Why it matters
Campaign automations help you engage contacts immediately and consistently without manual effort. By setting up triggers based on replies, keywords, link clicks, or call events, you can ensure that contacts receive the right follow-up at the right time. This improves efficiency and strengthens engagement across your outreach.
Key Concepts
Campaign automation: A workflow that runs when a contact interacts with a campaign message.
Trigger: The event that causes the automation to run. Common trigger types include keyword replies, general responses, link clicks, and calls.
Keyword trigger: A trigger that activates when a contact replies with a specific keyword included in the campaign message.
Automated action: The follow-up behaviour that occurs after a trigger fires, such as sending a response message or performing another action.
Step-by-Step: Add an Automation to a Campaign
Create a new campaign or open an existing one.
Start a new campaign or select an existing draft from the Campaigns page.
Create your message and include a keyword.
In the Message section, write your campaign content and include a clear, unique keyword you want recipients to reply with.
Examples: YES, NO, OPEN, 1, 2, 3.
Save your message.
Click Save to ensure your keyword and message are stored.
Open the Automations section and click Add trigger.
Scroll to Automations and select Add trigger to create a new automation.
Choose New automation.
You can use an automation template, but to create a custom trigger select New automation.
Select Keyword trigger.
Pick Keyword trigger from the list of available trigger types.
Enter your keyword.
Under Keywords, add 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 define what happens when the keyword is detected.
Add a follow-up action.
Choose an action such as sending an automated response. You can edit the message or select a different action from the dropdown.
Save the keyword automation.
Click Save keyword automation to apply the trigger.
If you see a “Failed to create campaign trigger” error, the trigger likely includes more than 10 keywords. Remove extra keywords and save again.
Finish and send the campaign.
Once the automation is saved, your campaign can be sent. When contacts reply with the keyword, the automation will run automatically.
Tips and Best Practices
Keep keywords short, clear, and easy to type.
Avoid overly common words to prevent accidental triggers.
Test your automation with a test message before sending to a large audience.
Remember the limit of 10 keywords per trigger.
Use different triggers (response, link click, call) if your workflow requires varied follow-up actions.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Possible Cause | Fix |
Failed to create campaign trigger | More than 10 keywords added | Remove excess keywords and save again. |
Automation does not fire | Keyword reply does not match exactly | Ensure the keyword in your message and trigger are identical. |
Automations not available | Editing a WhatsApp campaign | Automations are available for SMS and email campaigns only. |