SMS Campaigns¶

SMS messaging delivers near-universal reach across global mobile carrier networks without requiring data connectivity, internet access, or third-party messaging apps on the recipient's phone.

In Abelo, you can deploy SMS campaigns through two operating modes:

• Standard Campaigns: Scheduled or immediate promotional campaigns targeted at customer lists, dynamic segments, or broadcast.
• API Campaigns: Programmatic endpoints triggered on-demand via REST API for two-factor authentication (OTP), transactional order updates, or automated marketing notifications.

1. SMS Channel Capabilities¶

Character Limits & Segment Encodings¶

Telecommunication carrier networks split SMS messages into discrete billing parts called segments. The maximum character capacity of each segment depends on the character encoding used:

Extended GSM-7 Characters¶

Characters such as ^, {, }, [, ], ~, |, €, and \ are part of the GSM 7-bit extension table and count as 2 characters toward your segment limit.

Sender Identification¶

• Alphanumeric Sender ID: Up to 11 characters (letters A–Z, a–z, digits 0–9, spaces). Displays your commercial brand name directly in the recipient's inbox.
• Numeric Shortcodes / Pre-Registered Senders: Deployed in jurisdictions (such as the United States or France) where telecommunication regulations require carrier pre-registration.

Sender identities are provisioned and managed under Settings > Messaging Channels (Messaging Channels).

Automatic Link Shortening & Conversion Tracking¶

When you insert web URLs into your SMS copy, Abelo automatically transforms them into unique, branded tracking shortlinks:

• Conserves Characters: Shortens lengthy destination URLs to preserve character limits.
• Tracks Customer Engagement: Records real-time individual link clicks to measure click-through rates (CTR).
• E-Commerce Revenue Attribution: Automatically tracks customer purchases resulting from link clicks, attributing orders and sales back to the specific campaign.
• Google Analytics Integration: Automatically appends standard UTM parameters (utm_source=abelo, utm_medium=sms, utm_campaign=<name>) to destination links.

2. Standard SMS Campaigns (One-off)¶

Standard SMS campaigns allow marketing teams to dispatch promotional campaigns to multiple recipients at once.

To create a new standard SMS campaign:

1. Navigate to Campaigns > Standard in the main sidebar.
2. Click Create new Campaign and select New SMS Campaign.

Step 1: Setup & Audience¶

• Campaign Name: Enter an internal administrative name (e.g., Black Friday VIP Early Access).
• Sender: Select an authorized SMS Sender ID from your provisioned senders.
• Audience Selection: Select your target recipient group:
  • Broadcast: Dispatches to all active, consented SMS subscribers in your organization.
  • List: Targets a specific static contact list (Lists).
  • Segment: Targets a dynamic, rule-based audience (Segments).

Step 2: Content Composition¶

• Message Text: Compose your message copy.
• Personalization Variables: Insert dynamic liquid tokens ({{first_name}}, {{discount_code}}) to personalize messages for each recipient.
• Character Encoding: Choose GSM-7 or Unicode Character Set.
• Live Segment Counter: Monitor real-time statistics displayed below the composer:
  • Total weighted character count.
  • Number of SMS segments required.
  • Current segment capacity limit.
• AI Assistant: Use the built-in AI copywriting assistant to generate message variations, adjust tone, or shorten text to fit segment boundaries.
• Test Campaign:
  • Toggle on the Test Campaign switch.
  • Enter up to 5 verified mobile phone numbers in international E.164 format.
  • Dispatch realistic test messages to physical devices to verify copy, link shortening, and carrier delivery before launching to your full audience.
  • Test messages are billed against your balance and create temporary profiles with marketing consent disabled.

Step 3: Delivery Configuration¶

• Delivery Type:
  • Send Now: Dispatches the campaign immediately upon confirmation.
  • Schedule Campaign: Queues the campaign for automatic dispatch at a specified future date and time according to your organization's timezone.
  • Save as Draft: Saves the configuration without scheduling.
• Maximum Delivery Period (TTL): Define how long mobile carriers attempt delivery to offline or unreachable devices (between 30 seconds and 48 hours / 172,800 seconds).

Step 4: Review & Test Campaign¶

• Campaign Summary: Review audience selections, message copy, character segment counts, and delivery timing.
• Test Campaign:
  • Toggle on the Test Campaign switch.
  • Enter up to 5 verified mobile phone numbers in international E.164 format.
  • Dispatch realistic test messages to physical devices to verify copy, link shortening, and carrier delivery before launching to your full audience.
  • Test messages are billed against your balance and create temporary profiles with marketing consent disabled.
• Launch Campaign: Click Send Now or Schedule Campaign to finalize.

3. Standard Campaign Performance & Reporting¶

Once a campaign transitions to Sent, open its detail page to access comprehensive analytics:

Delivery & Engagement Breakdown¶

• Delivery Rate: Percentage and count of messages successfully confirmed as delivered by mobile carriers.
• Undelivered / Failed: Detailed count of undelivered or rejected attempts (e.g., unallocated phone numbers, carrier network timeouts).
• Click Rate: Total and unique link clicks tracked across branded shortlinks.

Revenue Attribution & Unit Economics¶

If an e-commerce store is connected:

• Attributed Revenue: Net sales revenue generated by recipients who clicked the SMS campaign and completed a purchase within the attribution window.
• Attributed Orders: Total count of completed store purchases directly attributed to the campaign.
• Average Order Value (AOV): Average spend per attributed purchase.
• Cost / Spent: Total messaging spend incurred for delivered segments.
• Return on Investment (ROI): Net revenue generated divided by total messaging spend (Revenue / Cost).

Managing Sent & Scheduled Campaigns¶

• Duplicate Campaign: Clone an existing sent campaign with one click to resend to a new audience or reuse creative copy.
• Edit Scheduled Campaign: Modify message content, audience targeting, or scheduled dispatch times prior to execution.
• Cancel / Delete Campaign: Cancel scheduled campaigns or remove draft campaigns.

4. API SMS Campaigns (Triggered via API)¶

API SMS campaigns enable external backends, authentication systems, and e-commerce platforms to send personalized, one-to-one SMS messages programmatically through the Messages Send API.

Creating an API SMS Campaign¶

1. Navigate to Campaigns > API in the main sidebar.
2. Click Create new Campaign and select New SMS Campaign.
3. Configure campaign parameters:
   • Campaign Name: Enter a descriptive name (e.g., API OTP Verification SMS).
   • Sender: Select an authorized SMS Sender ID.
   • Category: Select the regulatory category matching your use case:
     • OTP: Security authentication codes (requires pre-configured OTP template containing {{pin}}).
     • Transactional: Order notifications, receipts, and account alerts (requires pre-configured Transactional template).
     • Promotional: Triggered marketing offers (requires pre-configured Promotional template).
   • SMS Template: Select an SMS template (Templates) matching your category.
   • Maximum Delivery Period (TTL): Specify carrier validity time (between 30 seconds and 48 hours).
4. Click Save to create the campaign.

Status Management¶

API campaigns operate under a continuous status model:

• Draft: Initial configuration state. API dispatches are rejected.
• Active: The endpoint is live and accepting API requests.
• Paused / Stopped: Temporarily halted. The system rejects incoming API calls with a 400 Bad Request response, preventing accidental customer messaging during maintenance.

You can toggle an API campaign between Active and Paused at any time using the action button in the Campaigns > API table.

5. Triggering API SMS Campaigns¶

To trigger an API SMS Campaign, refer to Triggering API Campaigns for detailed information.

6. API Campaign Performance & Reporting¶

Once an API campaign is created and transitions out of Draft status, navigate to Campaigns > API and click on your campaign to access its real-time analytics dashboard and configuration details.

Campaign Overview¶

The overview card displays the campaign's structural configuration and metadata:

• Status: Visual indicator showing whether the campaign is currently Active, Paused, Draft, or Stopped.
• Public ID: The unique alphanumeric identifier (campaign_id) required when triggering sends via the API. Use the copy icon to copy it to your clipboard.
• Channel & Category: Confirms the channel (SMS) and regulatory categorization (OTP, Transactional, or Promotional).
• Assigned Template: Shows the configured SMS message template.
• Maximum Delivery Period (TTL): Displays the carrier validity window configured for the campaign.

Real-Time Performance Metrics¶

As programmatic requests are processed, the dashboard calculates live performance and engagement metrics:

• Profiles Targeted: Total count of unique recipient profiles targeted by incoming API requests.
• Messages Delivered & Delivery Rate:
  • Total Delivered: Total count of messages confirmed delivered to handsets.
  • Delivery Rate: Percentage of targeted messages successfully delivered.
  • Messaging Cost: Total accumulated spend for delivered SMS messages.
• Unique Clicks & Click-Through Rate:
  • Unique Clicks: Count of unique recipients who clicked at least one shortened link in the SMS message.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of delivered messages that generated a link click.

Interactive Preview & Editing¶

• Live Phone Preview: An interactive device mockup renders the SMS message with sample variable data.
• Editing API Campaigns: Campaigns in Draft, Paused, or Stopped status can be modified by clicking Edit Campaign in the header. (Active campaigns must first be paused before editing).