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This quickstart runs a deliberately tiny campaign. Two contacts, one phone call each, during business hours. The point is not the result. The point is to see every piece of the machine before you trust it with a real list.
You need an outbound agent first. If you do not have one, start with Create your first outbound agent.

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Before you start

Two things block campaign creation. Get them out of the way now, or you will hit a wall halfway through.
1

A phone number

A campaign has to place calls from somewhere. Buy one under Numbers if you have not already.
2

A campaign schedule

A schedule decides which days and hours the campaign is allowed to contact people. A default one exists, Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 7:00pm Pacific Time. You can use it as is. See Campaign schedules.

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1. Prepare a two contact CSV

Make a file called first-campaign-test.csv with two rows.
Replace the two numbers with phones you own. to_number is the number the campaign will call, in international format with the country code. first_name and last_name become available to your agent, so it can greet people by name.
Use phones you actually own. This campaign will really dial them.
If the upload says Unable to auto-detect delimiting character, add a third column such as last_name and remove any blank line at the end of the file.

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2. Create the campaign

Create a campaign and import a test list

Go to Campaigns and click New Campaign. A Create campaign dialog opens. Give it a Campaign name such as Test - first outbound campaign. The description is optional. Under Campaign schedule, pick your schedule. The days, hours and timezone appear underneath so you can check them at a glance. Edit campaign schedule and Create another schedule are there if the default does not fit. Click Next. Two short steps follow, and nothing goes live until you press Start later.

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3. Build the outreach flow

The first step, Build your outreach flow, shows the sequence a contact goes through once they are added. Step 1 is a Phone call. Pick your outbound agent under Agent. For this quickstart, stop there. One step, one call per contact. You can optionally override the agent’s opening line or voicemail message for this campaign only, without touching the agent itself.
Resist Add next outreach on your first run. One step is the fastest way to find out whether the basics work.
Click Next.

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4. Set the caller number

The second step, Configure your settings, holds the Outbound Settings. Set Calls will come from to the number you want as the caller ID. You can pick numbers or a tag, which uses every number with that tag. This field is required. Below it, Exit Criteria lists the three conditions that pull a contact out of the campaign automatically. They are fixed and you cannot change them:
  • The contact answers a call from this campaign.
  • The contact asks to stop receiving communication on any channel.
  • The contact’s number is unreachable.
That first one matters more than it looks. A contact who answers is done, and will not be called again by this campaign. That is usually what you want, and it is worth knowing before you wonder where your follow up went.
Click Create Campaign. The campaign is saved as Draft and stays there until you start it.

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5. Import your contacts

The new campaign opens on its Contacts tab. Choose Upload a CSV. Select first-campaign-test.csv and check the preview, then click Choose columns. To number is the one that must be mapped. Drag your to_number column onto it, and map first_name as well so your agent can use it. Then click Import. Skip contacts with duplicate phone numbers is on by default. Leave it on. After importing you should see two rows in the contacts table, with their source and the date they were added.

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6. Start it

Back on Overview, check the counts read what you expect: two total contacts, your one step, your number. Start and Schedule Start stay greyed out until the campaign has everything it needs. If Start will not light up, something is missing, usually the number or the contacts. Click Start. The badge moves from Draft to Running.
The campaign list shows a different word than the campaign page for the same state. A running campaign reads Running on its own page and Active in the list. A stopped one reads Stopped on the page and Inactive in the list. Same campaign, two vocabularies.

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7. Watch it run

Overview carries the headline counts: total contacts, scheduled, exited, errored, plus Step metrics broken down per step. Activity shows what the campaign did and when. For the calls themselves, go to Calls, where you can filter by campaign, open any call, read the transcript and see its outcome.
Campaign statistics can lag by up to four hours. If your counts look stale right after a call, they probably are. The Calls page is live.
You can stop the campaign at any time from the campaign page.

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Before you run this for real

The test campaign above is harmless. Volume is not. Three things to do before you point a campaign at a real list. Register your business. We use this to provision your outbound setup with our telephony partners so your numbers are configured for deliverability. Register here, and include the numbers you plan to use. Do not overload one number. Roughly 100 calls per day per number is the guideline. Past that, add numbers and spread the traffic. Ask us. If you want a second pair of eyes on dialing strategy or deliverability, book time with the team.

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Where to go next