1. Apollo
  2. Engage
  3. Marketing Campaigns

Create and Launch a Campaign

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Updated

Overview

 
In Beta

Campaigns is currently in beta and is only available to select people. Apollo automatically enrolls users as the feature becomes available.

Use campaigns to send one-time marketing emails to large, targeted audiences of opted-in subscribers. Campaigns are ideal for newsletters, product announcements, event invitations, promotions, and other one-to-many marketing communications.

Campaigns use Apollo's dedicated sending infrastructure instead of a connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox. This separation helps protect your sales mailboxes and keeps campaign activity out of your sequence workflow.

Before you create a campaign, you need:

  • A verified marketing sending domain.
  • A verified sender identity that uses your marketing sending domain.
  • A subscriber list or CSV containing recipients who have consented to receive your marketing emails.

Check out Campaigns Overview to learn how campaigns differ from sequences and how Apollo protects your marketing sender reputation.

Check out the following sections to create, configure, preview, and launch a campaign.

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Create and Configure a Campaign

Select a campaign step to view the instructions.

Campaign Step What You'll Do
Create a Campaign Name the campaign and add optional organizational details.
Choose Campaign Recipients Add subscribers from lists or a CSV, then configure exclusions and frequency limits.
Design Your Campaign Email Add the subject line, preview text, layout, and email content.
Choose a Campaign Sender Select a verified sender identity and configure the reply-to address.
Set the Campaign Send Time Send the campaign immediately or schedule it for later.
Preview and Test Your Campaign Review the campaign on desktop and mobile, then send a test email.

After you create a campaign, Apollo opens the campaign builder. Use the configuration cards on the left to set up your audience, content, sender, and send time. The preview pane on the right updates as you configure the campaign.

Create a Campaign

To create a campaign:

  1. Launch Apollo, then click Campaigns.
  2. Click Create campaign.
  3. Enter a campaign name.
  4. (Optional) Click Additional details to select a folder, or add a description or tag.
  5. Click Create campaign.

Campaign name and optional details fields with Create campaign highlighted.

You have now created a campaign. Next, choose your recipients.

Back to Campaign Setup

Choose Campaign Recipients

 
Consent Is Key

Send marketing emails only to recipients who have provided any consent required by applicable laws. Requirements vary by country and region, so verify that your email practices comply with the regulations that apply to your business.

To choose campaign recipients:

  1. Click Recipients.
  2. Choose how to add recipients:
    • Add from lists: Open the subscriber list dropdown, then select one or more lists. If you haven't created a list yet, check out Create a Subscriber List.
    • Import from CSV: Click Upload, select your CSV, then follow the prompts to import your subscribers. Your CSV must contain an email column. Check out Import a CSV of Contacts to learn more about import settings and field mapping.

Campaign recipient settings with subscriber list selection and CSV upload options highlighted.

  1. (Optional) Toggle on Don't send to, then select the subscriber lists, contact stages, or account stages you want to exclude. Check out Manage Subscribers to Target Your Campaign Audience to learn more about organizing and targeting subscribers.

Don't send to settings for excluding subscriber lists, contact stages, or account stages from a campaign.

You have now chosen your campaign recipients and configured any exclusions. Next, design your campaign email.

Back to Campaign Setup

Design Your Campaign Email

To design your campaign email:

  1. Click Content, then enter a subject line. Use variables to personalize the subject line.
  2. (Optional) Enter preview text to control the snippet that appears next to the subject line in a recipient's inbox.
  3. Click Add email to open the email builder.
  4. Build and format your email with the following tools:
Email Builder Tool How to Use It
Content Drag titles, paragraphs, lists, images, buttons, dividers, spacers, social links, HTML, and icons into a row.
Rows Add prebuilt row and column layouts. Rows provide the structure for your email content.
Settings Change the content width and alignment, background colors, default font, and link color.
  1. Click a content block to customize it. The available settings depend on the content type.
  2. When you're finished, click Done editing.
  3. (Optional) Click a merge tag in your subject line or body to add fallback text. Apollo always uses a recipient's real data first; your fallback text only displays when a recipient has no value for that merge tag, and it applies everywhere that merge tag appears in the subject and body.
 
Leave It to Apollo

Apollo automatically includes an unsubscribe footer in every marketing email. The footer remains in place when you send the campaign.

You have now designed your campaign email.

Back to Campaign Setup

Choose a Campaign Sender

To choose a campaign sender:

  1. Click Send from.
  2. Open the Sender email dropdown.
  3. If a sender email address is available, select it from the dropdown.

Sender email dropdown with an available verified sender identity highlighted.

  1. If no sender email address is available, choose one of the following:
    • New domain: Apollo takes you to Settings > Outbound > Marketing domains, where you can set up a marketing domain.
    • New sender address: Apollo takes you to Settings > Outbound > Marketing domains. Enter the sender name and email address, select a sending domain, then click Save.
  2. (Optional) Add a reply-to address if you want replies sent to a monitored inbox.

You have now chosen a campaign sender. Next, set the campaign send time.

Back to Campaign Setup

Set the Campaign Send Time

To set the campaign send time:

  1. Click Send time.
  2. Choose when Apollo should send the campaign:
    • Send later: Select a date, time, and time zone.
    • Send now: Apollo begins sending after you review and launch the campaign.

Campaign send time settings with options to send later or send immediately.

You have now set the campaign send time. Next, preview and test your campaign.

Back to Campaign Setup

Preview and Test Your Campaign

The preview remains visible while you configure the campaign. To preview and test your campaign:

  1. Select a subscriber from Preview as to review their personalized version of the email.
  2. Click the desktop and mobile icons to check how the email appears on each screen size.

Campaign preview with subscriber personalization and desktop and mobile display controls highlighted.

You have now previewed your campaign. Next, review and launch it.

Back to Campaign Setup

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Review and Launch Your Campaign

 
One More Look

Review your recipients, exclusions, content, sender, and send time before launching. You can't edit a campaign after Apollo begins sending it.

To review and launch your campaign:

  1. Click Review & launch.
  2. Review the estimated recipient count and confirm that Apollo has verified the sending domain and sender identity, included an unsubscribe link, and applied your exclusions.
  3. If Apollo detects an issue, click Fix issues and follow the prompts.
  4. When all issues are resolved, confirm and launch the campaign.
 
Warm Up to Sending

Apollo gradually increases the sending limit for a new marketing domain to protect its sender reputation. If Apollo detects an unusual increase in bounces or spam complaints, it may slow or pause the campaign and notify you.

You have now launched your campaign.

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Monitor Campaign Performance

After Apollo begins sending the campaign, go to Overview to track its performance.

To monitor campaign performance:

  1. Launch Apollo, then click Campaigns.
  2. Click the campaign you want to review.
  3. Open Overview.

On Overview, you can monitor the following:

  • Performance: Sent, delivered, opened, clicked, and replied counts and rates.
  • Deliverability: Contacts marked as spam, unsubscribed, bounced, failed, and suppressed contacts.
  • Clicked links: Each link included in the email and its total click count.
  • Recipients: Total recipient count. Click View all recipients to review and filter recipients by delivery status and other details.
 
Zoom Out for the Full Picture

From the sidebar, click Campaigns to see a high-level view across all your campaigns, including sent volume, open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, spam blocked, send date, status, owner, and last updated.

You have now reviewed your campaign performance.

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Next Steps

Explore the following resources to learn more about campaigns.

Campaigns Overview Learn how campaigns differ from sequences and how Apollo handles subscribers, authentication, and deliverability.
Create a Subscriber List Import opted-in subscribers and organize them into a campaign audience.
Set Up a Marketing Domain to Protect Campaign Deliverability Authenticate a domain or subdomain before you send marketing emails through Apollo.
Manage Subscribers to Target Your Campaign Audience Organize, filter, and manage subscribers to reach the right campaign audience.
Sequences Overview Learn how to use sequences for personalized sales outreach.

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