Campaigns

A campaign is the outreach sequence - the connection requests, messages, and email touches - that Handshake runs against an audience, from one of your seats.

What it is

A campaign is how you actually reach the people in an audience. It holds the plan for what gets sent (a LinkedIn connection request, follow-up messages, email), the instructions Handshake uses to draft each message, and the rules for when and how fast it sends. A campaign belongs to a client and runs from one seat (the LinkedIn and/or email identity that does the sending and whose owner approves the messages).

A campaign contains one or more audiences. Think of the campaign as the shared brief and settings, and each audience inside it as a targeted list of prospects. Handshake drafts a tailored message for every prospect, and by default nothing leaves the seat until a human approves it in the Outreach Hub. Connection requests follow the seat's Autopilot switch, which is off by default.

Why it exists

Running outbound by hand means deciding who to contact, writing each message, remembering to follow up, and spacing everything out so the account stays safe - for hundreds of people at once. A campaign does the organising and drafting for you and paces the sending within safe limits, while leaving the final say on every message with you.

Who can see it

Workspaces, clients, and seat users all work with campaigns, scoped to what they are allowed to see: A workspace sees campaigns across their clients, a client sees their own, a seat user sees the campaigns running on their seat. The seat the campaign runs from is also where messages get approved.

How it works

Creating a campaign

From the campaigns list, choose to create a new campaign.
Give it a name (for example, "Q1 outreach").
Assign it to a seat - the LinkedIn (and/or email) identity it will send from. LinkedIn must be connected on that seat first; if it is not, Handshake tells you to connect it before you can create the campaign.

Once created, you point one or more audiences at the campaign and fill in its brief and settings.

Editing a campaign: The Configuration tab

A campaign workspace has tabs for its Dashboard, its Assistant (see The Assistant), its Audiences, and Configuration. The Configuration tab is where you set everything up, grouped into sections such as General (name, status, schedule, channels), Operations (sending controls and pace), and the brief itself (your value proposition, message instructions, objection handling, and notes). Edits are staged and saved together with a save bar at the bottom; any section with unsaved changes is marked Modified.

The sequence and channels

Under General you choose the channels the campaign uses - LinkedIn, Email, or both. A channel can only be switched on if that platform is connected on the seat.

The outreach itself follows a natural sequence, and you write the instructions for each stage:

Connection request - the note sent with a LinkedIn connection invite.
First message - sent once the prospect accepts your connection.
Follow-up messages - sent after the first message if there is no reply.

Email runs as its own channel alongside LinkedIn. Handshake uses your instructions and each prospect's details to draft the actual wording - you do not write one message by hand for every person.

Connection request, then message: The delay

The LinkedIn flow has two parts. First Handshake sends the connection request. Only once the prospect accepts does it draft the first message.

You control how long to wait between the two with the connection-to-message delay, set in Operations. You can choose Instant (draft the first message as soon as they accept, with no wait) or a number of days to wait after they accept (up to two weeks). A short pause after connecting often feels more natural than messaging the instant someone accepts. Like other settings, the delay can be inherited from a higher level (seat, client, workspace, or platform default) or set just for this campaign, and you can restore it to the inherited default at any time.

There is also an outreach pace setting - Patient, Balanced, or Assertive - that controls how assertively the campaign follows up. Balanced is the recommended default.

Separate controls per channel

Each channel is switched on and off independently under Sending Controls:

Send Connections - allow LinkedIn connection requests to go out.
Send Messages - allow LinkedIn messages to go out.
Send Emails - allow email outreach to go out (only available when the Email channel is enabled).

Each channel also has its own daily allowance, so connection requests, LinkedIn messages, and emails are paced separately and one running low does not stall the others. If a channel hits the seat's limit, Handshake shows an amber notice telling you when it will start sending again, rather than failing.

Connection requests: With or without a note

Each connection request carries a short, personalised note by default, and we recommend keeping it. Requests without a note are accepted slightly more often, but a note starts a stronger conversation, and conversations are the point. Well-tuned campaigns reach around 55% acceptance with a note, close to what blank requests get.

If you would still rather send blank requests, turn on Send without a note in the campaign's Configuration tab, under Operations > Sending Controls. It is off by default and applies to this campaign only.

Not happy with the notes themselves? Check the seat's Autopilot switch rather than dropping the note. It is off by default.

With Autopilot on, requests send without waiting for approval. Turn it off to review each note before it goes out. Autopilot is a seat setting, so this applies to every campaign on that seat.
With Autopilot off, each request waits for your approval, and you can edit, revise or reject its note before it goes out.

See Connection requests in the Outreach Hub.

Sending windows (schedule)

Under General you set when the campaign is allowed to send:

Run on days - which days of the week sending happens (Monday to Friday by default).
Timezone - the timezone the schedule is measured in.

Within those days, Handshake only sends during business hours, roughly 8am to 6pm in the campaign's timezone. A message approved outside the window (for example, on a Friday evening) is not sent immediately - it is scheduled for the start of the next allowed window, and the Outreach Hub shows a countdown to when it will go out. Sends are also spread out within the window rather than fired all at once.

All sending stays within each seat's safety caps and warm-up ramp, so volume ramps gently on newer seats. See Seats and account safety.

Reviewing the messages

By default, every drafted message - first message or follow-up - waits for a human in the Outreach Hub before it sends. There you can approve it, edit and revise it (your feedback teaches the campaign's style for next time), or skip it. Once approved, the message joins the queue and goes out in the next sending window. Connection notes wait for approval too, under Connection requests, unless the seat's Autopilot is on. The one other exception is a reply to a prospect who is ready to book, which can go out at once. This is the golden rule of Handshake: By default, nothing sends on its own.

Pausing and resuming

A campaign's status is a simple Live / Paused toggle in the campaign header. Pausing is immediate and stops new sends straight away; resuming asks you to confirm, then the campaign's audiences start sending again.

Status cascades down the hierarchy: Workspace, client, seat, campaign, then audience. If any level above the campaign is paused, the campaign cannot send even when it is set live - in that case it shows as Ready (set live, but waiting on a paused parent), and it resumes automatically once that parent is set live again. Audiences have their own Live/Paused gate too, so only contacts in a live audience are sent to.

One exception: A reply you send to a prospect who wrote back still goes out even if the campaign is paused - pausing stops new outreach, not your conversations.

Parked contacts

Parked contacts are prospects that belong to the campaign but are not in any audience yet. They sit in a holding area and are not contacted - nothing is sent to a parked contact. From the campaign's parked view you can search them, move them into an audience to bring them into the outreach, or delete them. Parking is useful when you want to hold people aside without losing them.

Limits and what to watch out for

Nothing sends without approval by default. If you set up a campaign and wonder why no messages have gone out, check the Outreach Hub - they are probably waiting for you to approve them. Connection requests wait under Connection requests unless the seat's Autopilot is on.
LinkedIn must be connected on the seat before you can create a campaign for it, and a channel can only be enabled if its platform is connected.
Parked contacts are never contacted. If prospects are not getting outreach, check they are in an audience and not parked.
A live campaign under a paused parent will not send. The Ready status means the seat, client, or workspace above it is paused - set that level live to start sending.
The connection-to-message delay can be up to two weeks. Use Instant only if you want the first message drafted the moment someone accepts.
Sending is bounded by the schedule and by account safety caps. Outside the run-on days, the business-hours window, or once a channel's daily allowance is used up, approved messages wait rather than send. See Seats and account safety.