Pick a use case
About a 3-minute read.
A campaign describes the kind of texts your agent sends, and its use case is the category the carriers use to decide how to treat that traffic, approval speed, throughput, and how much they scrutinize content. Picking the right one up front saves you from rejection and re-filing.
Two questions to answer:
- Will this campaign cover one kind of messaging, or several? (Dedicated vs. Mixed)
- Which category fits?
Dedicated or Mixed?
Dedicated, one use case per campaign. Marketing and appointment confirmations would be two campaigns. Choose it when you want different message types isolated (if your marketing gets flagged, your confirmations keep running) or tracked separately.
Mixed, 2-5 use cases under one campaign. Choose it when your agent sends a few related kinds of messages from the same numbers and you'd rather manage one campaign. The trade-off: a compliance problem on any one type can affect the whole campaign.
For most first programs, Mixed is a sensible starting point. You can split later.
The use cases you can choose
These are the use cases available when you register a campaign in the dashboard. The list is fixed by the carrier registry, it rejects anything outside it.
| Use case | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Two-factor authentication (2FA) | One-time passcodes, login and verification codes |
| Account notifications | Routine account updates (status changes, confirmations, receipts) |
| Customer care | Two-way support conversations and service updates |
| Delivery notifications | Order, shipping, or service-delivery status |
| Marketing | Promotional content, offers, launches, re-engagement |
| Mixed | A campaign covering 2-5 of these use cases |
| Polling / voting | Non-political surveys and polls |
| Public service announcement | Awareness messaging on public-interest topics |
| Security alert | Compromised-account or take-action-now notices |
| Higher education | Outreach from a college, university, or institution |
| Low volume | A reduced tier for low-volume senders (see below) |
A note on Low volume
If your agent sends a small amount of total traffic, the Low volume use case carries lower carrier fees in exchange for lower throughput caps. It's a good fit for early testing or a genuinely small program. If you expect to grow past a small volume, register a standard use case instead, moving off Low volume later means a new campaign.
Need a use case that isn't in the list?
Some programs need carrier-reviewed special use cases, charity, political, emergency services, sweepstakes, proxy/peer-to-peer, franchise or per-agent number pools, and a few others. These require manual carrier sign-off and aren't self-serve in the dashboard today. Contact us with a description of what you're sending and we'll set the campaign up and file it for you. Plan for a longer review (often 1-4 weeks) on these.
A few quick pointers if you're in this territory:
- 501(c)(3) charities soliciting donations use the Charity path, not Political.
- Political organizations (PACs, 527s) typically need a Campaign Verify token first (campaignverify.org).
- Emergency services is for qualifying public-safety organizations only.
Pick the narrowest honest fit
The use case is a promise to the carriers about what you'll send, and they check live traffic against it. The most common mistake is a mismatch, registering as Account notifications but sending promotional content. If you'll send more than one kind of message, choose Mixed and list each kind rather than picking one narrowly and drifting. See Common rejection reasons.
Can I change the use case later?
The use case is fixed once a campaign is filed, the registry treats it as a defining characteristic. To change it, the campaign has to be re-created. That's something we handle for you: contact support and we'll set up the replacement. So it's worth getting right the first time.