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SMS is a concise and effective channel for delivering timely alerts and key announcements to your audience.
Before you start creating SMS campaigns, make sure you have configured the SMS channel.
To create an SMS campaign, perform the following steps:
  1. On the sidebar menu in MoEngage, hover over the Engage menu item Screenshot 2025-06-04 at 4.32.53 PM.png . The Engage menu appears.
  2. Click + New Campaign. You can also click All Campaigns on the Engage menu and then click + Create campaign on the All campaigns page.
  3. On the New Campaign dialog box, under Outbound, click SMS.
    Screenshot 2026 04 06 At 3 52 19 PM
  4. Click one of the following campaign delivery types:
    • One Time
    • Periodic
    • Event Triggered
    • Business Event Triggered
      For more information about delivery types, refer to Delivery Types.
The SMS creation page is displayed: 1.png

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Steps to Create an SMS Campaign

The following are the steps to create an SMS campaign:
  1. Target users: Define the target audience for the campaign.
  2. Content: Define the content of the SMS campaign to be sent.
  3. Schedule and goals: Define the campaign’s delivery schedule and goals.

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Step 1: Target Users

This section contains the following:

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Campaign Details

Define the campaign details section using the following fields: 4.png In the Select Audience section, you can select the target audience for your campaign using the following segmentation filters:
Select this filter option to send the campaign to all app users. When you use this option, you cannot add multiple filters.all users.png
If teams are enabled for your account, you will be able to see the custom segments created by your team. The segmentation criteria specified for the team for which you are creating the campaign will get appended to the segmentation filters with an AND condition. For example, if the segmentation criteria for your team is the set of _users whose last known city is Los Angeles_and you have selected users who’ve purchased a product within the last 3 days as the target audience for your campaign, your target audience would be users who have purchased a product within the last 3 days and whose last known city is Los Angeles. For more information, refer to Teams in MoEngage.
This is an add-on feature. Please contact your MoEngage Customer Success Manager (CSM) or the Support team to enable it for your account.
After selecting the filter criteria, you can perform the following:
  • Create Multiple Filters: You can create and combine multiple user property rules, user activity rules, and custom segment rules to create a complex user segment using this option.
    1. Click + Filter.
    2. Click AND or OR.
    3. Select the attribute or event and define the filter conditions.
  • Exclude Users: Select this checkbox to define the filter criteria for users to be excluded from the campaign.
  • Send campaign to the users opted-out in subscription management: Turn this toggle on to automatically include opted-out users from the campaigns. For more information, refer to Subscription Management.
  • Reset filters: Click this option to reset the segmentation filters.
  • Show count: Click this button to display the total number of users who are currently in the configured segment.
5.png

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Control Groups

This section contains information about control groups for the campaign. A control group is a set of users added to an exclusion list. These users will not receive the marketing campaign. Control Groups are enabled only for promotional campaigns and are not applicable to transactional campaigns. You can enable the control groups to which you want to send the promotional campaign. control groups.png
  • A global control group is a list of users who will not receive any of the marketing campaigns.
    Turn on the Global control group toggle to not send the campaign to all the users in the control group. 
  • A campaign control group is created by combining the user base that qualifies for the campaign. Turn on the Campaign control group toggle to not send the particular campaign to the control group. 
    For more information, refer to Control Group.
Click Next or use the tabs at the top of the create campaign navigation to move to Step 2: Content.

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Step 2: Content

This section describes how to create content for your SMS campaign. You can create the content for the SMS campaign using the following options:

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Create Content Using Default Template

Perform the following steps to create the content for the SMS campaign:
  1. Select a blank template. The Content tab is displayed. ContentCreation_SMS.png
  2. From the SMS sender list, select the SMS connector (service provider). In the case of connectors that come under DLT regulations, such as ICS, GupShup, and Kaleyra, it is mandatory to display the Template ID information as shown below. For more information on DLT regulations, click here. 268368DA-C881-4A7A-9908-4E28D48A3861_1_201_a.jpeg
  3. In the Message field, enter the content that is displayed in the SMS. Message.png
  4. To personalize your message, enter @ in the Message field. The SMS Personalization pop-up window is displayed. For more information, refer to Personalization. 6A582B4B-1963-4498-A2E2-1692B129AD94_1_201_a.jpeg
  5. In case the attribute chosen is not available for the user or there is some failure in displaying the attribute, we can select a fallback option as shown above. Select No Fallback if there is no alternative to the failed attribute. You can choose not to send the SMS or replace the failed attribute with a text of our choice using the Replace text option.
    You will see the character count of your message as well as the SMS count. mceclip1.png

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Create Content Using Custom Template

This is an Early Access feature. To enable it for your account, contact your MoEngage Customer Success Manager (CSM) or the Support team.
Custom templates are uploaded to MoEngage using the Custom Template API. This option helps you have a pre-defined set of templates that are created outside the MoEngage ecosystem. You can reuse these templates, preview them on the dashboard, and use them for sending campaigns to your customers. You can do the following in the custom templates section:
  • Select a template: Click a template to select it.
  • Sort templates: Click the sort icon ( ) to sort the templates in ascending or descending order of the last modified time of the template.
  • Search templates: Enter the template name in the search box at the top right corner of the custom templates section to search for a specific template.
  • Preview a template: You can preview a template by hovering over it and clicking the preview icon that appears, as shown below. PreviewCustomSMSTemplate.gif
After you select a custom template, it will be loaded in the UI with details of all the fields in the template. You will be able to view the fields but only edit them if you have the ‘Edit Templates’ permission.
  • Any user with the following roles can edit the templates: Default Admin, Manager, and Marketer.
  • To enable edit access for other users, they must have the ‘Edit Templates’ permission.

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URL Addition and Shortening

You can track URLs in the following ways:
  • Type or paste the URL in the Message field, and it automatically appears in the Shorten and track URL(s) section.
  • Use the Add URL button to track specific links, including links generated dynamically for individual users.

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Type or Paste the URL in the Message Field

When you type or paste a URL directly into the SMS Message field, it automatically appears under the Shorten and track URL(s) section. MoEngage uses URL shortening services to shorten your URL and track the users who click the link. track_url_sms.png In this case, note the following points:
  • Shortened links expire in 15 days and cannot be tracked after expiry. When a customer opens a link beyond its expiry, they see a This link is no longer active message.
  • If user and event attributes are used in the shortened links, the attribute names must abide by the following:
    • They must not contain spaces.
    • If the attributes contain links, their values should not contain http:// or https://. These can be added before the attribute to shorten the link.
  • Special characters such as apostrophes and commas are not supported in shortened links.
  • Multiple JINJA operations are not supported in links that are to be shortened. For example, using a Content API link in a Product attribute, or vice versa, in a link that is to be shortened, is not supported.

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Using the Add URL Button

Use the Add URL button to track specific links in your SMS campaign, including links generated dynamically for individual users. You can input and track the following types of URLs:
  • Static URLs
  • User Attributes: Links stored within a user’s profile (e.g., a unique referral link).
  • Event Attributes: Links passed as part of a user’s recent action (e.g., an abandoned cart recovery link).
  • Auxiliary (Aux) Data: Links pulled dynamically from an uploaded Aux file.
If you define a URL here that is not already present in your main Message field, MoEngage automatically shortens it and appends it to the very end of your SMS message before sending it to the user.

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Add a Locale

To add a locale to the campaign, click + Locale at the top right corner of the content creation step. You can add a new locale or add an existing locale to the campaign. For more information, refer to Localize campaign message.

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Add a Variation

To add a variation to the campaign, click + A/B test at the top right corner of the content creation step. You can add a new variation or copy the existing variation. After adding a variation, you can see the variations as tabs on the top ribbon above the content editor, as shown below. Variations_Added.png You can specify the user distribution for each variation by clicking User Distribution, available at the top right corner. For more information, refer to A/B Testing.
Test campaigns enable previewing the campaign on a test device to ensure that your notification is conveyed in the manner that you desire.You can test the campaign you created by selecting any of the following options and providing the value for the attribute chosen for your test user:
  • Unique ID
  • Email ID
  • Mobile Number (Registered With MoEngage)
  • Mobile Number (External/Not Registered with MoEngage)
  • Google Advertising identifier
  • iOS Identifier for Advertising
  • Device Push Token
  • Custom Segment TestCampaigns.png
Click Next or use the tabs at the top of the create campaign navigation to move to Step 3: Schedule and Goals.

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Step 3: Schedule and Goals

This section contains the following:
  • Delivery schedule: Choose when the campaign should be delivered to your users and the periodicity of delivery.
  • Conversion goals: Choose the conversion goals and revenue metrics to be tracked for the campaign.
  • Delivery controls: Choose the advanced delivery control options such as throttling, frequency capping, and expiration settings for the notification.

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Delivery Schedule

Send the campaign immediately to the target users.OneTime_SendASAP.png
Choose this option to send the campaign on a specified date and time. The following fields are available in this section:
  • Campaign time zone: The timezone in which the campaign should be sent.
  • Start date: The date on which the campaign should be sent.
  • Send time: The time at which the campaign should be sent. Select am or pm depending on the time of day.
  • Periodic: The periodicity of the campaign. You have the following options: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. Periodic_AtFixedTime.gif
  • Ends: The date on which the campaign ends. The following options are available:
    • Never: The campaign is scheduled to run daily.
    • On: The campaign ends on the date specified in the End Date field.
    • After: The campaign ends after the number of occurrences specified in the occurrences field.
Click Active continuously under Send campaign and do the following:When will event triggered campaigns be sent?The campaign will be sent only when:
  • The event property/attribute being used to create these types of triggers (like the flight_time example) is in a valid date-time format. If it is not in a date-time format, the string should have data in one of the supported formats. If the selected attributes do not contain data in any of these formats, the campaign won’t be sent to your users.
  • The date/time value from the attribute is greater than the time at which the trigger condition is fulfilled.
  • The date/time value from the attribute is less than 30 Days + the time at which the trigger condition is fulfilled. For example, if your trigger condition is fulfilled at date D, your notification will be sent only when the attribute value is less than D+30.
  • The intelligent delay optimization (With Delay) does not work for campaigns sent on relative timing. DT_ActiveContinously.png
Click Active continuously under Send campaign and do the following:When will business event-triggered campaigns be sent?The campaign will be sent only when:
  • The data type(s) of the user attribute(s) or event attribute(s) mapped to the data type(s) of the business event’s attribute(s) match.
  • The attribute(s) used in segmentation are passed in the trigger request for the business event.
  • The intelligent delay optimization (With Delay) does not work for campaigns sent on relative timing. DT_ActiveContinously.png

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Conversion Goals

You can add conversion goals to track the business metrics for your campaigns. You can track a maximum of five conversion goals. You can choose any app event as a conversion goal activity and set more than one conversion goal. The first goal will be treated as a primary goal. For example, if you want to track the number of customers who have purchased an iPhone after your campaign was sent. (Event: Purchase event, Product: iPhone). Your conversion goal setup might be similar to the following image:
Con V Ersion Goals
With multiple conversion goals, you can track more than one business metric or visualize a funnel for your user actions. For example, if you want to check the following, you can do so with multiple conversion goals.
  • How many users have viewed the product page?
  • How many of them added that product to the cart?
  • How many of them made a successful order?

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Delivery Controls

This section contains the following options:Frequency CappingThis feature helps control the number of SMS messages sent to a user in a day.
  • Ignore frequency capping: Enable this toggle to ignore the frequency capping limit for this SMS campaign. Click Ignore frequency capping to ignore the capping for your SMS campaigns when you want to ignore the capping but want this campaign to be counted. For example, the frequency capping value is set to three. You have sent three campaigns today to a group of users. You realize that the SMS messages triggered by this campaign are urgent and should go on high priority, even though some customers have already received three campaigns. If you use the Ignore Frequency Cap, people who have already received 3 campaigns will receive this one as well. For more information, refer to Frequency Capping.
  • Count for the frequency capping: Enable this toggle if you want this connector to be counted for the frequency capping limit. If you use Count for frequency capping, people who would have received 2 communications already and send this as well, their receipt count will become 3 after this campaign is sent.
ThrottlingThrottling is a feature that allows you to control the sending rate of SMS campaigns. In the Request limit section, enter the number of requests per minute sent for the SMS campaigns. For example, send the request URL with a default of 60,000 rpm (minimum of 60,000 requests per minute and maximum of 200,000 requests per minute). For more information, refer to Throttlling. del control.png
Your campaign is now ready to be sent. Click Publish, confirm in the dialog box, and your campaign is created.

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Next Steps

If you have successfully created the campaign, you will be taken to the Analytics and Info page. All MoEngage AI products, which were previously referred to as Sherpa AI, are now known as Merlin AI.