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Campaign Builder Overview

The AIQ Campaign Builder lets you create and launch multi-channel campaigns (email, SMS, push, voice, and more). This guide covers campaign types, audience targeting, scheduling, conversion tracking, and common issues.

Updated over 3 weeks ago

Prerequisites

Before getting started, ensure you have:

Required Permissions

Campaign Builder is available to users with:

  • Marketing

  • Marketing Analyst

  • Operator

  • Owner

Plan Requirements

  • Marketing Starter

  • Waterfall Campaigns require Marketing Pro

How to Create a New Campaign

  1. Navigate to Marketing > Campaigns

  2. Click + Create Campaign

  3. Select your campaign type:

Regular Campaigns

Each selected channel sends its own message to the chosen audience.

A/B Test Campaigns

Split-test campaign content and compare results to determine the best-performing version.

Waterfall Campaigns

Automatically send through the next best channel if the first channel isn’t available.

  • Requires selecting 2+ channels

  • Requires Marketing Pro

If a customer only opts into the 2nd priority message channel, AIQ will automatically skip the first channel and send the message via the next channel. In the example above, if a customer is subscribed to Email messages but opts out of Text messages, Waterfall will skip Text messages and send an email.

4. Select one or more campaign channels:

  • Email

  • Text (SMS/MMS)

  • Push

  • Voice

  • Direct Mail

  • Wallet Pass

  • Loops

📌 For co-marketing campaigns, see Co-Marketing for Brands.

Save as Draft (Anytime)

Click Save as Draft in the upper-right corner to store progress.

Saved campaigns are labeled as:

  • Draft (instead of the legacy “Inactive” label)

Step 2: Recipients

Campaign Information

  • Campaign Trigger
    Select a trigger type (default is Normal, a one-time send).

  • Internal Name
    Internal-only name for organization.

  • Tags
    Add existing tags or create new ones for reporting and filtering.

Recipient Settings

If multiple channels are selected, you’ll see:

Will campaign info & recipients be the same for all channels?

  • ON by default

  • Toggle OFF to customize settings per channel

Send to These Audiences

Select one or more recipient audiences.

  • Customers in multiple audiences will only receive the message once

  • To send to all customers, select All Subscribed Users

📌 See Audiences documentation for setup details.

Additional Filters (Optional)

  • Send only to recipients whose favorite store is…
    Limits delivery to customers tied to selected stores.

  • Exclude users within these audiences…
    Prevents sends to specific groups.

  • Co-Marketing Store Requirement
    Contact’s favorite store must match parent company store selection
    (Only applies inside co-marketing templates.)

  • Automatically stop after X recipients
    Caps campaign sends at a defined number per day
    Resume by increasing the limit or setting to 0

If your Audience contains more than 5,000 contacts, you should consider breaking it down into smaller, more targeted subsets to avoid carrier blocking.

Step 3: Content

Content setup depends on the channel. Refer to the relevant guide:

  1. Email Campaigns

  2. SMS/MMS Text Campaigns

  3. Native Push Campaigns

  4. Browser Push Notifications

  5. Direct Mail

  6. Wallet Pass

  7. Voice Drops

  8. Loops

Personalization Macros

Personalization Macros allow you to better customize your campaigns for each recipient. There are multiple ways to see the list of available personalization macros.

Where to Find Personalization Macros

  1. Go to Marketing > Campaigns

  2. Click the More menu ( … )

  3. Select Personalization Macros

While Designing Campaign Content

  1. Create a campaign via Marketing > Campaigns > Add (+)

  2. Complete Channels and Recipients

  3. Insert macros by channel:

  • Email: Email Design → open template → + Personalization

  • Text: Use built-in macros or edit the Landing Page → + Personalization

  • Voice: Voice channel → + Personalization (below language/accent/gender)

  • Native & Browser Push: + Personalization under the message field

Step 4: Review

Campaign Channels

  • Unless Waterfall is selected, each channel sends as its own campaign

  • Campaign type: If you are using Abandoned cart it will trigger this campaign to send to targeted recipients when we receive a signal from your e-commerce platform that they left an online cart dormant without completing the sale. Please note that abandonment signals vary across e-commerce provider solutions.

Audience Targeting Summary

Displays all targeted audiences and any favorite-store restrictions.

Conversion Tracking

AIQ automatically tracks conversions when:

  • A customer purchases within the attribution window (default: 14 days)

    • Global attribution window default: update in Settings > Company Account > Account Settings > Campaign Settings > Attribution Windows > Default

  • The customer performs a tracked engagement (opens, clicks, etc.)

  • Click Engagements to select which actions count toward conversion tracking:

Scheduling Options

Blast

Sends to all recipients at the defined start time.

⚠️ Once a blast begins sending, schedule edits are locked.

Ongoing

Sends to recipients as soon as they qualify after the start time.

Start & End

Sends beginning at the start time through the end time window.

Intelligent Timing (Personalized Send Time)

When enabled, AIQ sends messages only within ~2 hours of the customer’s typical shopping time.

Enable Intelligent Timing

  1. Navigate to Marketing > Campaigns

  2. Select or create a campaign

  3. Go to Review > Schedule

  4. Toggle Intelligent Timing ON

AIQ respects both:

  • Personalized timing window

  • Campaign send window

Example 1

Customer shops at 8 PM. Campaign window ends at 6 PM.
→ AIQ sends around 6 PM.

Example 2

Customer shops at 8 PM. Campaign window ends at 5 PM.
→ Customer will not receive the message.

Loyalty

Enable this option to:

  • Gift X points to every campaign recipient

Credit Forecast

AIQ estimates:

  • Total recipients

  • Expected credit cost

  • Billing location

  • Credit limit alerts

Split Campaign Forecasting

Users may receive messages across multiple channels, so costs are additive.

Waterfall Forecasting

Users are counted only in the first eligible channel.

Step 5: Save & Send

Save as Draft

Stores the campaign for later editing.

Launch Campaign

Validates the campaign and sets it live. Messages send at the scheduled time.

After launch, AIQ confirms successful creation.

📌 Final send approval is controlled by role permissions.

Campaign Builder FAQs

How does Waterfall decide which channel to use?

AIQ sends through channels in your chosen priority order.

Example:

  • Primary: Text

  • Secondary: Email

Texts go to all customers with phone numbers, then emails go to the rest.

What happens if I set a start date in the past?

The campaign may not send. Always choose today or a future date.

Will ongoing campaigns send more than once?

No. Without recurrence, each shopper receives the message only once.

If someone leaves the audience and qualifies again, will they get another message?

No. AIQ prevents duplicate sends unless recurrence is enabled.

Do attribution windows impact credit usage?

No. Credits depend only on:

  • Channel type

  • Number of recipients

Attribution windows do not affect billing.

Related Docs

  • Resolving Common SMS Campaign Errors in AIQ

  • Audiences

  • Co-Marketing for Brands

  • Channel-Specific Campaign Guides

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