Plan Campaigns - What is a campaign template and why do I need one?

A campaign template is the blueprint every campaign in Plan Campaigns is built from. It decides which fields, sections and settings a campaign has. You need at least one active template before anyone can create a campaign.

What a campaign template is

In the template editor you choose what a campaign looks like: its header, the fields people fill in (for example text, dropdowns, tags, numbers and time spans) and how those fields are grouped into sections. Every campaign you create from the template gets that same structure, so all your campaigns are filled in the same way.

Why you need one

When you select Create on the Campaign projects page, Plan lists your templates under the headings Central and Local. You pick a template, and the campaign is created from it.

Without an active template, you cannot create campaigns in Plan. The Create menu still opens and shows Central and Local, but there is nothing to select underneath them, and clicking the headings does nothing. If Create seems to do nothing for you, check that an active template exists.

Where to find your templates

1. Open Plan Campaigns and go to Application settings.
2. Select Templates.

The Templates page lists your templates in a Central hierarchy table and a Local hierarchy table, with the status of each template. Only templates with the status Active are offered when you create a campaign. To turn a template on or off, select the ... menu on its row and choose Activate or Deactivate. To build a new one, select Create new template and choose Central or Local.

If you cannot see templates or template creation

What you can do with templates depends on the privileges assigned to your user account. You may not see the Settings area or the Templates page, or the Create new template button, if your account does not have the privilege to open the template builder or to create templates. In the same way, you may not see options such as Activate, Deactivate, Duplicate or Remove on a template if your account does not have the privilege to edit templates.

You may also not see the Create button on the Campaign projects page if your account does not have the privilege to create campaigns. If you need one of these, ask your administrator to grant you the privilege.

Next steps

Once you have an active template, you can create your first campaign. See Plan Campaign - Creating a new campaign. To get more out of your templates, see Start using automations, Start using calculations and Sub-items widget.