the campaign should be delivered to your users and the periodicity of delivery.
Conversion goals: Choose the conversion goals and revenue metrics to be tracked for the campaign.
Delivery controls: Choose the advanced delivery control options such as throttling, frequency capping, and expiration settings for the notification.

Delivery Schedule

arrow_drop_down One Time

Send the campaign immediately to the target users.

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

Select one of the following:

Field

Description

At fixed time

This section helps you send the campaign on a specific date and time and contains the following fields:

Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
Send time: The time at which the campaign should be sent. Select AM or PM depending on the time of day.

Send in user time zone

This section helps you send the campaign on a specific date and time within the time zone of the user and contains the following fields:

Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
Send time: the time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm depending on the time of day.
Send if the user time zone has passed: If the campaign's start time has passed in the user's timezone, you have the option to do the following:
- - Yes, send it: Send the campaign to the user even if the specified start time has passed in their timezone.
  - No, don't send it: Do not send the campaign to the user as the specified start time has passed in their timezone.

Best time for user (Sherpa)

This section helps you send the campaign based on the MoEngage intelligence-determined date and time and contains the following fields:

Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
Start time: The time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm depending on the time of day.
Send messages based on best time only till: The time until which the campaign should be sent based on the best time to send (BTS). Select am or pm depending on the time of day. Click View best time distribution to see the best time for sending push notifications, represented in a graphical manner.
If user's best time is outside this time window: You choose when the campaign is to be sent when the user's BTS is outside the time window selected. You can do the following:
- - Send the campaign to the user either at the start or end time by selecting Send message at start time or end time.
  - Avoid sending the campaign to the user by selecting Do not send message.
If user's best time is not available: You choose when the campaign is to be sent when the user does not have BTS. You can do the following:
- - Send the campaign to the user at the start time by selecting Yes, send at start time.
  - Send the campaign to the user at the app's best time by selecting Yes, send at the app's best time.
  - Avoid sending the campaign to the user by selecting Do not send message.

For more information, refer to the Best time to send (BTS).

arrow_drop_down Periodic

Choose this option to send the campaign on a specified date and time. The following fields are available in this section:

Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
Send time: The time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm depending on the time of day.

Periodic: The periodicity of the campaign. You have the following options: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.

Periodicity

Description

Daily

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of days after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 days and the campaign starts on Monday, it will run again on Thursday.

Weekly

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of weeks after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 weeks and the campaign starts in the first week, it will run again in the fourth week.

Repeat on: This option lets you specify the day(s) of the week on which the campaign is to be sent. For example, if you wish to send the campaign every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, select these days in this option.

Monthly

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of months after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 months and the campaign starts in January, it will run again in April.

Repeat on: This option lets you do the following:

Days of month: Choose this option for repeating campaigns that are date-specific. Select the date(s) of the month the campaign is to be sent. For example, to send the campaign on the 5th and the 25th of a month, select the 5th and 25th in the calendar widget.
Note: If the selected date(s) doesn't exist in the specified month (as it is a shorter month), a campaign will be sent on the last date. For example, if the 30th and 31st are selected and the month is February, one campaign would be sent on the 28th.
Days of week: Choose this option to specify the day(s) of the week on which the campaign is to be sent. For example, if you wish to send the campaign every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, select these days in this option.
Note: In case of a day of the week not existing in a month (for example, fifth Saturday), the campaign would be skipped for that instance. And in case of overlap (for example, 4th Monday and last Monday), only one instance would be sent.

Ends: The date on which the campaign ends. The following options are available:
- - Never: The campaign is scheduled to run daily.
  - On: The campaign ends on the date specified in the End Date field.
  - After: The campaign ends after the number of occurrences specified in the occurrences field.

Choose this option to send the campaign on a specified date and time. The following fields are available in this section:

Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
Send time: The time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm depending on the time of day.

Periodic: The periodicity of the campaign. You have the following options: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.

Periodicity

Description

Daily

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of days after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 days and the campaign starts on Monday, it will run again on Thursday.

Weekly

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of weeks after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 weeks and the campaign starts in the first week, it will run again in the fourth week.

Monthly

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of months after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 months and the campaign starts in January, it will run again in April.

Repeat on: This option lets you do the following:

Days of month - Choose this option for repeating campaigns that are date-specific. Select the date(s) of the month the campaign is to be sent. For example, to send the campaign on the 5th and the 25th of a month, select the 5th and 25th in the calendar widget.
Note: If the selected date(s) doesn't exist in the specified month (as it is a shorter month), a campaign will be sent on the last date. For example, if the 30th and 31st are selected and the month is February, one campaign would be sent on the 28th.
Days of week - Choose this option to specify the day(s) of the week on which the campaign is to be sent. For example, if you wish to send the campaign every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, select these days in this option.
Note: In case of a day of the week not existing in a month (for example, fifth Saturday), the campaign would be skipped for that instance. And in case of overlap (for example, 4th Monday and last Monday), only one instance would be sent.

Ends: The date on which the campaign ends. The following options are available:
- - Never: The campaign is scheduled to run daily.
  - On: The campaign ends on the date specified in the End Date field.
  - After: The campaign ends after the number of occurrences specified in the occurrences field.
Send if the user time zone has passed: if the campaign's start time has passed in the user's timezone, you have the option to do the following:
- - Yes, send it: Send the campaign to the user even if the specified start time has passed in their timezone.
  - No, don't send it: Do not send the campaign to the user as the specified start time has passed in their timezone.

Choose this option to send the campaign on a specified date and time. The following fields are available in this section:

Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
Start time: The time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm depending on the time of day.
Send messages based on best time only till: The time until which the campaign should be sent based on the best time to send (BTS). Select am or pm depending on the time of day. Click View best time distribution to see the best time for sending push notifications, represented in a graphical manner.
If user's best time is outside this time window: You can choose the time when the campaign is to be sent when the user's BTS is outside the time window selected. You can do the following:
- - Send the campaign to the user either at the start or end time by selecting Send message at start time or end time.
  - Avoid sending the campaign to the user by selecting Do not send message.
If user's best time is not available: You can choose the time when the campaign is to be sent when the user does not have BTS. You can do the following:
- - Send the campaign to the user at the start time by selecting Yes, send at start time.
  - Send the campaign to the user at the app's best time by selecting Yes, send at the app's best time.
  - Avoid sending the campaign to the user by selecting Do not send message.
    For more information, refer to the Best time to send (BTS).

Periodic: Denotes the periodicity of the campaign. The following options are available: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.

Periodicity

Description

Daily

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of days after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 days and the campaign starts on Monday, it will run again on Thursday.

Weekly

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of weeks after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 weeks and the campaign starts in the first week, it will run again in the fourth week.

Monthly

Repeat every: This option lets you specify the number of months after which the campaign should be repeated.

For example, if you choose to repeat every 3 months and the campaign starts in January, it will run again in April.

Repeat on - This option lets you do the following:

Days of month - Choose this option for repeating campaigns that are date-specific. Select the date(s) of the month the campaign is to be sent. For example, to send the campaign on the 5th and the 25th of a month, select the 5th and 25th in the calendar widget.
Note: If the selected date(s) doesn't exist in the specified month (as it is a shorter month), a campaign will be sent on the last date. For example, if the 30th and 31st are selected and the month is February, one campaign would be sent on the 28th.
Days of week - Choose this option to specify the day(s) of the week on which the campaign is to be sent. For example, if you wish to send the campaign every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, select these days in this option.
Note: In case of a day of the week not existing in a month (for example, fifth Saturday), the campaign would be skipped for that instance. And in case of overlap (for example, 4th Monday and last Monday), only one instance would be sent.

Ends: Denotes the date on which the campaign ends. The following options are available:
- - Never: The campaign is scheduled to run daily.
  - On: The campaign ends on the date specified in the End Date field.
  - After: The campaign ends after the number of occurrences specified in the occurrences field.

arrow_drop_down Event Triggered

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.

When will event triggered campaigns be sent?

The campaign will be sent only when:

The event property/attribute being used to create these types of triggers (like the flight_time example) is in a valid date-time format. If it is not in a 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. For example, 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 (With Delay) does not work for campaigns sent on relative timing.

arrow_drop_down Business Event Triggered

Click Active continuously under Send campaign and do the following:

Field	Description
Campaign time zone	Select the campaign time zone in which the campaign should be sent.
Start date	Set the start date at which the campaign should be sent.
Send time	Set the send time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm.
End date	Set the end date at which the campaign should be stopped.
End time	Set the end time at which the campaign should be stopped. Select am or pm.

When will business event-triggered campaigns be sent?

The campaign will be sent only when:

The data type(s) of the user attribute(s) or event attribute(s) mapped to the data type(s) of the business event's attribute(s) match.
The attribute(s) used in segmentation are passed in the trigger request for the business event.
The intelligent delay optimization (With Delay) does not work for campaigns sent on relative timing.

Conversion Goals

You can add conversion goals to track the business metrics for your campaigns. You can track a maximum of five conversion goals. You can choose any app event as a conversion goal activity and set more than one conversion goal. The first goal will be treated as a primary goal.

For example, if you want to track the number of customers who have purchased an iPhone after your campaign was sent. (Event: Purchase event, Product: iPhone). Your conversion goal setup might be similar to the following image:

With multiple conversion goals, you can track more than one business metric or visualize a funnel for your user actions. For example, if you want to check the following, you can do so with multiple conversion goals.

How many users have viewed the product page?
How many of them added that product to the cart?
How many of them made a successful order?

arrow_drop_down Tracking Revenue Performance (Optional)

With MoEngage, you can track the revenue generated by your campaigns. For example, you can track the revenue generated by your product after sending a communication. To track revenue performance, enable the Revenue performance toggle for the conversion goal for which you want to track the revenue.

In the example here, to track revenue for orderSuccessful events, you must enable the Revenue performance toggle.

After choosing the goal, you can select the numeric attribute that captures the order's total monetary value. In this example, cartValue contains the total order value. You can choose the currency in which your monetary value is being reported.

Set Attribution window: You can set an attribution window (a time period or window that is calculated since the user has received/clicked the campaign, for which you want to attribute the conversion goals to a specific campaign). By default, it 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.

Delivery Controls

This section contains the following options:

Frequency Capping

This feature helps control the number of MMS messages sent to a user in a day.

Ignore frequency capping: Enable this toggle to ignore the frequency capping limit for this MMS campaign. Click Ignore frequency capping to ignore the capping for your MMS campaigns 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 MMS messages triggered by this campaign are urgent and should go on high priority, even though some customers have already received three campaigns. If you use the Ignore Frequency Cap, people who have already received 3 campaigns will receive this one as well. For more information, refer to Frequency Capping.
Count for the frequency capping: Enable this toggle if you want this connector to be counted for the frequency capping limit. 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.

Throttling

Throttling is a feature that allows you to control the sending rate of MMS campaigns. In the Request limit section, enter the number of requests per minute sent for the MMS campaigns. 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). For more information, refer to Throttlling.

del control.png

This section contains the following options:

Minimum delay between two messages: Set the minimum time gap between two messages received by the same user.
Ignore DND settings: Enable this toggle to ignore the DND settings.
Ignore frequency capping: Enable this toggle to ignore the frequency capping limit for this Connector campaign. For more information, refer to Frequency Capping.
Count for the frequency capping: Enable this toggle if you want this connector to be counted for the frequency capping limit.

Your campaign is now ready to be sent. Click Publish, confirm in the dialog box, and your campaign is created.

Next Steps

If you have successfully created the campaign, you will be taken to the Analytics and Info page.