Campaigns

An instruction layer with a start and an end: on incoming messages across every channel, and outbound on WhatsApp.

What is a campaign?

A campaign is an instruction layer with a start and an end. It sets what the assistant says during an advertising or promotional period — and switches itself off the moment it ends. We do not leave the ending to the assistant's memory: a sentence saying “ends on 30 September” still sells the discount on 1 October.

It has two modes, with separate rules:

• Incoming — works on every channel. When a customer writes to you, the assistant answers with the campaign in mind.
• Outbound — WhatsApp only. You start the conversation, using an approved template.

Creating a campaign

Settings › Campaigns › New campaign. The fields:

• Name — a label only you see.
• Brief — the instruction you give the assistant. Write plain sentences, like “tell customers with 2 items in the cart that shipping is free”.
• Channels — a scope, not separate content: the same campaign applies on the channels you pick. Pick none and it applies on all channels.
• Start and end — both are enforced in code.

Preview shows what would be added to the assistant's instructions without going live. Only one campaign is live at a time; the Live now badge says which.

Outbound sending (WhatsApp)

If your WhatsApp number is connected, an Outbound send box appears under the campaign card. The flow is deliberately two steps: first who it reaches, then the send.

1. To whom — “everyone who has written to this number”, or a saved segment. Because segments are keyed to email and WhatsApp contacts to a phone, picking a segment shrinks the audience considerably; that is a fact about the data, not a defect.
2. Template — one of your approved templates. If it has variables, boxes appear and the message to be sent is shown below with your values in place.
3. Who will this reach? — says how many people it reaches and who was excluded, and why. Nothing is sent.
4. Send — only this step sends anything.

Four kinds of people are excluded automatically: those with no address, those who have never written to this number, those who asked you to stop, and those this campaign has already reached. The last one is what stops a double click from sending twice. A single send reaches at most 500 people; if the audience is larger, the preview says so.

The number you saw in the preview travels with the send request. If someone asked to stop in the meantime, or a tag changed, the send stops and asks you to preview again: sending to a list you have not seen is worse than not sending at all.

A template is required

When you are the one starting, WhatsApp only lets you write with a pattern Meta approved in advance. You create templates in Meta's WhatsApp Manager; creating one and submitting it is free. Details: Conversations › WhatsApp conversations.

Templates whose header carries an image, video or document cannot be sent from a campaign — there is no file picker here. You can send those one by one from Conversations.

Who gets billed?

Meta bills every message directly to your own WhatsApp account. SemAgent does not sit in between and none of your credits are spent. Meta calculates the amount; it appears in WhatsApp Manager › Billing.

Utility templates are free within 24 hours of the customer's last message; marketing templates are always charged. We do not show an estimate: the fee depends on the recipient's country, the template category and your monthly volume tier, and an invented figure that diverges from the real invoice would destroy trust.

Customers who ask you to stop

If someone asks to stop in an incoming message (for example stop, unsubscribe), no campaign message goes to them again. The marker is permanent and independent of the campaign: someone who opted out of one campaign is out of the others too.