Create and manage your campaigns

 

Applies To: Dynamics Marketing

Important

Microsoft Dynamics Marketing has been discontinued and is no longer available. All customer data related to this product has been permanently deleted from all Microsoft servers and is no longer available for extraction. This documentation is being provided for historical purposes only.

Use the Campaigns list page to find and create campaigns and see a graphic overview of campaigns laid out on a marketing calendar. Use the Campaign maintenance page to create a new campaign for your marketing activities and to design an automated campaign workflow.

Prerequisites

To work with campaigns, you must have Edit/View Campaigns privileges. Related privileges include Campaign Performance and Campaign Templates. More information: Work with user accounts and staff contacts

View your campaigns

To view your existing campaigns or create a new one, go to Marketing Execution > Campaign Management > Campaigns. This brings you to a page with two top-level tabs:

• Campaigns list: This provides a list of current campaigns, which you can search, sort and filter as needed. The toolbar provides standard controls for adding, deleting, copying and organizing your campaigns. For details about how to work with the controls here, see Learn how to work and get around in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing.

• Marketing calendar: Displays a graphical overview of your campaigns laid out as a Gantt chart. From here, you can drill-down into campaigns to view details about related activities and other information. However, you cannot create new campaigns from the marketing-calendar view. See Keep track of company-wide projects with the marketing calendar for more information about how to work with the marketing calendar.

Microsoft Dynamics Marketing remembers the view you were using last time you came to this page. To switch between the Calendar and List views, use the top-level tabs.

Create a new campaign

1. Go to Marketing Execution > Campaign Management > Campaigns, switch to the List tab if necessary, and choose the New button    on the toolbar.

2. A short form opens, which helps you get started with your offer. Fill it out as follows:

   • Template: this is optional, but you can sometimes speed up your work by using a campaign template, which provides an initial setup. If you choose a template, then all of the settings from that template will be copied to your new campaign, but the template itself will be left unchanged.

   • Company: enter the name of your company or the client company for whom you are creating the campaign. The company must already exist in your database; the field provides type-ahead assistance, so it will suggest existing matches as you type. This setting is important because it will limit the lists and other elements available for your campaign to those associated or owned by this company. Lists, for example, have a “belongs to” value, which must match the company you set here in order to target that list with this campaign. You cannot change this once you have saved your campaign.

   • Division: if you have defined one or more divisions for your company, then you can specify one here. Divisions are only supported for the site company, and they must already exist in the database; the field provides type-ahead assistance, so it will suggest existing matches as you type.

3. Choose Submit to go to the Campaign maintenance page, where you will finish setting up your new campaign.

Copy an existing campaign

One way to get started quickly with a new campaign is to begin with a copy of an existing, similar campaign. When you copy a campaign, you essentially use the copied campaign as a template. Because campaigns include many automated elements and related records, the copy command intelligently clones or references the elements as needed.

Note

If you often create campaigns of a particular type, then consider setting up that campaign type as a template rather than always copying an existing campaign. More information: View and manage campaign templates

1. Go to Marketing Execution > Campaign Management > Campaigns and switch to the List tab if necessary.

2. Use the sort, search and filter controls to find the campaign you wish to copy and select its check box.

3. Choose the Copy button   on the Campaigns list page toolbar.

4. The new copy opens in the Campaign maintenance page. Note that the Name is changed slightly (an ID number is appended to the old name), but that all other settings are identical to the copied campaign. Customize your new campaign as needed.

Most campaign-automation tiles include references to external records, such as email messages, marketing lists, events, etc. Depending on tile type, the copy operation will either create new copies of the referenced external records, or keep a reference to the same external record. Each tile type is therefore copied in one of the following ways:

• Deep copy: new copies of the referenced external records are created and linked to your new campaign. As with the campaign itself, each new record will identical to the copied record except that its name will be appended with a unique ID number.

• Shallow copy: references to the identical external records will be included in your new campaign and used in an identical way. The referenced records are not copied, so the originals are still used by the copied campaign. This means that when you edit the external record (such as by modifying memberships in a marketing list), your changes will affect both the original campaign and the copy unless you edit the copy to use a different external record.

• Direct copy: the tile and all of its settings are copied into your new campaign, but no external records are referenced.

See the following table for details about how each type of campaign-automation tile is recreated in a newly copied campaign.

Tile	Copy type
Email	Deep copy (A new email message is created and referenced by the copied tile.) Note The newly copied emails are not activated, so they can still be edited but must be activated before you can run the new campaign.
Landing Page	Deep copy (A new landing-page record is created and referenced by the copied tile. However, the welcome and/or confirmation emails configured for the landing page itself are shallow copies, so the new landing page will still reference the existing emails.)
Task	Deep copy (A new task record is created and referenced by the copied tile.)
Scoring	Shallow copy (The new copy will reference the same scoring model as the original.)
Social Media	Shallow copy (The new copy will reference the same social media message as the original.)
Edit Marketing List	Shallow copy (The new copy will reference the same marketing list as the original.)
Printed Mail	Shallow copy (The new copy will reference the same component as the original. Any additional files referenced by the original tile settings will be dropped in the copy, so you must re-add these if you wish to use them in the copied campaign.)
Event	Deep copy (A new event record is created and referenced by the copied tile. The new event will have the same basic settings as the copied event, but it will have no registration items; you must edit the copied event to add these.)
Offer	Deep copy (A new offer record is created and referenced by the copied tile.)
A/B Testing	Deep copy (A new A/B testing record is created and referenced by the copied tile. In addition, each email version referenced by the setup will also be copied and configured for the copied tile.)
Webinar	Deep copy (A new webinar record is created and referenced by the copied tile.)
Static	Shallow copy (The copied tile references the same marketing list as the original.)
Dynamic	Shallow Copy (The copied tile references the same marketing list as the original.)
Scheduler	Direct Copy (The copied tile copies all settings of the original tile—but no external records can be configured for this tile.)
Trigger	Direct Copy (The copied tile is configured as the original, but is now bound to tiles in the new workflow (and therefore, the new trigger may be bound to new records created by a deep-copied tile, such as email messages). No external records can be configured directly for this tile.)

For more information about working with the campaign canvas, see Automate campaigns with the campaign canvas.

Top-level tabs for campaigns

When you have saved you campaign at least once, the Campaign maintenance page includes three top-level tabs. These will bring you to the Summary, Automation and Panel views, respectively.

• Summary tab: Contains the basic campaign setup and metadata. This page resembles most other maintenance pages in Dynamics Marketing and includes the basic setup data at the top and a collection of related-information tabs at the bottom.

• Campaign-automation canvas tab: Shows the campaign canvas for the current campaign, which provides a graphical flowchart and drag-and-drop interface for designing automated campaigns.

• Panel tab: Provides a dashboard to which you can place a collection of widgets related to the campaign. From here, you can view and add widgets for tracking information related to the current campaign. The widgets here will filter their information to include only details that are associated with the current campaign. Other than this, these widgets work in much the same was as they do on the home page and side dock. For more information about working with widgets, see Learn how to work and get around in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing.

Campaign summary and setup

When you create a new campaign, the campaign summary setup is the second step of the new campaign wizard. When you edit a campaign, the summary appears at the top of the Summary top-level tab. For details about the settings, see the following table.

Field	Description
Status	Select a status for the campaign. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = Campaign Status) Campaigns with a Status of "Inactive" or "Canceled" are considered deleted and are hidden on the list page by default (use the Show/hide inactive toolbar button to show or hide these.). Likewise, if you use the Delete button on the list page, the campaign doesn't get removed from your database, but instead its Status value is set to "Canceled." Warning The campaign status value shown here is not related to the automated campaign activation status. Activated campaign automations for "Deleted" campaigns (with a campaign Status of "Inactive" or "Canceled") will continue to run during the time interval established by their Start Date and End Date settings. To prevent hidden or deleted campaigns from running their campaign automation, you must also deactivate the automation by going to the Automation top-level tab and clicking Deactivate. More information: Automate campaigns with the campaign canvas
Code	Enter a code for the campaign. This is for internal use at your organization and may be helpful for matching against information in an external system and/or for categorizing, searching and sorting. Warning If you are using the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Connector for Microsoft Dynamics 365, then be careful with this value. Once a value is set for the Code field for a campaign in Dynamics 365, Dynamics 365 will lock that value. This means that you can enter any value you like until the initial sync of your new campaign, but thereafter the Code value will be permanent in Dynamics 365. However, the field remains editable in Dynamics Marketing; if you edit the value here after the record has synced, then you will see different values for it when opening the campaign in Dynamics Marketing compared to the same campaign in Dynamics 365.
Name	Enter a short but descriptive name. This value will identify the current record in list views, type-ahead fields, drop-down lists, and other areas of Dynamics Marketing. Choose a value that you and all other users are likely to recognize in the future.
Company	Enter the name of the company that the current record belongs to. The company must already exist in the database; type-ahead assistance is provided (or enter “%%” as a wildcard to scroll through all companies). The current record is only available for use with other relevant entities that are also associated with this same company. For example, a marketing message associated with the company Woodgrove Bank can only be sent to contacts belonging to Woodgrove Bank and included in campaigns associated with Woodgrove Bank. You will usually choose this on the first step of the Create campaign wizard. You can’t change this after you have saved the campaign.
Division	If relevant, enter a division of your selected company to associate with the current record (you must select a Company first). The division must already exist in the database. Type-ahead assistance is provided (or enter “%%” as a wildcard to scroll through all divisions). In some (but not all) cases, the current record is only available for use with other relevant entities that are also associated with this same division. See also: Set up divisions and departments to reflect your organization.
Department	If relevant, enter a department of your selected company to associate with the current record. You must select a Company first. If the department is part of a division, then you must also select that Division first). The department must already exist in the database. Type-ahead assistance is provided (or enter “%%” as a wildcard to scroll through all departments). See also: Set up divisions and departments to reflect your organization.
Program	If this campaign is part of a program, then enter the name of the program. The program must already exist in in the database; type-ahead suggestions are provided. Programs are used to group campaigns together. More information: Manage programs
Business Segments	Use this multi-select Type-ahead field to associate one or more business segments with the current approval. More information: Set up business segments to reflect your organization
Description	Enter a description that can help you and other users remember what this record is for and how it should be used.
Start and End Date	Define the date range during which this campaign will run. A date range is required if you’re using campaign animation because it sets limits on when automated emails related to this campaign will be sent to current and new members of the target marketing list.
Quantity	Use this to record an overall numeric target for the campaign.
Type	Select a campaign type. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = Campaign Type)
Folder	Select a folder name from the drop-down to move this campaign to that folder.
Lead Scoring Model	Select a lead scoring model for this campaign. More information: Set up automatic lead scoring
Track Email Delivery	Note This is a limited-release feature. Limited-release features are not enabled in the Dynamics Marketing user interface unless you request them. However, they are stable features and fully supported. If you want to enable a limited-release feature for your site, please contact Microsoft Support for assistance. Set this option to match the volume of email messages you will be sending with your campaign. Choose one of the following: On campaign only (high volume): If you expect to send a million or more messages during this campaign, then choose the high volume option to allow for maximum performance. When you choose this option, Dynamics Marketing does not collect message-sent or message-delivered records on a per-contact basis, but it does provide total sent and delivered values for the campaign. Opens, clicks, and other KPIs are still available per contact when you use this option, but you won't see which contacts received the messages without interacting with them. On contact and campaign (low volume): If you expect to send significantly fewer than a million messages during this campaign, then you can choose either of these options. When you choose the low volume option, you will be able to see sent and delivered records for each contact the campaign attempted to contact by email—but results may take longer to collect and calculate, depending on your send volume. For more information about how to analyze your email marketing performance, including details about how the Track Email Delivery setting can affect the results you see, go to Analyze the performance of email marketing.
Objectives	Use this to record any objectives you have in mind. Campaign objectives should be as specific as possible. The objective might be "$200,000 in sales or 1,000 orders by March 31, 2002."

Recording and monitoring results

After you have saved your campaign at least once, the Summary top-level tab will also include a Results fold-down. Use this area to record various types of results and compare your campaign results against a response model.

At the top of the Results fold-down area is a graph that you can use to compare your campaign performance against a response model. To use this graph, select a model from the Response Model drop-down. For more information about response models See Create, view, and import response models for more information about response models.

Under the response curve is a table that shows an analysis of the lead-generation performance of the campaign. The following table summarizes the information shown here.

Column	Description
Total	Displays the total quantity of leads that resulted from the campaign.  It also displays the actual cost per lead. The cost per lead is calculated by dividing the total cost of the campaign (The sum of all the expenses associated with the campaign plus the balances remaining on all open purchase orders by the total quantity of leads that resulted from the campaign.) Dynamics Marketing also displays the average of the scores and the average of all the grades of all the leads generated by the campaign.
Estimate	Enables you to specify the estimated quantity of leads that are expected from the campaign.  It also displays the estimated cost per lead. Dynamics Marketing also displays the estimated average lead Score and the estimated average grade of all the leads generated by the campaign.
Variance %	This column displays the total actual quantity of leads divided by the total estimates number of leads expressed as a percentage.  For example, if you estimated 100 leads and got 110, the variance % would be 110%. It also displays the variance % of the Actual cost per lead to the estimated cost per lead.  It also displays the variance in the cost per lead between the estimate and actual quantity as well as the variance % between the estimated and actual average lead Score.
Variance	This column displays the total actual number of leads divided by the total estimated number of leads.  For example, if you estimated 100 leads and got 110, the variance would be 10. It also displays the variance Actual cost per lead to the estimated cost per lead.  It also displays the variance in the cost per lead between the estimate and actual results as well as the variance % between the estimated and actual average lead score.

In addition to leads, which are always shown, you can also add other types of results to the table here. Click New to add another type of result to the table. The columns for other result types are similar to those described for leads in the previous table.

Related-information tabs

When you have saved your campaign at least once, you’ll be able to see the related-information tabs. Use the drop-down list at the top of this area to change the tab. These various tabs show various types of information that is related to your current campaign. You can add new items here to automatically associate those items with the campaign. Usually the tabs here are views into other areas of the site (such as jobs, invoices, leads, etc.) and work the same here as they do on the main list and maintenance pages for the relevant features, except that they are filtered to only show records that are associated with the current campaign. See the relevant topics of this online help for more information about how to work with these various tabs.

A few of the tabs available here are either unique to campaigns or have a special impact on campaigns. For more information about these, please see the following topics:

• Brief: Describe campaigns with campaign briefs

• Merge/Purge: Merge or purge campaigns

The campaign-automation canvas

The Automation top-level tab is available at the top of the Campaign maintenance page for all campaigns that have been saved at least once. Click its button to go to the canvas, where you can design an automation workflow that enables you to design, visualize and monitor an automated campaign. For complete details, see Automate campaigns with the campaign canvas. For an example, see Set up a webinar, send invites and track responses.

Widget panel

The Panel top-level tab is available at the top of the Campaign maintenance page for all campaigns that have been saved at least once. Click its button to view and add widgets for tracking information related to the current campaign, such jobs, tasks, budgets and Social Engagement. These widgets work in much the same was as they do on the home page and side dock. See also Learn how to work and get around in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing for more information about working with widgets.

See Also

Video: Campaign Management (4:01)
Walkthrough 3: Behavior analysis and campaign automation
Manage campaigns
Keep track of company-wide projects with the marketing calendar
Automate campaigns with the campaign canvas
View and manage campaign templates
Analyze and compare campaign performance
Describe campaigns with campaign briefs
Merge or purge campaigns
Create, view, and import response models
View and manage fulfillment activity