Stop Campaign Deployment

Engage+ provides several different methods of preventing a launched Campaign from deploying messages. Each method has a slightly different impact, so it’s important to understand the client’s business requirements for why they want to prevent further message deployments, to ensure that you utilize the proper method.

The possible ways of preventing message deployments from a launched Campaign are as follows:

Cancel
Stop
Suspend

Suspend All
Suspend Send Only

Unapprove Sending

Cancel

When you cancel a Campaign, the system immediately stops queueing messages, and stops sending messages. Any messages currently in the queue at the moment you click Cancel are removed, and the platform doesn’t retain any history of the fact that these messages were “queued but not sent.” The platform will continue to collect activity data (opens, clicks, etc.) on any records deployed prior to you canceling it.

The status of the Campaign is changed to “Canceled.” This action can’t be undone, and the Campaign can’t later be resumed.

Canceling a Campaign is typically done when you simply want to halt the Campaign, and you don’t need to retain any history of records “queued but not sent.”

Note: If you delete a launched Campaign by moving it to the Recycling Bin, the system automatically changes the status for this Campaign to “Canceled.” Even if you later restore the archived Campaign from the Recycling Bin, you still can’t resume it.

In a Cells & Splits Campaign, you can't cancel an individual cell; you can cancel only the entire Campaign.

Stop

When you stop a Campaign, the system immediately stops queueing messages, and stops sending messages. Any messages currently in the queue at the moment you click Stop are recorded, and the platform will retain history of the fact that these messages were “queued but not sent.” The platform will continue to collect activity data (opens, clicks, etc.) on any records deployed prior to you stopping it.

The status of the Campaign is changed to “Done.” This action can’t be undone, and the Campaign can’t later be resumed.

Stopping a Campaign is typically done when you need to halt the Campaign, and you need to retain history of any records that were in a “queued but not sent” state at the moment you clicked Stop. For example, let’s say you discovered an error in the Campaign, and you need to set up a replacement Campaign. You want to be sure to include any messages that were “queued but not sent” from the first Campaign when you define the audience for the replacement Campaign. Stopping a Campaign (instead of cancelling it) allows you to target these “queued but not sent” records in a Filter using the Sent a Campaign activity type, and selecting the option “Queued in the Campaign” from the Build Criteria pop-up window.

For Split Cell Campaigns that use a Messaging table as the data source, you can't stop an individual cell; you can stop only the entire Campaign.

For Split Cell Campaigns that use EDP as the data source, you CAN stop an individual cell using the stop button within the Campaign Status progress tracker in the "Review" tab.

Suspend

When you suspend a Campaign, the system immediately stops queueing messages, and stops sending messages. The platform will continue to collect activity data (opens, clicks, etc.) on any records deployed prior to you suspending it.

If you attempt to suspend a Campaign while it's still in the message creation phase, the platform will complete message creation before suspending the Campaign.

The status of the Campaign is changed to “Suspended.” This Campaign can later be resumed. Suspending a Campaign is typically done when you need to make changes to an active Campaign via Pick Up Changes, and you intend to later resume the Campaign.

The platform supports two different suspend methods:

Suspend All -- With this option, the platform will NOT add new records to the processing queue while the Campaign is in a suspended state. So, even if a triggering event occurs while the Campaign is suspended, those new triggered records won't be added to the queue. Those records will essentially get "skipped," even if you later resume the Campaign. This option is available in all Campaign types.
Suspend Send Only -- With this option, the platform WILL add new records to the processing queue while the Campaign is in a suspended sate, if the triggering event occurs. Those new triggered records will be added to the queue, and those records will get deployed when you later resume the Campaign. This option is available only for Event-triggered Campaigns.

In a Cells & Splits Campaign, you can't suspend an individual cell; you can suspend only the entire Campaign.

Unapprove Sending

The platform allows you to set optional “approval” checkpoints during the launch process. These checkpoints are displayed on the Campaign Launch screen, and are generally intended to be used during the initial launch of the Campaign, so you can review audit statistics of a launch step. When you approve that step, the platform then proceeds to the next step.

After a Campaign has launched and begun deploying, you can optionally use the Sending approval checkpoint as a way of pausing message deployment. Essentially, you are “unapproving” the Sending step that you previously approved, in order to stop the Campaign from sending.

When you unapprove the Sending step, the system immediately stops sending messages, but continues to queue any new triggered messages, and continues to collect activity data (opens, clicks, etc.) on any messages previously deployed. The status of the Campaign is changed to “Pending Approval.” The Sending step can later be re-approved in order to resume sending. Unapproving the Sending step is typically done when you need to make changes to an active Campaign via Pick Up Changes, you want to queue records while suspended, and you intend to later resume the Campaign.

Note: Even if you click all three “Unapprove” buttons, the system will still continue to queue any new triggered messages.

Unlike the methods described above, in a Cells & Splits Campaign, you can unapprove sending in an individual cell without impacting the status of the other cells.

Summary

The following matrix provides a high level summary of each of the methods described above used to halt a Campaign

Functionality	Cancel	Stop	Suspend All	* Suspend Send Only	Unapprove Sending
Campaign immediately stops sending messages.
Campaign continues to collect activity data (clicks, etc.) from all previously deployed messages.
Retain history of any records in the queue at the moment the Campaign is halted.
Campaign can later be resumed.**
Triggered Campaign continues to “listen” for new triggers and add them to the queue.
In a split cell Campaign, can halt sending in a specific child cell (or cells).

* Available for Event-triggered Campaigns, and only in the "classic" Campaign screen.

** For Campaigns that used EDP as the data source, the platform imposes a three-week expiration on resuming a Campaign, meaning that if you suspend the Campaign, you have three weeks to resume it. After this expiration period elapses, if you attempt to resume the Campaign, the platform will immediately change the Campaign status to "Done." The three weeks are not calculated as "three weeks from the day you suspend the Campaign." Instead, weeks are measured by Sundays. The Campaign will expire on the third Sunday following the date you suspended it.