Creating Campaigns

This guide walks you through creating a dunning campaign from scratch using the campaign builder. If you want to start faster, LostChurn also provides pre-built templates during Quick Setup that you can customize later.

Opening the Campaign Builder

Navigate to Campaigns > New Campaign in the dashboard. The campaign builder opens with three sections: trigger configuration, step editor, and stop conditions.

Step 1: Name and Trigger

Start by giving your campaign a descriptive name (e.g., "Standard Dunning - Email + SMS" or "High-Value Recovery"). Then select a trigger type that determines when customers are enrolled.

Audience Filters

Optionally, narrow the audience using filters. Filters are defined as a JSON condition set and can target:

• Decline category — Only enroll customers with specific decline classifications
• Amount threshold — Minimum or maximum payment amount
• Subscription metadata — Custom fields from your payment processor
• Customer locale — Target by language or region

Auto-Enrollment

When a recovery reaches CommunicationPending status (after silent retries are exhausted or the decline is classified as Hard Customer), the customer is automatically enrolled in the merchant's active campaign that matches the trigger type and audience filters. You do not need to manually enroll customers — the recovery engine handles this transition automatically.

Step 2: Add Campaign Steps

Click Add Step to create your first outreach message. Each step requires:

Delay

Set the time delay before this step executes. The delay is measured from the previous step's execution (or from enrollment for the first step).

Common delay patterns:

• Step 1: 0-24 hours (immediate or next day)
• Step 2: 48-72 hours after Step 1
• Step 3: 5-7 days after Step 2
• Final step: 10-14 days after Step 3

Channel

Choose the delivery channel for this step:

• Email — Best for detailed messages with payment update links. See Email Campaigns.
• SMS — Best for short, urgent reminders. See SMS Campaigns.
• Push — Best for in-app engagement. See Push Notifications.
• WhatsApp — Best for high-engagement markets. See WhatsApp Campaigns.

Template

Select an existing template or create a new one inline. Templates support personalization variables and can include HTML (for email) or plain text. See the channel-specific guides for template details.

A/B Variants (Optional)

Add alternative templates to split-test different messages. Each variant is assigned a traffic weight (the weights across all variants must sum to 100). See A/B Testing for configuration details.

Step 3: Configure Stop Conditions

Stop conditions tell LostChurn when to end the campaign for a given customer. Configure:

With "Stop on recovery" enabled, a customer whose payment is recovered after Step 1 will never receive Step 2 — even if it is already scheduled.

Step 4: Set Quiet Hours

Configure quiet hours to prevent messages from being sent during inconvenient times. Specify:

• Start hour — When quiet hours begin (0-23, in 24-hour format)
• End hour — When quiet hours end (0-23)
• Timezone — The timezone to apply (e.g., US/Eastern, Europe/London)

Messages scheduled during quiet hours are queued and delivered as soon as the window reopens.

Step 5: Review and Activate

Before activating, the builder shows a summary of your campaign:

• Trigger type and audience filters
• Number of steps with delays and channels
• Stop conditions
• Quiet hours configuration

Click Save as Draft to save without activating, or Activate to start enrolling customers immediately. You can pause or deactivate a campaign at any time from the campaign list.

Managing Campaigns

Pausing a Campaign

Pausing a campaign stops new enrollments but allows in-progress enrollments to complete their current step. No new steps will be scheduled for paused campaigns.

Deactivating a Campaign

Deactivating a campaign stops all activity immediately. In-progress enrollments are cancelled and no further messages are sent.

Editing a Live Campaign

You can edit a live campaign's name, quiet hours, and stop conditions without pausing it. To change steps or triggers, pause the campaign first, make your changes, then reactivate.

Pre-Built Templates

LostChurn includes 5 pre-built campaign templates to get you started quickly. Each can be customized after creation:

To use a template, click New Campaign > Start from Template and select one. You can modify steps, delays, channels, and stop conditions before activating.

What's Next

• Email Campaigns — Template editor, personalization, and deliverability tips
• SMS Campaigns — Character limits, compliance, and costs
• A/B Testing — Optimize your campaigns with split tests