Activation: Custom Campaigns in Audience Activation

Overview

A Custom Campaign in Audience Activation lets you build a fully configured outbound campaign around a specific audience segment — choosing your channel (email, SMS, or both), crafting your message, and controlling when and how often it sends. This article covers the complete campaign creation flow, every setting, and the rules that govern how campaigns send.

Eligibility & Access

Dashboard users with Edit or Admin access to Audience Activation may create Custom Campaigns. 

How to Access Campaign Creation

1. Navigate to Audience Activation → Campaigns
2. Click Create Campaign
3. Select Custom Campaign. 

If you are launching the campaign directly from a specific audience segment on the Audiences page, the campaign creation flow will open with that audience pre-selected.

Campaign Creation: Step by Step

• Custom Campaign creation is a multi-step wizard. 
   
• The steps are displayed in a header at the top of the page, and you move forward using the Next button. 
   
• You can return to any prior step using Back. 
   
• The final step offers two save options: Save as Draft and Create & Launch Campaign.
   

Step 1: Select Audience

If you did not launch from a specific audience, this step prompts you to choose a Dynamic Audience to connect this campaign to. A Dynamic Audience is a saved shopper segment based on filter criteria defined in your CDP — for example, shoppers who viewed a specific make in the last 30 days.

If you arrived from an audience segment, this step is pre-filled and you can proceed immediately.

Step 2: Store Distribution (Group Accounts Only)

• For dealership groups managing multiple rooftops under a single Fullpath account, this step appears between the audience and campaign setup steps. 
   
• It allows you to select which stores within the group should receive this campaign. Learn more about multi-store distribution here.
   
• Each store you select will run the campaign independently, sending to the portion of the audience that belongs to that rooftop.
   
• This step only appears for group-level accounts with a shared audience across multiple stores. 
   
• Single-rooftop accounts do not see this step.

Step 3: Campaign Setup

This step defines the core campaign configuration.

Campaign Name

• A required field. 
• This is how the campaign appears in the Campaigns list and in reporting.

Campaign Description

• Optional
• Use this to describe the purpose and objective of the campaign. 
• The description is also available to the AI generation tool to produce more relevant copy (see the AI Generate section below).

Campaign Goal and Group

• Select either Sales Leads or Service Leads. 
   
• This affects how the campaign is categorized in reporting and, for email campaigns with custom reply-to addresses, which reply address is used (sales campaigns use the default sales reply-to; service campaigns use the service reply-to when one is configured).

• The group will allow the campaign performance metrics to be clustered and viewed within the selected Campaign group for easier review and analysis

Campaign Channel

• Select the channel or channels for this campaign: Email Campaign, SMS Campaign, or both. 
• The channels you select here determine which template steps appear later in the wizard.

Replies Go To (Email only)

This section appears when Email is selected as a channel and your account uses a custom email sending domain. It controls where shopper email replies are routed.

Two options are available:

1. Default — replies are routed to the address configured in your Audience Activation settings (typically your dealership's BDC or marketing email address, with separate addresses for sales and service goals).
2. Send replies to a different address — enter a custom email local part (the portion before the @). The domain is fixed to your configured sending domain and cannot be changed here. This is useful for routing a specific campaign's replies to a different team member or inbox.

The replies go to section is only visible for accounts that have configured a custom sending domain. Accounts using the default Fullpath sending domain (@alstspecials.com) do not see this option.

Step 4: Email Template (Email campaigns only)

If Email was selected as a channel, this step opens the Custom Email Template Builder — a split-screen editor with fields on the left and a live email preview on the right.
 

Full details on the email template builder, including offer selection, CTA configuration, images, the custom disclaimer editor, the legacy editor toggle, and the AI generate feature, are covered below in the Email Template Builder section.

Step 5: SMS Template (SMS campaigns only)

If SMS was selected as a channel, this step opens the SMS message editor.

SMS Text

• Enter the text of the SMS message. 
• A character counter and progress bar track your message length in real time. 
• Standard SMS messages are 160 characters. 
• The builder supports up to 640 characters (4 message segments), but keep in mind that multi-segment messages may incur higher sending costs and perform differently across carriers.

URLs included in the message body are automatically shortened by the platform at send time. The character counter projects the post-shortening length for any URLs that exceed 34 characters, so the count you see reflects what will actually be sent.

The AI generate button is available for SMS text — see the AI Generate section below.

SMS Trigger Words

Certain words in an SMS message have a defined function under carrier and TCPA compliance rules and are handled automatically by the platform:

• STOP / UNSUBSCRIBE / CANCEL / END / QUIT — when a shopper replies with any of these words, they are immediately opted out of all SMS communications from your dealership. This is a regulatory requirement and cannot be overridden. The opt-out is permanent until the shopper re-opts in.
   
• HELP — when a shopper replies with this word, they automatically receive a help message with information about the sender and how to opt out.
   
• START / YES — these words can be used by shoppers to re-opt in after a previous opt-out.

Because these words are reserved for compliance functions, you should not include them in your SMS message body in a way that would cause shoppers to inadvertently trigger an opt-out. The AI generate tool is aware of this and will not produce copy that uses these words in a misleading way.

The AI-generated SMS prompt always appends "Reply Stop to unsubscribe" to the generated output, which is the required opt-out disclosure for compliant SMS marketing.

SMS Preview

• A live preview of the SMS message appears alongside the editor so you can see how the text will appear on a mobile device. 
• A Send Test SMS option is available to send the current message to any phone number before saving.

Step 6: Campaign Settings

This step configures when the campaign sends, how often, and at what priority.

Campaign Type: Dynamic vs Fixed

This is one of the most important settings in the campaign and determines the fundamental sending behavior.

1. Dynamic Campaign — the campaign sends on an ongoing basis throughout the configured date range. Any shopper who is in the audience at the time a scheduled send runs will receive the campaign, and any shopper who enters the audience in the future (within the date range) will also receive the campaign when the next scheduled send occurs. Dynamic campaigns are appropriate for evergreen audiences and ongoing engagement goals.
    

2. Fixed Campaign — the campaign is sent once to everyone in the audience at the time of sending. It does not re-run as shoppers enter or leave the audience. 

   • A Fixed campaign sends on the date you specify (or immediately upon saving if no date is set) and then is complete. 
   • Fixed campaigns override normal sending rules — a shopper may receive a Fixed campaign email even if they have already received another email that day. 
   • Use Fixed campaigns intentionally, as they are intended for time-sensitive one-time sends such as promotions with a hard end date.

    

Priority Level

Priority determines how this campaign competes with other active campaigns for a shopper's daily message allocation.

• High Priority — the campaign is given preference in the daily send queue. If a shopper is eligible for multiple campaigns on a given day, High Priority campaigns send first.
   
• Regular Priority — the campaign sends after High Priority campaigns have been processed for the day.

Priority only affects the order in which eligible campaigns are considered for a given shopper each day. It does not guarantee delivery — if a shopper has already reached their daily send limit from higher-priority campaigns, this campaign will be held until the next eligible day.

Priority Exceptions: Contacts Fullpath Will Never Override

Certain shopper statuses are protected by compliance requirements or platform-level sending policies, and no campaign priority level can override them. When a shopper holds one of these statuses, they will not receive messages regardless of campaign priority:

• Unsubscribed — the shopper has opted out of email or SMS communications. Unsubscribes are permanent until the shopper re-opts in and cannot be overridden by any campaign configuration.
   
• Sunset — the shopper has been in the audience for an extended period without engaging. Fullpath automatically applies sunset protection to prevent continued contact with disengaged shoppers, which protects your sender reputation and deliverability.
   
• Blocked (Suppressed) — the shopper is on an internal suppression list. This may be due to a complaint, a manual exclusion, or a system-level flag. These contacts cannot receive messages.
   
• Spam Risk (Bounce Risk) — the shopper's email address has been flagged as likely to bounce or has previously triggered a spam report. Sending to these addresses damages sender reputation and is blocked at the platform level.
   
• Do Not Contact — the shopper has been marked as do-not-contact either via your DMS integration, an exclusion list upload, or a dealership-level setting.

These protections exist to keep your account's email deliverability and SMS compliance in good standing. Allowing dealers to override them would expose the dealership and Fullpath to deliverability penalties, carrier violations, and regulatory risk. These statuses are surfaced in the Audience Breakdown on the campaign detail page so you can see how many shoppers in your audience are affected by each reason.

Campaign Date Range

• Start Date — the date on which the campaign becomes active and begins sending. If left blank, the campaign starts immediately upon activation.
   
• End Date — the date on which the campaign stops sending. If the end date is left blank, the campaign runs indefinitely until it is manually paused or deactivated. For Dynamic campaigns with no end date, shoppers who enter the audience will continue to be eligible as long as the campaign is active. For time-limited promotions, always set an end date.

Cadence (Dynamic Campaigns only)

Cadence controls how frequently the campaign can send to the same shopper. Options include:

• Once — each shopper in the audience receives the campaign a maximum of one time, regardless of how long the campaign runs.
   
• Once a week — a shopper can receive the campaign again after 7 days if they remain in the audience on the next scheduled run.
   
• Once every two weeks — re-eligible after 15 days.
   
• Once a month — re-eligible after 31 days.

For Fixed campaigns, cadence is not configurable — the campaign sends once and is complete. Read more about email cadence and rules here.

Daily Send Limit

Fullpath enforces a daily send limit per shopper across all active campaigns. This limit exists to prevent any single shopper from receiving an excessive number of messages in a single day, which protects deliverability and the shopper experience.

• When multiple campaigns are active and eligible for the same shopper on the same day, the platform processes them in priority order (High Priority first, then Regular Priority) until the shopper's daily limit is reached. 
• Any campaigns that did not send will be retried on subsequent days according to their cadence.
   
• Fixed campaigns, as noted above, override this daily limit — a Fixed campaign send will proceed even if a shopper has already received a message that day.
   
• The daily limit is comprised of the maximum amount of the last 10 days X 2
   
• Lets assume that an account sent out 20,000 emails one day last week because it was a large campaign the overall daily limit is 20,000 * 2 so 40,000
   
• This is the reason why the campaigns may not be launched successfully, and even create email deliveries but might not send due to that limit
   
• Example: you make a custom campaign for 100k, it can only max send out to 40k on a single day (assuming no other campaigns sent that same day)

Step 7: Review

The final step displays a summary of all campaign settings for your review before saving. Confirm the audience, channel, template selections, campaign type, priority, date range, and cadence before proceeding.

Two save options are available:

1. Save as Draft — the campaign is saved with a Draft status. It will not send until it is launched. You can return to edit it at any time.
    
2. Create & Launch Campaign — the campaign is saved and immediately set to Active. It will begin sending according to its configured settings.

Email Template Builder

The email template builder is the split-screen editor that appears during the Email Template step of campaign creation. The left side contains all content fields; the right side shows a live-rendered preview that updates as you make changes.

Subject Line

The email subject line shown to recipients in their inbox. 

• Required. 
• Supports dynamic merge tags. 
• The AI generate button is available for this field.

Email Body (Main Text)

The primary body of the email. 

• Required. 
• A rich-text editor that supports formatting, links, and merge tags. 
• The AI generate button is available for this field.
• HTML is also supported

AI Generate

A Generate button appears next to the Subject Line, Email Body, CTA Text, and SMS Text fields. Clicking it calls the Fullpath AI engine, which writes content for that field based on what is already configured in the campaign.

The generation prompt for each field is context-aware:

• Subject Line — generates a subject line under 80 characters based on the campaign name, description, goal, and OEM. Includes a {{recipient.first_name}} merge tag.
   
• Email Body — generates email copy consistent with the subject line, campaign name, description, and goal. Does not include the subject line or a CTA — those are separate fields.
   
• CTA Text — generates a call-to-action phrase of up to four words based on the email body, campaign goal, and audience description.
   
• SMS Text — generates an SMS message under 160 characters based on the campaign goal, audience, and campaign name. Always ends with "Reply Stop to unsubscribe."

Generating content into a field replaces whatever was previously there. The generation streams in progressively — the field populates as the response arrives. You can edit the generated content freely after it appears.

Offer Selection (CDP Offers)

• User may attach offers from your CDP offer library to the email template. 
   
• Filter by source type — Dealership, OEM, Dynamic Payments (requires the Dynamic Payments product to be live), or All — or by category (Lease, Finance, Cash, Service). 
   

• Up to 10 offers can be selected. Selected offers render in the live preview.

   

CTA (Call to Action)

• Users may set a CTA label (the button text) and CTA URL (the destination when the button is clicked).
   
• Both support merge tags. 
   
• The AI generate button is available for CTA label. The custom-template layout supports up to 3 CTAs, each with its own label and URL.

Background & Image

• Depending on your account's layout configuration, fields may appear for a header image, background color toggle, or header background color. 
• These default to your dealership's brand settings. 
• You may upload a custom image or enter a URL for this specific template. 
• Images are hosted automatically after upload.

Signature

• Optional. 
• A text field for a sign-off or personalized closing. 
• Supports merge tags (for example, a salesperson name merge tag if your account has that integration).

Custom Disclaimer

• Optional. 
• A rich-text editor that, when populated, overrides the account-level disclaimer text configured in Audience Activation → Email Customization settings for this specific template only. 
• When left blank, the account-level default disclaimer is used.

The custom disclaimer field is a full rich-text editor, meaning you can apply basic formatting (bold, italic, links) within the disclaimer copy if needed. 

This is distinct from the plain-text disclaimer field — it supports formatted content, which may be necessary for legally specific offer disclosures.

Switching Between Editors

• If your account has both the custom-template layout and the legacy graphic-email layout available, a "Switch to legacy editor" / "Switch to new editor" toggle link appears in the top-right of the editing panel. 
   
• Switching resets offer selections and custom field values because the two layouts have different content structures. 
   
• Template name and subject line are preserved.

Merge Tags

• Merge tags are dynamic placeholders replaced with real shopper or vehicle data at send time, using the format {{tag_name}}. 
   
• They are supported in the Subject Line, Email Body, CTA fields, Signature, Custom Disclaimer, and SMS Text fields.
   
• Common merge tags include: {{recipient.first_name}}, {{recipient.last_name}}, {{dealership.name}}, and vehicle-specific or offer-specific tags depending on your account configuration.
   
• Merge tags are validated when you advance from the template step. If any invalid or malformed tags are detected, inline errors identify the specific field and tag before the wizard moves forward.

Send a Test Email / Test SMS

• A test send option is available on both the email and SMS template steps. 
   
• Enter any email address or phone number to receive a rendered test of the message as it would appear to a shopper. 
   
• The test uses the current state of all fields and selected offers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between a Dynamic and a Fixed campaign? A Dynamic campaign runs continuously and re-sends to eligible shoppers as they enter the audience or as the cadence allows. A Fixed campaign sends once to the audience as it exists at the time of the send, then stops. Fixed campaigns also override the daily send limit.

Q: If I leave the end date blank, when does the campaign stop? It runs indefinitely until you manually pause or deactivate it. Always set an end date for time-sensitive promotions.

Q: Can I override sending rules to contact a shopper who has unsubscribed? No. Unsubscribed, sunset, blocked, spam risk, and do-not-contact statuses are enforced at the platform level and cannot be overridden by any priority setting. These protections are non-negotiable to protect your sender reputation and comply with regulations. Read more about campaign best practices and avoiding spam flags.

Q: The "Replies go to" section isn't appearing — why? This section only appears for accounts with a custom sending domain. If your account uses the default Fullpath sending domain, replies are handled by the platform and this setting is not available.

Q: What happens when I click AI Generate on a field? The AI engine generates content for that field based on your campaign's configured name, description, goal, and audience. It replaces whatever was in the field. You can edit the result freely.

Q: The Dynamic Payments offer type isn't appearing in offer selection — what should I do? Dynamic Payments offers require that the Dynamic Payments product is active for your dealership. Contact your Customer Success Manager to confirm product status.

Q: What is the group distribution step? For group accounts managing multiple rooftops, this step lets you choose which stores the campaign should run for. Each selected store sends to its portion of the shared audience independently.

Q: What does the SMS character counter show? It shows the projected character count after URL shortening. If your message contains a URL longer than 34 characters, the platform will shorten it at send time, and the counter reflects the post-shortened length.