Create and Send Your First Campaign
What it is
A campaign in BotBat is a single outbound message broadcast sent to a defined audience through a specific channel. Campaigns are the primary tool for reaching your contacts at scale, whether you are announcing a promotion, sharing a product update, or sending transactional notifications. Every campaign consists of four core elements: a delivery channel (WhatsApp, SMS, or email), an audience segment that defines who receives the message, a message template that determines the content, and a scheduling configuration that controls when the message goes out.
The campaign builder guides you through each of these elements in a linear, step-by-step flow. At each stage you can preview your choices, make adjustments, and move forward or backward without losing progress. Once a campaign is sent, BotBat tracks delivery, read receipts, click-throughs, and failures in real time, giving you immediate visibility into performance.
This guide covers the entire lifecycle from opening the Campaigns page to monitoring delivery metrics after launch. Whether you are sending your very first message or setting up a scheduled blast for a new channel, the steps below walk you through every decision point in the builder.
When to use
First campaign. You have just finished onboarding, imported your contacts, and want to validate that your channel connection works by sending a real message. This guide ensures you do not miss any required configuration step along the way.
New channel launch. You recently connected a new channel, such as a WhatsApp Business API number, an SMS gateway, or an email sending domain. Sending a small test campaign through the new channel confirms that routing, templates, and delivery are all functioning correctly before you commit to a large audience.
Promotional or transactional blast. You need to reach a specific audience segment with a time-sensitive offer, event reminder, or operational notification. The campaign builder lets you select exactly the right audience, personalize the message with dynamic contact data, and choose between immediate and scheduled delivery.
Steps
1. Navigate to Campaigns
Open the sidebar and click Campaigns. The Campaigns page displays a table of all past, active, and scheduled campaigns. Each row shows the campaign name, channel, audience size, delivery status, and key metrics. If this is your first campaign, the page displays an empty state with a prompt to get started.
From this page you can also filter campaigns by channel or status, search by name, and click into any campaign to view its detailed analytics. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the layout before proceeding.
2. Click Create Campaign
Click the Create Campaign button in the top-right corner. This opens the campaign builder, a multi-step form that walks you through channel selection, audience targeting, template configuration, personalization, and scheduling. The builder preserves your progress as you move between steps, so you can go back and revise earlier choices without starting over.
3. Select a delivery channel
Choose the channel for this campaign: WhatsApp, SMS, or Email. The channel you select determines which templates are available, what personalization options appear, and how delivery metrics are tracked.
WhatsApp campaigns require a Meta-approved message template, and the builder only shows templates that have already been approved. SMS campaigns support freeform text with character-count tracking. Email campaigns open a richer editor with subject line, HTML body, and attachment options. If the channel you want is grayed out, verify that the corresponding channel connection is active in Settings > Channels.
4. Pick an audience segment
Select the audience segment that defines who will receive this campaign. The segment picker displays all saved segments along with their estimated reach count, which is the number of contacts matching the segment criteria at this moment.
If none of the existing segments match your needs, click Create Segment to build one directly from within the campaign builder. The inline segment builder supports property filters, event conditions, and date ranges. Once saved, the new segment becomes available for future campaigns as well. Always verify the reach count before moving forward; a count of zero means no contacts will receive the message.
5. Choose or create a template
Browse your template library or create a new template inline. Templates define the message content, including text, media attachments, buttons, and placeholder variables.
For WhatsApp, only templates with an Approved status from Meta can be used. If you need a new template, submit it for approval and allow at least 24 hours for review before planning your campaign send time. For SMS and email, you can create and use templates immediately without an external approval step. The template gallery supports filtering by category, language, and status to help you find the right template quickly.
6. Personalize with dynamic variables
Insert dynamic variables into your template to make each message feel personal and relevant. Common variables include {{first_name}}, {{company_name}}, {{order_id}}, and any custom contact property you have defined in BotBat.
The variable mapping screen lists every placeholder detected in your template and provides a dropdown for each one, allowing you to select the corresponding contact property. If a contact is missing a value for a mapped property, the system uses the fallback value you define here. Always set meaningful fallback values (for example, "Customer" as a fallback for {{first_name}}) to avoid sending messages with blank fields.
| Variable Example | Mapped Property | Fallback Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
{{first_name}} | contact.firstName | Customer | Recipient's first name |
{{order_id}} | contact.lastOrderId | your recent order | Most recent order identifier |
{{company_name}} | contact.company | your company | Contact's associated company |
{{promo_code}} | campaign.promoCode | SAVE10 | Campaign-level promotional code |
7. Preview the message
Click Preview to see exactly how the final message will appear to recipients. The preview resolves all variables using sample contact data so you can verify both the content and the formatting.
Check for correct variable replacements, proper line breaks, and accurate media rendering. For WhatsApp, confirm that buttons and quick replies display as expected. For email, review the subject line, body layout, and any embedded images. If anything looks wrong, go back to the template or variable mapping step to make corrections. Running a preview before every send is a best practice that prevents embarrassing formatting errors from reaching your audience.
8. Schedule or send now
Choose your delivery timing. Send Now dispatches the campaign immediately to all contacts in the selected segment. Schedule lets you pick a specific date and time, with the option to adjust for recipient timezones so that everyone receives the message at the intended local time.
For scheduled campaigns, BotBat evaluates the segment at the scheduled send time, not at the time you create the campaign. This means contacts who enter or leave the segment between now and the scheduled time will be included or excluded accordingly. If you need the audience locked at creation time, consider exporting and reimporting a static list instead.
9. Monitor delivery in real time
After the campaign is sent, the campaign detail page updates with real-time delivery metrics. You can see how many messages were delivered, read, clicked, and failed, along with error reasons for any failures.
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Sent | Total number of messages dispatched to the channel provider |
| Delivered | Messages confirmed as received by the recipient's device |
| Read | Messages opened or viewed by the recipient (WhatsApp and email only) |
| Clicked | Recipients who clicked a link or button within the message |
| Failed | Messages that could not be delivered, with specific error codes |
Review failed messages promptly. Common failure reasons include invalid phone numbers, expired WhatsApp sessions, and email bounces. You can export the failure list as a CSV for further investigation or re-targeting.
Common pitfalls
Unapproved WhatsApp template. WhatsApp campaigns require a Meta-approved template. If your template status is still Pending or Rejected, the campaign will fail at send time. Always submit templates well in advance and confirm the Approved status in Templates > WhatsApp before building your campaign.
Empty or stale segment. If your audience segment has zero contacts or uses outdated filter criteria, the campaign sends to nobody. Before launching, open the segment and verify the reach count. If the count is unexpectedly low, review the filter conditions and check whether the underlying contact data has changed.
Unmapped or missing variables. Adding a variable like {{first_name}} without mapping it to a contact property, or mapping it to a property that most contacts lack, results in blank or fallback values throughout your audience. Always preview the message with multiple sample contacts and set appropriate fallback values for every variable.
Timezone misalignment for scheduled sends. When scheduling a campaign, forgetting to enable timezone-aware delivery can result in messages arriving at inconvenient hours for recipients in different regions. Enable the timezone adjustment option if your audience spans multiple time zones.
Use the Test Send feature before launching to your full audience. Test Send dispatches the campaign to a small list of internal recipients (yourself, teammates, or a QA group) so you can verify formatting, variable resolution, and delivery on real devices. This is especially important for WhatsApp campaigns, where template rendering can vary slightly across device types and operating system versions.
- Campaigns List
- Create Campaign
- Channel Selection
- Audience Picker
- Template Selection
- Variable Mapping
- Message Preview
- Schedule or Send
- Delivery Dashboard