This article covers how to create a campaign in Topo, from campaign type selection to going live.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Type

When you click "Create a Campaign", select one of the available campaign templates:

• Persona-Based — Classic outbound using role, industry, or geography filters. Ex: "CTOs at SaaS companies in the US with 10–500 employees."

• Technology — Target companies based on tools they use. Ex: "Companies using HubSpot or Salesforce."

• Hiring — Target companies actively recruiting for specific roles. Ex: "Companies hiring for Marketing Operations roles."

• New Role — Reach people who recently changed jobs. Ex: "Head of Product who started within the last 90 days."

• Champion Tracking — Re-engage former users at their new company.

• Account List — Upload a CSV of target accounts for ABM outreach. Important: the agent assumes your CSV is already filtered. Geographic exclusions and other filters are not applied automatically — specify them explicitly in the campaign description. Keep CSV files under 1,000 companies.

• Competitor's Followers — Target ICP contacts who follow competitors on LinkedIn. Use this type (not Persona-Based) when you want to combine a persona with a follower signal.

• Contact List — Upload your own list of contacts (warm leads, event attendees, CRM exports). The agent matches each contact against professional databases. Best results with LinkedIn URL + email + company name per row.

• Custom — Advanced campaigns using other signals: fundraising, LinkedIn profile keywords, lookalike audiences, multi-signal combinations.

Step 2: Describe Your Campaign

Describe your target audience and intent in natural language. Be as specific as possible — the more precise your description, the better the AI Agent will target.

Include the relevant signal (funding, hiring, tech stack), role/title, geography, or trigger. Ex: "Target HR Directors at healthcare companies in Europe" or "Reach companies that raised a Series A in the last 12 months."

How organization settings interact with your description: Your Organization Settings define the default ICP (industry, geography, company size, personas). If your campaign matches the default ICP, just describe the campaign type — the agent applies defaults automatically. If you want to override the ICP for this campaign, specify it in the description. Anything you explicitly mention takes priority over org settings.

Multi-signal campaigns: You can combine signals in one Custom campaign. More signals = smaller but higher-quality lead pool. Keep natural language and pre-set fields consistent to avoid targeting errors. Consider separate campaigns per signal if you want different messaging or a larger volume.

Step 3: Manual Lead Validation (optional)

Choose between Autopilot (fully automated) and Manual Check / Copilot (review leads before outreach).

With Manual Check: new leads appear in the campaign's Lead View — accept or reject each one before outreach starts. Approved leads immediately enter the sequence. Switching from manual to automatic only applies to new leads, not previously pending ones.

Note: You cannot see audience size before launching. Activate the campaign in Copilot mode to preview leads before they're contacted.

Step 4: Review & Create

Before launching you'll see a summary: Campaign Name, Campaign Overview (target audience and filters), and a reminder to set up messaging before the campaign sends. Click "Create" — the campaign is saved in your dashboard awaiting its messaging sequence.

Step 5: Set Up Messaging

Go to Campaign Settings → Messaging to add email steps and LinkedIn sequence.

Email Signatures

Topo has no central signature store — add your signature directly inside each email step. Plain text only; links are supported but keep them minimal (hurts deliverability). Emails sent from Topo have no signature by default.

Best practice: Vary your signature between steps to break deliverability patterns.

• Email 1 → Full signature (First name, Last name, Job title, Company)

• Email 2 → First name + Last name only

• Email 3 → First name only

Note: Images in signatures are not supported — intentionally, as they reduce deliverability.

Adding Hyperlinks

Email steps: Highlight the text → click the link icon → paste URL → Insert. Keep it to 1 link per email to protect deliverability. Important: paste the URL, press Enter so it becomes a chip/tag, then Save. Missing either step means the link won't append correctly.

LinkedIn steps: Clickable hyperlinks are not supported. Paste the full URL as plain text.

LinkedIn Agent Troubleshooting: When Messages Stop Sending

If your LinkedIn agent appears connected but isn't sending messages, this is likely because it's still assigned to a finished or paused campaign. Here's how to diagnose and fix this common issue:

Quick Diagnosis

1. Check your agent's current campaign assignment in the Agents tab

2. Verify if that campaign is still active (not finished/paused)

3. Look for the campaign status indicator

The Fix

When a campaign finishes, LinkedIn agents remain "connected" to it but stop sending messages. To resume outreach:

1. Go to your Agents tab

2. Click the "⋮" menu next to the inactive agent

3. Select "Change Campaign"

4. Assign it to an active campaign

Why This Happens

Unlike email agents that can be easily reassigned, LinkedIn agents maintain their connection to finished campaigns in the interface, making it appear they're still active when they're not actually sending messages.

Prevention Tips

• Always reassign LinkedIn agents immediately when campaigns finish

• Monitor agent activity regularly to catch inactive agents early

• Consider this workflow when planning campaign transitions

AI Sequence Generator

Use messaging.topo.io to instantly generate high-performing sequences. Enter your company details + email → the AI analyzes your website and generates a full multi-step sequence. Configure language, tone, campaign type, and targeting details. Copy directly into agent.topo.io.

Step 6: Assign an Identity

Before launching, assign an Agent Identity to the campaign (Campaign Settings → Identities → Add identity). An Identity groups one or more Email Agents + one LinkedIn Agent. Campaigns are always assigned to Identities, not directly to individual agents. The Identity system handles sender rotation automatically.

How to link an email sender to an identity:

1. Go to Settings → Senders in the left sidebar

2. Click the 3 dots next to the email sender you want to assign

3. Select Edit

4. Change the Associated Identity to your desired identity

5. Save your changes

Note: All replies to your campaign emails are received in the Topo Master Inbox, where you can view and respond to them in one centralized location. You can also enable Slack or email notifications in Settings → Notification Settings.

Capacity rules

• One mailbox ≈ 30 emails/day. 60 leads/day = 2 email agents minimum; 90 leads/day = 3.

• When an Identity is assigned to multiple campaigns, sending capacity is evenly distributed across them.

• A LinkedIn agent can run across multiple campaigns — it targets one campaign's daily goal before moving to the next. Best practice: keep daily targets low per campaign when sharing one LinkedIn account.

• If an Identity is missing the required email or LinkedIn agent, the campaign won't send.

Final Step: Enable the Campaign

Click "Enable Campaign" in the top right. The AI Agent begins enriching and enrolling leads matching your ICP. First leads typically appear within a few hours.

If the campaign status shows "Pending Setup", messaging and/or identity are not yet assigned. If no leads are contacted after 1+ day with everything configured, contact your Account Strategist.

Exclusions

• Global company exclusions (competitors, customers, pipeline): share a CSV of domains to your account strategist.

• Per-campaign company exclusions: add specific domains in "Your Campaign Targeting" when creating the campaign.

• Contact exclusions: you cannot exclude individual contacts in advance, but you can stop the sequence for a lead that has already been contacted.

• Blocklists: Settings → Blocklists → upload contact or company blocklist via CSV.

All imported lists are saved in Settings → Company Lists and can be reused manually when creating a new campaign.

FAQ

Can I import contacts via CSV?

Yes. Include LinkedIn URL, professional email, and/or full name + company. LinkedIn URL gives the best match rate. The agent matches each contact against professional databases — some may be filtered out if data is outdated, the person changed jobs, or the email is personal rather than professional. Re-uploading won't bypass the matching process.

For international campaigns, should job titles be in the local language?

Include both English and local language versions. Depending on the market, titles may be predominantly one or the other — covering both improves targeting accuracy.

Can I set a cap on the number of leads per campaign?

There's no dedicated cap feature. Specify the desired volume in "Your Campaign Targeting" and the team can set it on their end. Alternatively, manually set the campaign to "Finishing" once you've reached your target.

Can I target multiple signals in one campaign?

Yes — use Custom Campaign and add each signal in the targeting fields. Keep natural language and pre-set fields consistent. More signals = smaller lead pool.

How to target LinkedIn followers?

Select "Competitor's Followers" as the campaign type, not Persona-Based. Persona-Based is for simple role/industry/geo targeting without intent signals.

Can I review leads before they're contacted?

Yes — switch to Manual Check / Copilot mode when creating the campaign.

Can follow-up emails have different subject lines?

No. Follow-ups are sent in the same thread as the first email so the lead can reference the full conversation. Subject lines cannot change mid-thread.

Does Topo detect lead timezones?

Yes, automatically when data is available. If no timezone data exists or your sending window doesn't overlap with the lead's timezone, the system falls back to your defined schedule.

Can I add images to emails?

Images can only be added when replying to an email — not in new outbound emails, as they trigger spam filters.

Can I use first-name personalization in LinkedIn messages?

Yes. Use {{recipient_first_name}} in your LinkedIn message.

What does "No fallback value" mean?

If Topo can't match a variable (e.g., {{recipient_company_name}}) for a contact, that step will fail. Provide a fallback value (plain text without variables), e.g., "your company".