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A campaign goes out in four steps: a test to yourself, the checks on the campaign page, a send or schedule, and AhaSend’s own review of the list and the content. This page explains each step, the statuses a campaign passes through, and what to do when it is held, paused or needs a change.

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Test Sends

Click Send Test on the campaign page and enter up to 3 addresses or pick up to 3 of your contacts; through the API, up to 5 addresses. A contact you pick gets the email with its own values. A typed address gets placeholder text in place of the contact fields, such as --PLACEHOLDER for First Name--. A click on the unsubscribe link in a test unsubscribes nobody. Rules for tests:
  • A test needs a complete campaign, with one exception: the unsubscribe link may still be missing. Any other open issue blocks the test as well as the send, so the test is a real rehearsal.
  • Your account can send 50 test emails per day (UTC), counted per address, from the dashboard and the API together.
  • Test emails count against your daily marketing limit, but not against your plan’s monthly volume.

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Issues

The campaign page lists what is missing before the campaign can go out. The same list comes back as issues from the API.

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Send Now or Schedule

Schedule & Send sends the campaign now or at a date and time you choose. A scheduled campaign shows your daily marketing limit, so you can see whether it fits in one day. Some sends are refused on the spot, with a message that says why: a send time less than a minute ahead, a sender domain that is not verified or is paused, and lists on which no contact can receive the campaign. Changed your mind? Click Cancel on a scheduled campaign, or Cancel Validation while its lists are checked, and it returns to draft, where you can edit it and send it again. Through the API, use Unschedule Campaign. A paused, canceled or failed campaign that sent nothing has a Return to Draft button. Once a campaign has started sending, it cannot go back to draft; to send the same email again, duplicate it.

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Review

AhaSend’s marketing infrastructure is shared by the campaigns of all customers, so AhaSend checks campaigns before they go out. The check protects your delivery from other senders’ bad lists, and theirs from yours. When the list is checked. AhaSend checks the lists of a campaign when a list was never checked, was last checked 90 or more days ago, or has more than 10% new contacts since its last check, and for every campaign of an account younger than 30 days. Otherwise the campaign goes straight to its send time. The list. AhaSend checks a sample of the contacts, or all of them on a small list: is the address well-formed, does its domain accept mail, is the domain on AhaSend’s list of known bad domains, and, where possible, does the mailbox exist. Sampled addresses that cannot receive mail are left out of the send. Addresses on catch-all domains, which accept mail for any address, cannot be confirmed; they still get the campaign. The content. When the list is checked, a language model that runs on AhaSend’s own servers also checks the content for spam, phishing or cold outreach. AhaSend does not accept cold outreach: email to people who did not ask for it. See the terms of service. The result.
  • More than 4% of the sample cannot receive mail: the campaign is paused for poor list quality, and its page shows how many sampled contacts are invalid. Clean the list, then click Return to Draft and schedule the campaign again, or contact support.
  • A borderline list, a large list that is mostly catch-all addresses, content that looks like spam, or an account that has sent fewer than 3 campaigns: the campaign shows Awaiting Review. A sender domain with a poor record, or an earlier rejected review, can also hold it. A person looks at it, usually within 1 to 2 business days. After the review, the campaign continues to its send time, or it returns to draft with the reviewer’s notes on its page.
  • Otherwise, the campaign continues to its send time.
Contact support if you want to discuss a paused or held campaign.

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Statuses

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The Daily Marketing Limit

Campaigns do not send faster than your account’s daily marketing limit. When the limit is used up, the campaign waits and continues when capacity comes back; a campaign larger than the limit continues over the next days. The report shows an estimated finish and, while the campaign waits, the time it continues. The limit starts low for new accounts and grows with your plan, account age, volume and a low spam rate; support can raise it.

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After the Send

Open the report for delivered, opens, clicks, unsubscribes, complaints and bounces. See reports. Unsubscribes and spam complaints that mailbox providers report back are processed for you: the contact leaves that list and gets no more campaigns from it.