Create SMS campaign
Quick path
Messages → Campaigns → Create New Campaign
Set the campaign name and channel in Step 1: Setup.
Add the message content and tracking options in Step 2: What.
Choose the target audience in Step 3: Who.
Set timing and delivery speed in Step 4: When.
Review and send the campaign in Step 5: GO.
Create SMS campaign is the guided flow for building and sending an SMS campaign from start to send. Use it to create one-time campaigns, target the right audience, schedule delivery, and measure what happens after the message is sent.
Before you start
Before creating an SMS campaign, make sure:
your SMS channel setup is complete,
your SMS users are already uploaded,
and your sender header is available in the panel.
Step 1: Setup
In Setup, define the basic campaign details. Add a clear Campaign Name and select SMS as the campaign type.
SMS supports Text format only. You do not need to choose between different content formats here.
The right panel shows the estimated reachable audience. Use this to confirm the campaign size before you continue and to spot targeting issues early.
Campaign Name is internal only. It does not replace the SMS header that recipients see.
Step 2: What
In What, you build the SMS itself. This step defines what recipients see, how the campaign is classified, and how you analyze performance later.
Main fields
Most SMS campaigns use the same core fields. Each one affects delivery, reporting, or campaign management.
Category — groups campaigns by purpose for reporting, filtering, and consent logic.
SMS Header — defines the sender name shown to recipients.
Notification Message — defines the SMS body that users receive.
Label — adds an internal tag so you can organize and compare campaigns later.
Category
Use Category to classify each SMS campaign by its purpose, such as promotions, updates, account notifications, reminders, or transactional communication.
Category becomes more important as your SMS volume grows. It helps you group similar sends together, compare performance by intent, and keep campaign reporting consistent across teams and use cases.
If you use purpose-based consent, category selection is also part of permission enforcement. In that model, the category is not just descriptive. It directly affects whether the message can be sent.
To learn more, see Message Categories.
SMS header
SMS Header is the sender name recipients see.
It shows who sent the message before the recipient reads it. A clear header builds trust and reduces confusion. To use it, open the SMS Header field and choose a sender header from the list.
Headers are added during channel setup. You can then select them while building the campaign. If the header you need is missing, complete SMS Onboarding first.
Notification message
Notification Message is the main SMS text. This is the part recipients read and respond to, so it should be clear. Keep the message direct. Say the purpose early. If you want the user to do something, explain the next step clearly.
You can use plain text and emojis if they fit your tone and brand. SMS space is limited, so every character matters. If you want to add user-specific values, use personalization in the same message. For details, see Profile Attributes.
Include URLs
You can include URLs directly in the message body. This is useful when the SMS should drive traffic to a landing page, promotion, payment step, or account action.
Recipients see the link inside the message and can open it when supported by their device and messaging app.
Shorten URLs
Use Shorten URLs when you want to reduce character usage in the SMS body.
This is especially useful because SMS space is limited. Long links consume valuable characters and can make the message harder to read.
Shortened URLs can reduce long links to a much smaller format, which helps preserve message space for the main content.
Personalized message
You can personalize SMS content with profile attributes such as {@name} or {@age}. This makes the message more relevant to each recipient.
Personalization works best when the inserted value adds clear context, such as a name, birthday, coupon detail, or loyalty status. It is especially useful for reminders, birthday campaigns, loyalty messages, and lifecycle communication.
To use personalization, the related user data must already exist in Netmera. See Profile Attributes.
Example:
Default message:
Happy birthday!Personalized message:
Wishing you a sweet {@age}th birthday {@name}!
Label
Use Label to tag the campaign for filtering and reporting later.
Labels are optional, but they are useful when you want to compare campaigns by theme, audience, owner, season, or objective. They give you another reporting dimension beyond category.
To create labels, see Message Labels.
Conversion analytics
Use Conversion Analytics to track whether recipients complete a target event after the SMS is delivered.
This feature helps you move beyond delivery reporting. Instead of only seeing whether the message was sent, you can measure whether it influenced user behavior.
When enabled, the following fields become available:
Conversion Event
Event Attribute Filters
Control Group
Conversion Deadline
Conversion event
Select the event you want to track after SMS delivery.
Example conversion events include:
PurchaseAddToCartSubscriptionStartedRentalCompleted
If the selected event includes revenue data by using event.setRevenue(), the revenue value is reflected in campaign reports. This helps connect the SMS send to direct business outcome.
Event attribute filters
Use event attribute filters when only specific event variations should count as conversions.
This matters when the conversion event alone is too broad. For example, you may want to count only purchases in a specific currency, category, or product set.
Filters work with AND logic. The event must match all defined conditions to count as a conversion.
Conversion deadline
Conversion Deadline defines the maximum time between SMS delivery and the conversion event. Events that happen after that window are not counted for the campaign.
This setting controls attribution. It tells Netmera how long the SMS should continue receiving credit for later user actions.
Hours: Counts conversions within the selected number of hours after SMS delivery.
Days: Counts conversions within the selected number of days after SMS delivery.
Custom Date: Counts conversions until the selected date and time.
Control group
Enable Use control group to calculate conversion % when you want to compare recipients against similar users who do not receive the SMS.
This makes it easier to evaluate real campaign lift. Without a control group, it is harder to know whether conversions happened because of the SMS or would have happened anyway.
When enabled, the selected percentage of users is randomly excluded from the send.
The control group percentage can be set between 1% and 10%.
Users in the control group:
do not receive the SMS campaign,
are included in campaign reporting as a separate group,
can be exported from the campaign report.
Step 3: Who
In Who, you define which users should receive the SMS campaign.
You can send to all eligible users or narrow the audience with filters. The goal here is to match the message with the most relevant recipients.
Audience options
Send All — sends the campaign to all eligible SMS subscribers.
Select Users — lets you filter the audience with simpler criteria.
Advanced — lets you build more detailed logic with conditions and groups.
Select users
Use Select Users when a simple filter is enough.
This option works well when you already know the basic audience rules. You can target users with criteria such as tags, segments, device type, profile attributes, previous campaign response, and location.
Select Users Options
Tag
Use tags created in Targeting → Tags to target groups with shared characteristics or behaviors.
Segment
Segments are dynamic groups of users that change as behavior changes. They are useful when the audience definition should stay current over time.
To learn more, see Segments.
Device Type
Target users by Desktop, Mobile, or Tablet when device context matters for the campaign.
Profile
Target users whose profile attributes match specific values, such as age, gender, city, or any custom attribute you already collect.
Response
Target users based on whether they interacted with a previous campaign. This is useful for follow-up sends and re-engagement flows.
Location
Target users by geographic location, radius, or map selection when place matters for the message.
Advanced
Use Advanced when you need more detailed audience logic.
This is the right option when one filter is not enough and you need to combine multiple behaviors or attributes. It gives you more control over how conditions are grouped and evaluated.
Advanced User Options
Build the audience with conditions and groups.
AND includes only users who meet all selected conditions.
OR includes users who meet any selected condition.
Use Add Condition and Add Group to shape the audience logic around your campaign goal.
After you define the audience, Selection Criteria shows the matching users and devices. Use this panel to validate whether the result looks reasonable before you continue.
Additional controls
Ignore User Message Limits — bypasses message frequency limits for this campaign.
Limit Target Users — caps how many users can receive the campaign.
Use recipient limits when you want a phased rollout, a smaller controlled send, or an intentionally limited campaign size.
Step 4: When
In When, you decide when the SMS campaign starts and how quickly it is delivered.
Start sending messages
Choose whether the campaign should send Now or On Specific Time.
Send immediately for urgent communication.
Schedule for later when timing matters, such as business hours, campaign windows, or regional timing.
Delivery speed
Choose how quickly the SMS campaign should be delivered:
Send Fast — delivers to all eligible users at once.
Send in Packages — sends messages in batches of a specified size.
Use packaged delivery for larger audiences when you want a more gradual rollout or tighter control over delivery pace.
Step 5: Go
In GO, review the campaign details before launch.
This is the final checkpoint for validating the content, audience, and timing. Review the summary carefully before you send, especially if the campaign targets a large audience or uses conversion tracking.
After you review the details, click Send to launch the campaign.
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