How Credits Work
Before you start: credits are consumed in two places during a campaign.
Generating a lead — 1 credit per lead. This creates the personalized sequence for that lead.
Deep research on a lead — 1 credit per lead. This runs expanded research and is a separate action from generating.
Re-generating the same lead's sequence within the same campaign — free. Iterate as much as you want once a lead is enriched.
Generating the same lead in a different campaign counts as a new credit.
1. Add Your Leads
To get started, click the + button in the top left and select Campaign from the dropdown. This opens the campaign builder where you'll work through the steps below.
Start by adding the leads you want to reach out to. Twain gives you three options:
Upload CSV — upload a custom lead list from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, or another source
Integrations — connect directly via your sales tools (e.g., Clay, HubSpot)
Add manually — paste LinkedIn URLs one by one
When uploading a CSV, map these fields:
Work Email — required for delivery
LinkedIn Profile — used for research-based personalization
Company Name, Title, First Name — optional, but the more context you give, the better the personalization
💡 Lead import runs in the background. You don't have to wait for the import to finish before moving on to the next setup step — Twain will keep pulling in your leads while you configure the rest of the campaign.
💡 If you have a large list, consider splitting it in half. It makes A/B testing easier later without extra setup.
💡 Clean, well-mapped data ensures Twain personalizes correctly and prevents errors during export.
2. Set Up Your Agent
Agents are the brain behind your campaign. They research your leads, apply your personas and rules, and write personalized sequences. Once created, an agent can be reused across multiple campaigns — you don't need to rebuild it every time.
If it's your first campaign, click Create Agent. You'll fill in three sections:
General — Base knowledge and context
Enter your company website and add a short description of the agent's purpose and audience. You can also upload files (e.g., a one-pager or brochure) for additional context. Twain uses all of this to understand your product and value proposition.
The General tab also contains:
Signals — specific data points or triggers you want the agent to look for when researching leads. Twain already researches key lead data by default; signals let you go deeper.
Warnings — disqualifiers or red flags that should stop a lead from being contacted. Twain flags common issues by default; add your own on top.
Personas — Audience and value prop
Twain suggests buyer personas based on your General setup. Each persona has detailed fields: Company/product name, Pain points, Cost of inaction, Solutions, Objections, Competitive advantages, and Social proof. Review the suggestions, edit what doesn't fit, and add new ones if needed.
Personas help the agent tailor messaging to different audience types within the same campaign.
Rules — Research and warnings
A summary view of your Signals and Warnings before you finalize the agent. Once you're happy, click Create Agent.
💡 If you've already built an agent for a previous campaign, select it from the list instead of creating a new one. A well-configured agent improves over time — the more you use and refine it, the better it represents your brand.
Fine-tuning your agent after campaign creation
Once your campaign is live, you can access extended agent settings via the ⚙️ icon next to "Agent" in the campaign view. This opens three tabs: General, Personas, and a new tab that isn't available during initial setup:
Writing style
Control how the agent writes across all campaigns it's used in:
Tone — three sliders: Formality (Casual to Official), Creativity (Direct to Imaginative), Firmness (Humble to Assertive). Use Auto-detect to let Twain infer your style, or Preview to test it.
Blocklist — words or phrases that should never appear in generated copy. Twain already blocks common spam words by default; add your own on top.
Terms — company-specific vocabulary, acronyms, or product names with exact spelling and context instructions.
💡 It's worth setting up Writing style after your first campaign — it applies to all future campaigns using the same agent.
3. Complete the Campaign Brief
Instead of filling in a form, you have a short back-and-forth with Twain. By the time you hit Create, the campaign already knows the reason, the angle, the offer, the sequence structure, and the channels.
Twain walks through five questions:
Why now? Not your goal — the actual reason you're reaching out to this list this week. A funding round, a hiring spike, a competitor move, a recent event. Be specific; Twain will push back if the answer is too generic.
Which angle? Twain proposes a few framings based on your leads and agent. Pick one or type your own.
What's the offer? What does the prospect get for replying? An audit, a benchmark, a checklist, a meeting. Twain matches the offer to the audience: cold lists get nudged toward educational offers, warmer lists toward meeting-style offers.
How many steps? Twain suggests a number and explains why. You can adjust with the slider. Max is 9 steps.
Which channels? Email only, LinkedIn only, or both. You can also describe a custom split in free text.
You can answer in free text, attach a document (a brief, a deck, a transcript) and let Twain pull context from it, or pick from suggested options when Twain offers them. If something doesn't fit, just say so ("that's too corporate", "focus on the economic buyer") and Twain re-proposes. Feedback carries through the rest of the brief.
At the end, Twain shows you the full brief in one block. Review it, push back one more time if anything is off, then hit Create campaign. Nothing is created until you confirm.
💡 The brief context carries through into your campaign's chat panel after creation. When you continue working in chat (refining messages, adjusting tone, asking Twain to change a step) it already knows what you set up here.
💡 The brief stays editable after creation. Change your mind about the angle later and regenerate, Twain uses the updated brief automatically.
4. Review Research Before Generating
Once your campaign is created, you can run deep research on individual leads before generating their sequence. Open the Research tab to see what Twain has found:
About — a summary of the lead's role and company focus
Insights — real-time findings with source links (e.g., recent funding rounds, rebrands, product launches)
Discovery questions — suggested conversation starters based on the research
Talking points — value prop angles with examples
Why now — why the timing of your outreach is relevant for this specific lead, backed by recent signals
Why us — why your product is relevant for this lead's current situation and challenges
The right panel also shows a Warning if Twain has flagged something about the lead (e.g., company instability, wrong persona fit) and which Persona has been auto-assigned to that lead.
Use the Research tab to spot data quality issues before spending credits on generating the full list.
💡 For a deeper dive into Twain's research capabilities, see: Using Expanded Research for Manual Prospecting.
5. Generate a Few Leads First
Before generating your entire list, generate one or two leads to see how the messages look. This costs credits but saves you from generating a full list based on a setup that needs adjustment.
Check: Does the opener feel relevant? Is the tone right? Is the CTA what you intended?
💡 Generating a lead costs 1 credit. Re-generating the same lead within the same campaign is free — so iterate as much as you want once a lead is enriched.
6. Refine Your Messages
Once you've seen how the first messages look, refine before generating at scale. You have three ways to adjust:
Framework Editor — click the pencil icon on any step to edit the underlying message structure. Use structured placeholders to redefine the narrative flow (e.g., pain-point > solution > proof, or research > question > CTA). Switch between saved frameworks or create a new one. Apply changes with Update Step. Frameworks can be saved and reused across campaigns.
💡 For a full walkthrough of the Framework Editor, see: Framework Editor – Customize and Test Campaign Structures
Instructions and exact phrases — type directly into the campaign to shape Twain's output:
Instructions guide tone and structure (e.g., "Make this conversational and under 80 words")
Exact phrases ensure specific language always appears (e.g., "Twain injects real-time research into every message")
AI chat panel — use the chat panel (bottom right of the campaign view) to ask Twain to adjust steps directly, e.g., "Make step 2 shorter" or "Change the CTA to a softer ask."
💡 The goal is for the output to sound like you, not like a generic SDR. Invest time here before generating at scale.
7. Generate at Scale
Once you're happy with the setup, generate messages for all leads.
💡 Twain only exports leads with generated content to your sequencer. Leads that haven't been enriched yet won't be included.
8. Set Up A/B Tests
Duplicate the campaign and change one element. Good things to test:
CTA: "Book a 15-min call" vs. "How are you currently handling this?"
Subject line: Offer-based (e.g., "Quick idea for your team") vs. Source-based (e.g., referencing something the lead published)
Opener style: Research-led vs. pain-point-led
Run both campaigns in parallel and compare open rate, reply rate, and positive reply rate.
💡 A/B testing shows what actually resonates with your audience instead of guessing.
9. Export
Export your generated leads:
Google Sheets — for review or manual editing before sending
Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist, HeyReach, LaGrowthMachine — direct integration, exports leads with personalized copy straight into your sending sequence
10. Best Practices
Don't skip the agent setup: The quality of your agent — especially personas, signals, and writing style — directly determines personalization quality. It's worth the upfront time.
Reuse and refine your agent: A good agent is an asset. Use it across campaigns and update it as you learn what works, rather than building new ones from scratch.
Be specific in your campaign brief: Vague answers produce generic output. Describe your signal, research intent, and targeting rules as concisely and specifically as you can.
Check the Research tab first: Before generating at scale, spot-check a few leads to make sure the data quality is good. Remember: research and generating are billed separately.
Test before scaling: Generate a few leads, refine the idea, agent, or framework, then generate at scale.
Be opinionated: The AI should sound like you. Use your own vocabulary, CTAs, and point of view.
A/B test early: Even a small list split gives you data to work with for the next campaign.