Creating and editing campaigns

This topic describes how to create and edit a Marketing Automation campaign. Also learn how to start and pause a campaign, delete campaign drafts and delete a campaign permanently.

Creating a campaign

  1. Open the Optimizely Campaign menu and select Campaigns > Marketing Automation.
  2. Click Create.
    • To create a new campaign, click New….
    • To use an existing campaign as a template, click Copy… in the drop-down list, choose your client and campaign, and click Apply.

    Image: Creating a campaign

  3. Drag the nodes Campaign: Item that determines when a recipient passes through the campaign, and the actions that are executed for the recipient. With the help of "connections", you can link nodes to specify the process of your campaign. The arrow at the end of each connection always points to the next node and the associated action. from the left action area to the working area on the right.
  4. Connect the nodes and enter the desired settings. See Editing nodes and Marketing Automation nodes.
  5. Click Save Draft….
  6. In the dialog box, enter a name for the campaign and click Save.

If you already saved a draft of a campaign and want to display the running or paused version of it, open the campaign report. See Marketing Automation campaign report.

Marketing Automation does not guarantee that mailings are sent in real time. Note the following hints on sending Marketing Automation messages.

  • Use the HTTP API for time-sensitive mailings (for example, order confirmations or password reminders), because Marketing Automation mailings cannot always be processed in real time.
  • Target groups within the same campaign that check on the dispatch of the message in a node may give false results because the mailing may not be sent. If you use such target groups behind the Send message node, there may be undesirable effects, as the target groups may not work. To avoid this, place a Wait node, which delays the execution of the action, in front of such nodes.
  • If you place a Send message node behind a Move recipient node, you also should place a Wait node in front of the Move recipient node. Otherwise, the recipient may be removed from the recipient list before the message is sent.

Editing a campaign

To edit an existing campaign, select the required campaign from the list in the Marketing Automation window and click Edit. Proceed as described from step 3 in the Creating a campaign section.

Starting or pausing a campaign

To start a Marketing Automation campaign in the Marketing Automation window, select the campaign and click Start. Next, Optimizely Campaign validates the campaign's content. If errors are found, correct them by editing the campaign.

To pause a campaign, in the Marketing Automation window, select the campaign and click Pause. To resume the campaign, click Start.

If your Marketing Automation campaign contains a Wait node and you pause the campaign, the time specified in the node is not paused. That is, if the waiting time of the node elapses during pausing, the next action is executed as soon as the campaign is restarted.

Deleting a draft

To delete a version of a running or paused Marketing Automation campaign, in the Edit Campaign window, click Delete Draft.

Deleting a draft reverts the current changes and all changes made since the start of the campaign. To revert the current changes, close the Edit Campaign window.

Deleting a campaign

To delete a Marketing Automation campaign in the Marketing Automation window, select the campaign and click Delete.