Your First Campaign

A complete walkthrough — from uploading your first contacts to watching your AI agent make live calls.

Overview

Launching your first AI calling campaign in Volume Reach involves five straightforward steps: uploading your contacts, creating a voice agent, creating a campaign, assigning your contacts and agent to it, and activating. This guide walks through each step in order. Plan for about 15 to 20 minutes the first time through.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

A verified Volume Reach account with a funded wallet (at least $20 recommended — see Account Setup)
Completed compliance setup, including caller ID verification (see Compliance Setup)
A CSV file with your contact list ready to upload
A clear idea of the script or talking points for your agent

Compliance setup is particularly important. Running calls before your caller ID is verified can result in calls being flagged as spam by carriers, which reduces your answer rates.

How It Works

Step 1: Upload Your Contacts

Your contacts are the people your campaign will reach out to. Volume Reach imports them from a CSV file.

In the sidebar, click Contacts, then click Upload Contacts.
Download the CSV template if you don't already have a file in the right format.
Your CSV must include at minimum a phone number column. You can also include first name, last name, email, and any custom fields you want your agent to reference.
Click Choose File, select your CSV, and click Upload.
Volume Reach will validate the file and show you a preview. Confirm the column mapping (for example, tell the importer which column is the phone number) and click Import.

Your contacts will appear in the Contacts section once the import finishes. Large files may take a minute or two to process.

See CSV Upload for full formatting requirements and tips on handling duplicates and opt-outs.

Step 2: Create a Voice Agent

Your voice agent is the AI that will call your contacts, deliver your message, handle responses, and qualify leads. Each agent has its own voice, personality, and script.

In the sidebar, click AI Agents, then click New Agent.
Give your agent a name (for your reference only, contacts won't see it).
Choose a voice from the available options. You can preview each voice before selecting.
Write your opening greeting — this is the first thing the agent says when a contact answers. Keep it natural and concise. For example: "Hi, this is Alex calling from Acme Realty. Is now a good time for a quick 30-second question?"
Fill in the agent script — the core message, how to handle common responses, and what qualifies as an interested lead.
Set your voicemail message — what the agent leaves if the call goes to voicemail.
Click Save Agent.

You can create multiple agents and run A/B tests across campaigns to find the highest-performing script. Start simple — a clear, brief greeting with a single qualifying question outperforms long scripted pitches.

See Creating a Voice Agent for a complete guide including advanced settings.

Step 3: Create a Campaign

A campaign defines when and how your agent reaches out to your contacts.

In the sidebar, click Campaigns, then click New Campaign.
Give your campaign a name (for example, "Q2 Seller Leads — March").
Select AI Voice Calling as the channel.
Set your calling hours — the days of the week and time window during which calls will be placed. Calls will only go out during these hours and will automatically pause outside them.
Choose your timezone to ensure calling hours are applied correctly.
Set the maximum call attempts per contact — how many times the agent will try a contact before marking them as unreachable (1 to 3 attempts is typical).
Click Next.

Step 4: Assign Contacts and Agent

On the Contacts tab of the campaign setup, click Add Contact List and select the list you uploaded in Step 1. You can add multiple lists to the same campaign.
On the Agent tab, select the voice agent you created in Step 2.
Review the campaign summary — total contacts, estimated duration, and estimated cost based on your contact count and plan rates.
Click Save Campaign.

Your campaign is now saved in draft status. It won't start calling until you activate it.

Step 5: Activate and Monitor

When you're ready to go live:

Open your campaign from the Campaigns list.
Review the settings one final time.
Click Activate Campaign.

Your campaign will immediately begin placing calls to contacts within your configured calling hours. If you activate outside your calling hours window, calls will begin at the next scheduled start time.

Monitoring your campaign:

The Campaign Dashboard shows real-time progress: calls placed, contacts reached, voicemails left, hot leads flagged, and calls remaining.
The Activity Feed on the main dashboard shows a live stream of individual call outcomes as they happen.
The Conversations section shows any contacts who pressed a key, requested a callback, or were flagged as interested.

You can pause a campaign at any time by clicking Pause on the campaign page. Pausing stops new calls from being placed but does not cancel calls that are already in progress.

Tips and Best Practices

Start with a small batch. For your first campaign, consider uploading 50 to 100 contacts rather than your full list. This gives you a chance to review call transcripts and tweak your agent's script before scaling up.
Review transcripts early. After the first 10 to 20 calls, open a few call records and read the transcripts. You'll quickly see if your agent's opening is working or if contacts are hanging up before the message lands.
Call during business hours for your contacts' timezone. Answer rates are significantly higher mid-morning (9 AM to 11 AM) and early afternoon (1 PM to 3 PM). Avoid calling on Mondays before 10 AM and Fridays after 3 PM.
Keep your greeting under 15 seconds. Contacts are more likely to stay on the line if the agent gets to the point quickly. Introduce, state the purpose, and ask a single question.
Act on hot leads the same day. Contacts flagged as interested by your AI agent have the highest conversion rate when followed up within a few hours. Check your Hot Leads view daily.
Don't deplete your wallet mid-campaign. Enable auto-reload in Settings > Billing > Wallet so your campaign never pauses unexpectedly due to a low balance.