Set Up Your First Campaign

Launch a simple outbound calling campaign using your outbound agent and a small CSV list of contacts.

This quickstart shows how to launch a very simple outbound campaign:

• You’ll call a tiny CSV list (2 contacts) with your outbound agent.

• Each contact will receive one phone call.

• Calls go out during normal business hours in Pacific Time.

• You’ll see where to assign numbers, import contacts, and start the campaign.

This guide assumes you’ve already created an outbound agent using
Create Your First Outbound Agent.

What You’ll Do

• Prepare a 2‑contact CSV file for testing

• Create a new campaign in the Campaigns wizard

• Configure a simple contact window (weekdays, business hours)

• Build a single phone step using your outbound agent

• Assign a caller number and import the CSV contacts

• Start the campaign and see where to monitor results

For a deeper explanation of campaign concepts and all options, see the
Campaigns Feature Guide.

1. Prepare a tiny CSV file

Create a CSV file on your computer called first-campaign-test.csv with 2 contacts:

to_number,first_name
+15551230001,Alice
+15551230002,Bob

to_number – the phone number the campaign will call.
first_name – used as {first_name} in your agent prompt and messages.

You can adjust the numbers to your own test phones if needed.
The important part is to have:

• A column with phone numbers

• A column with first names

2. Create a new campaign

1. In the left sidebar, go to Campaigns.

2. Click New Campaign.

3. In the Create campaign dialog:

   • Enter a Campaign name, for example: Test – First Outbound Campaign.

   • (Optional) Add a Campaign description, such as 2-contact test with Outbound Demo Assistant.

4. Click Create.

You’ll enter the campaign wizard, where you’ll configure:

• Contact window

• Outreach flow (steps)

• Numbers and exit settings

• Contacts (CSV or CRM)

• Start and monitoring

You can keep the campaign in Draft until you’re ready to start it.

3. Set a simple contact window

In the wizard, go to the Contact window section.

1. Under Weekly Contact Window:

   • Select weekdays only, for example:

     • Monday–Friday.

   • Set a time range such as:

     • 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

2. Under Timezone:

   • Set the primary timezone to Pacific Time (or your main business timezone).

   • Leave fallback behavior at the default, or set it to the same timezone for this simple test.

3. Leave Date Overrides empty for this quickstart (no special blackout dates).

This ensures that calls from this campaign will only happen during normal business hours in Pacific Time.

4. Build a simple outreach flow

Next, open the Build your outreach flow step.

1. For Step 1:

   • Make sure the step type is Phone call.

   • Choose your outbound agent from the Agent dropdown
     (for example, Outbound Demo Assistant).

2. Under When to place call:

   • Select At the earliest eligible time. This means:

     • As soon as a contact enters the campaign, and

     • The current time is inside the contact window you configured.

3. For this first campaign, do not add additional steps:

   • You can leave it as a single phone call per contact.

You now have a one‑step call flow:
each contact gets one outbound call from your agent, during the allowed window.

5. Assign a caller number

Go to the Configure your settings section.

1. Under Outbound Configurations (or similar area for phone calls):

   • Choose Select from numbers.

   • Pick one number you want this campaign to use as the caller ID.

2. Note this guideline:

   For outbound campaigns, we recommend using roughly no more than 100 calls per number per day.
   Heavier usage can increase the risk of that number being marked or flagged by carriers.

You can change this number later or add more numbers and use tags as your usage grows.
For now, one number is enough for this small test.

6. Import contacts from CSV

In the wizard, go to Add your contacts.

1. Choose Upload CSV.

2. Select the first-campaign-test.csv file you created.

3. On the upload screen:

   • Confirm that Data has headers is checked (since the first row contains to_number,first_name).

4. In the mapping step:

   • Drag the to_number column to the phone / destination number field.

   • Drag the first_name column to the first_name context field (or equivalent).

5. Under Import Options:

   • You can leave defaults as is; for a 2‑contact test, duplicates are not a concern.

6. Click Import.

You should see that 2 contacts have been added to the campaign.

Mapped fields (like first_name) will be available as context to your outbound agent, so it can say “Hi Alice” or “Hi Bob” when calling.

7. Start the campaign

When your contact window, outreach flow, numbers, and contacts all look good:

1. Go to the campaign’s Overview page.

2. Review the key details:

   • Name and description

   • Contact window

   • One phone step using your outbound agent

   • Assigned number

   • 2 contacts imported

3. Click Start (or the Schedule Start option if you prefer to start later).

For this quickstart, you can:

• Start the campaign immediately while you’re within the contact window, or

• Schedule it to start at 10:00 AM Pacific on a weekday to see how scheduled start behaves.

Once started:

• The status will change from Draft to Active.

• The system will begin placing calls to the two contacts, respecting:

  • The contact window, and

  • The earliest eligible time.

8. Monitor and pause

After starting the campaign:

• On the Overview page you’ll see high‑level stats, such as:

  • Total contacts

  • Queued

  • Active

  • Exited

• You can Pause the campaign at any time if you want to stop new calls going out.

To inspect individual calls:

1. Go to Calls or Call history in the sidebar.

2. Filter by:

   • Campaign or agent (if available),

   • Date range,

   • Status.

3. Click into a call to:

   • See the outcome,

   • Listen to the recording (if enabled),

   • View any post‑call analysis or actions.

This is where you validate that the outbound agent is behaving as expected with real contacts.

Where to go next

Now that you’ve launched a simple test campaign:

• Expand your understanding of campaigns in the
  Campaigns Feature Guide.

• Refine your outbound agent using:

  • Create Your First Outbound Agent

  • Agents – Basic Settings

  • Agents – Advanced Settings

  • Agents – Post‑Call Actions

• Explore how numbers, tags, and providers affect outbound caller IDs in the
  Numbers Feature Guide and
  Providers.

As you gain confidence, you can:

• Increase the size of your CSV lists,

• Add more steps (second call, SMS/email follow‑up),

• And design richer campaigns that fully automate your outbound workflows.

Reference: View original documentation