Why it matters
Campaign automations help you respond instantly and consistently when contacts engage with your campaigns. By using triggers such as keywords, replies, link clicks, or calls, you can automate follow-up messages and workflows without manual intervention.
Key Concepts
Campaign automation: A workflow that runs when a contact interacts with your campaign.
Trigger: The event that starts the automation. Common trigger types include keyword responses, message replies, link clicks, and calls.
Keyword trigger: A trigger that runs when a contact replies with a specific keyword included in your campaign message.
Automated action: What happens when the trigger fires, such as sending a follow-up message or routing the conversation.
Step-by-Step: Add Automations to a Campaign
Create a new campaign or open an existing one.
Start a new campaign or select an existing draft from your campaign list.
Compose your message and include a keyword.
In the Message section, write your campaign content and include a clear, unique keyword for recipients to reply with.
Examples: YES, NO, OPEN, 1, 2, 3.
Save your campaign.
Click Save to ensure the message and keyword are stored.
Open the Automations section.
Scroll to Automations and click Add trigger.
Choose New automation.
You may use an automation template, but for a keyword-trigger workflow, select New automation.
Select Keyword trigger.
Choose Keyword trigger from the list of available trigger types.
Enter your keyword.
In the Keywords field, enter the keyword included in your campaign message (for example OPEN).
This keyword will activate the automation when a contact replies with it.
Proceed to Add action.
Click Next – Add action to configure what should happen when the keyword is received.
Add a follow-up action.
Choose the action you want to run when the trigger fires.
Common actions include sending an automated response.
You can also choose alternatives from the dropdown if available.
Save the keyword automation.
Click Save keyword automation to apply your settings.
If you see a “Failed to create campaign trigger” error, it usually means the trigger exceeds the limit of 10 allowed keywords. Remove extra keywords and try again.
Finish and send the campaign.
After saving your automation, your campaign is ready to send.
When recipients reply with the keyword, the automated action will run.
Tips and Best Practices
Keep keywords simple and easy for recipients to type.
Use uppercase or lowercase consistently in your message and keyword setup.
Avoid very common words that could cause accidental triggers.
Limit each keyword trigger to a maximum of 10 keywords to avoid errors.
Test your campaign before sending to confirm that the automation behaves as expected.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Possible Cause | Fix |
Failed to create campaign trigger | More than 10 keywords added | Remove extra keywords and save again. |
Automation did not fire | Keyword in reply does not match the trigger | Ensure the keyword is spelled exactly as configured. |
Cannot add automation | Working in a WhatsApp campaign | Automations are available for SMS and Email, not WhatsApp. |