Outbound campaigns allow your AI assistant to automatically call a list of contacts — for sales outreach, appointment reminders, follow-ups, or any other scenario where you need to reach multiple people at scale. This guide walks you through setting up a campaign from start to finish.
Before You Start
Before creating a campaign, make sure you have:
- An AI assistant configured for outbound calling (with an appropriate system prompt and voice)
- A phone number assigned to that assistant
- A contact list (leads) ready to import or already in the system
Step 1: Create a New Campaign
Go to Campaigns in the left sidebar and click New Campaign. Give the campaign a descriptive name — something that identifies the purpose and date, such as "Q2 Sales Outreach — April 2025."
Step 2: Select Your Assistant and Number
Choose the AI assistant that will make the calls and the phone number it will call from. The number you select will appear as the caller ID on the recipient's phone. Using a local area code number often improves answer rates compared to toll-free or out-of-area numbers.
Step 3: Add Your Contact List
Upload a CSV file with your contacts or select an existing lead list. Each contact must have at minimum a phone number. You can also include additional fields (name, company, custom data) that the assistant can reference during the call.
Step 4: Set Calling Schedule
Configure when the campaign will run. You can set:
Start Date & Time
When the campaign begins making calls.
End Date & Time
When the campaign stops, even if not all contacts have been called.
Calling Hours
Restrict calls to business hours (e.g., 9am–5pm) to comply with regulations and improve answer rates.
Time Zone
Ensure calls are made at appropriate local times for your contacts.
Retry Attempts
How many times to retry contacts who did not answer.
Retry Delay
How long to wait between retry attempts.
Step 5: Configure Parallel Dialing (Optional)
For high-volume campaigns, you can enable parallel dialing to call multiple contacts simultaneously. This dramatically increases the speed of your campaign but requires careful configuration to avoid compliance issues. See the Mass & Parallel Dialing guide for details.
Step 6: Launch the Campaign
Review all settings and click Launch Campaign. The campaign will begin calling at the scheduled start time. You can monitor progress in real time from the campaign dashboard — seeing how many contacts have been called, answered, transferred, or left voicemails.
Pausing and Stopping Campaigns
You can pause a campaign at any time from the campaign dashboard. Pausing stops new calls from being initiated but does not interrupt calls already in progress. You can resume a paused campaign at any time. Stopping a campaign permanently ends it — contacts not yet called will not be called.