Activating multi-step campaigns

You can activate a multi-step campaign now or schedule it to start later. To activate the campaign, you must specify how long you want the campaign to run.

After the campaign ends, the following occurs:

  • Oracle Eloqua deactivates the campaign and the status changes to COMPLETED.
  • The campaign becomes read-only and you cannot reactivate the campaign, add contacts to it, or modify any settings. If you want to reuse the campaign, you can copy it.
  • Oracle Eloqua removes all contacts who were members of a campaign element and the contacts exit the campaign.
  • Oracle Eloqua continues to track all campaign activity for 12 months after the campaign end date. If a contact opens an email, submits a form, or performs other campaign-related activities, Oracle Eloqua captures those actions and you can report on them.

Note: You must have permissions to activate a campaign. If you see an Approvals button on the campaign canvas, the campaign must go through an approvals process before activation. See campaign activation security for more information about activation permissions.

Before you begin:

  • Resolve any draft errors An image of a red indicator showing seven errors in the campaign.. You can view the errors by clicking the error indicator or by clicking Verify. All errors must be resolved before you can activate the campaign.
  • Ensure that any Oracle Eloqua AppCloud apps on the campaign canvas are fully configured.
  • After you activate the campaign, you cannot make changes to it. You will have to deactivate the campaign to make changes.
  • Test your campaign and the campaign assets thoroughly. For example, send test emails, preview landing pages, and submit forms associated with the campaign.

Note: You cannot activate a campaign if the campaign reporting start date is after the activation date. See this knowledge base article to find out more about campaign dates.

To activate a campaign:

  1. Navigate to Orchestration An image of the Orchestration icon., then click Campaigns.
  2. Open the campaign you want to activate.

  3. Click Activate. The Activate Campaign window opens.

    An image of the Activate Campaign dialog box.

    Note: You will also see Campaign Activation User options if you are an administrator.

  4. Configure the activation:

    • To start the campaign immediately, click Start Now.
    • To choose a date for the campaign to start, click Start Later and schedule the start date and time. The default time zone is based on the server, not the time zone from your local machine.
    • Specify the duration of the campaign using the Campaign Activation End Time field. The end time will always be at midnight on the date selected. The default end date is for 3 months. Only set durations up to what is necessary and not far beyond. This is to prevent the canvas from continually triggering the segments to run unnecessarily. After the end date, the campaign will become read-only and Oracle Eloqua continues to track all campaign activity for 12 months after the campaign end date. You can also set up an end date notification for your campaign.

  5. Click Activate or Schedule to save your changes.

    Oracle Eloqua activates the campaign according to the schedule you set and the campaign's status changes to Active or Scheduled.

After you finish:

After a campaign is Active, you can track the flow of contacts through your campaign elements:

  • To view where contacts are in the campaign, click Refresh. A number appears beside elements telling you how many contacts are now in that element. If there is a segment element, a number next to the element indicates the number of contacts who've entered the element so far.
  • To view more information about the counts, double-click the number. See Tracking segment members in campaigns or programs for more information.

    An image of a step with a contact count. The image is highlighting where to double-click to see the step members report.An image showing the number of contacts that have entered the segment step so far

About deactivating campaigns and Oracle Eloqua's retention policy

When you deactivate a campaign, Oracle Eloqua does the following:

  • Changes the campaign's state to DRAFT. The change is associated to the user who last modified the campaign.
  • Stops moving campaign members through the campaign.
  • Holds campaign members in their current step until you reactivate the campaign.

A deactivated campaign can remain in this DRAFT state and hold campaign members for 3 months. After that, Oracle Eloqua performs the following clean-up tasks on those campaign members Oracle Eloqua was holding:

  • Removes the campaign members that were being held
  • Removes the campaign entry record for those removed members and they no longer appear in the Campaign Entry report
  • Identifies the removed campaign members in the Campaign Exit report with the exit type Removed due to Retention Policy

Learn more

Campaign approvals

Campaign activation security

"Run as other user" for campaigns

Moving contacts through a program or campaign

Setting up campaign notifications