A campaign is a use case for sending text messages over A2P.
Think about the text messages you currently receive from businesses. They range from verification codes to appointment reminders to promotional coupons to personalized communications. Each of these use cases should be classified as a different campaign.
Indicating what type of campaign you are registering gives information to the mobile carriers about the content of your messages. Registering campaigns will help the carriers identify your communications as legitimate and impact how they are handled.
Unregistered messages are expected to fail. They also will incur higher per-message fees and are expected to be the most scrutinized when it comes to TCPA violations.
Starting December 2nd, carriers will no longer allow unregistered text messages to be sent.
Types of A2P Standard Plan Campaigns
Low Volume Plans will have access to one type of campaign through smrtPhone: Mixed Use (templated and conversational)
In addition to the LVSB Plan campaign type, there are 11 types of Standard Plan campaigns, plus several Special Use types.
The nature of your business will affect which campaign types you are allowed to choose. For example, if you are a for-profit commercial store, you will not be able to create Education campaigns or Charity campaigns. The information entered for your Trust Center Business Profile will impact the campaigns that are available to you.
The Standard Campaign Types:
Campaign Use Case | Description |
2FA | Any authentication or account verification such as OTP |
Account Notifications | Notifications about the status of an account or related to being a part of an account |
Customer Care | Support, account management, and other avenues of customer interaction |
Delivery Notifications | Information about the status of a delivery |
Fraud Alert Messaging | Messaging about a potentially fraudulent activity such as spending alerts |
Higher Education | Message campaigns from colleges, universities, and other educational institutions |
Marketing | Promotional content such as sales and limited-time offers |
Mixed Use | A campaign that covers multiple use cases such as Customer Care and Delivery Notifications. Note - mixed campaigns are likely to have lower throughput and a higher cost per message. |
Polling and voting | For conducting polling and voting, such as customer surveys. Not for political use. |
Public Service Announcement | PSAs to raise audience awareness about a given topic |
Security Alert | Notification of a compromised system (software or hardware related) |
We anticipate that most of our clients will fall under Marketing or Mixed Use.
There are two other types of A2P10DLC messages - Special Use cases and Unregistered.
Special Use cases - These are use cases that may qualify for increased throughput and/or reduced fees compared to Standard Use:
Franchise - one brand, but local locations are operated semi-independently
Charity fundraising or providing non-profit services
K-12 Education messages for schools and distance learning centers.
Low volume mixed-use - under 6000 messages per day (2000 messages a day to T-Mobile.)
Emergency notifications for public safety/health
Political campaigns
Proxy - personalized messages that are person-to-person for the sake of doing business (for example, Uber driver communicating with a client for pickup).
Social - communication between public figures/influences and their fanbase/communities.
Sweepstakes - gambling, and contest messaging
Unregistered Messages - Any messages that have not stated the use for their content. These are considered high-risk providers or unregistered traffic, and these messages are expected to fail and soon will be blocked. They will leave the smrtPhone system looking as if they have been sent, but the mobile carriers will filter them out. The carriers are considering penalties and fines for businesses that attempt to skirt the business texting guidelines by sending unregistered messages.
This will also apply to messages sent over unverified Toll-Free numbers. If you would like to verify your Toll-free number, please contact our Support team for help.
How does a Campaign Registration Look Like?
Registering a new A2P 10DLC Campaign takes some easy steps, mainly completing a form containing:
Basic Details - Choose a Use Case and describe in a few words the type of text messages you intend to send
Opt-In and Consent Management - Give your receivers the possibility to opt-out
Message Sample - Type in a template message of the texts you intend to send in the campaign
Preview and Submit
Please keep in mind that registration is a whole process that requires time. Up to 10 more days will be added to this processing time for phone number registration as well.
Read here why this is important: Keep your messages compliant ⇢
How an A2P 10DLC Campaign Looks after Approval
Once your campaign has been approved, you can see the details you set within, the Friendly name associated, its type, and other useful information.
These details are also available for the campaign having In Progress or Failed status.
When talking about a failed campaign, most of the time you can see the reason right under the status.
How will Campaigns Impact your Business?
Once you are registered, the biggest impact on your business will be the fees associated with using A2P channels.
Fees for registering a campaign and for each SMS message will vary amongst campaigns. These charges are in addition to standard text messaging charges and are set by the main mobile carriers, not by smrtPhone.
Messages transmitted without a registered campaign will be charged more than ones from registered campaigns, and they will also be filtered heavily.
