> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.brilo.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Start a calling campaign

> Create your first Brilo campaign, add contacts, pick the agent that calls them, and launch it, with the five contact test that stops a bad list reaching hundreds of people.

This is the whole path from nothing to a running campaign, in about fifteen minutes. You create the
campaign, add a call step, add contacts, and launch. Everything else, the follow ups and the pacing and
the exit rules, is worth adding once you have heard five real calls.

## Before you start

* The Starter plan or above. Outbound calling is switched off on Free. See
  [Plans and what they include](/supported/plans).
* An agent that is set up and that you have called yourself. A campaign multiplies whatever your agent
  already does, including the bad parts. See
  [Test your agent yourself](/go-live/test-your-agent-yourself).
* A list of contacts, and the right to call them. See
  [Import your contact list](/contacts/import-your-contact-list) and
  [Calling rules you should know](/compliance/calling-rules-you-should-know).
* A phone number attached to the agent, which is the number your calls come from. See
  [Assign a number to an agent](/phone-numbers/assign-a-number-to-an-agent).

## Steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Write the agent's outbound opening first">
    Do this before you touch campaigns. An outbound call is not an inbound call: your agent rang them,
    so it has to say who is calling and why, then check it is a good moment.

    An agent whose instructions were written for inbound calls will open a campaign call by asking how
    it can help, which is confusing when the caller did not ring anybody. See
    [Example instructions](/agents/example-prompts) for an outbound set you can copy.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create the campaign">
    Go to **Campaigns** and create one. Give it a **Name** you will recognise in three months, such as
    "January leads, no answer follow up" rather than "Campaign 2".
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add a phone call step">
    On the **Overview** tab, add a step and choose **Phone call**. Pick the agent that makes the calls.

    Leave the timing as immediately after the contact is added for your first campaign. See
    [Add a call step](/campaigns/call-step).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set the hours and a daily cap before you add anybody">
    Open **Settings**. Leave **Skip Silent Hours** off, so calls stay inside 9 AM to 8 PM in each
    contact's local time. Set **Calls per day** to something small for the first run.

    Doing this before you add contacts matters, because contacts can start being called as soon as they
    are added. See [Choose when calls go out](/campaigns/choose-when-calls-go-out).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add five contacts, not five hundred">
    Add a handful of contacts you are willing to have a rough call with. Your own mobile and a couple of
    colleagues is even better. See [Add contacts to a campaign](/campaigns/add-contacts).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm consent and launch">
    Launch the campaign. Brilo asks you to confirm you have consent to contact these people. That
    confirmation is not a formality, it is the one gate between a list you should not have bought and
    several hundred calls.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Listen to all five calls">
    Open the **Contacts** tab and play every call. Read the transcripts. You are listening for the
    opening line, whether people understood who was calling, and what your agent did when somebody said
    it was a bad time. See [Track a contact through a campaign](/campaigns/track-a-contact).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Fix what you heard, then add the rest">
    Change the agent instructions, not the campaign, for anything about what was said. Then raise the
    daily cap and add the full list.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## You will know it worked when

Your five test calls went out inside your calling hours, the people who answered understood who was
calling and why within the first sentence, and the campaign shows each contact's outcome on the
**Contacts** tab.

## What to add next, in order

Once the first run is good, these are worth adding in this order:

1. **A follow up step for the no answers.** Most of a campaign's results come from step two, not step
   one. See [Build a sequence](/campaigns/build-a-sequence).
2. **Exit rules.** So nobody gets called five times. See
   [Stop calling a contact](/campaigns/stop-calling-a-contact).
3. **Pacing.** So a big list does not consume a month of minutes in an afternoon. See
   [Control how fast a campaign dials](/campaigns/control-how-fast-it-dials).
4. **Callbacks.** So when somebody rings you back, it counts. See
   [Count callbacks from a campaign](/campaigns/count-callbacks).

## What else you can do here

* Push contacts into a campaign from your contacts list, rather than adding them inside the campaign.
* Use contact details in what your agent says, so each call is personalised. See
  [Add your own contact fields](/contacts/add-your-own-contact-fields).
* Follow a complete worked setup for a specific job. See
  [Set up outbound follow up](/recipes/outbound-follow-up) and
  [Set up payment reminders](/recipes/payment-and-billing-reminders).

## If it did not work

**No calls went out.** The usual causes are the plan, an agent with no number attached, an empty contact
list, or a calling window that has not come round yet. See
[My campaign did not call](/campaigns/my-campaign-didnt-call).

**Calls went out but your agent sounded confused.** Its instructions were written for inbound calls.
Rewrite the opening so it says who is calling and why. See
[Example instructions](/agents/example-prompts).

**People asked "who is this?"** Your agent is not naming the business early enough, and your number may
be unfamiliar to them. Put the business name in the first sentence.

**Calls went out at the wrong time.** Check **Skip Silent Hours** and the calling window. Local time is
worked out from the contact's area code, so a mobile that moved country will follow its number rather
than the person. See [Choose when calls go out](/campaigns/choose-when-calls-go-out).

**You launched with the full list by accident.** Pause it. See
[Pause, archive or stop a campaign](/campaigns/pause-archive-or-stop).

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="How do I start an outbound calling campaign in Brilo?">
    Create a campaign, add a **Phone call** step and pick the agent that makes the calls, set your
    calling hours and a daily cap in **Settings**, add a few contacts, and launch. Do the first run with
    five contacts and listen to every call.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do I need a different agent for outbound calls?">
    Usually yes. An outbound call has to open by saying who is calling and why, and check it is a good
    moment, which an inbound agent never does. You can reuse the same knowledge and actions with a
    different set of instructions.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How many contacts should I put in my first campaign?">
    Five, and listen to all five calls. The cost of a bad list or a bad opening line scales with the
    number of people who heard it, and five is a number you can fix.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What phone number do campaign calls come from?">
    The number attached to the agent making the calls. A local number for the area you are calling gets
    answered more often than a distant one. See
    [Assign a number to an agent](/phone-numbers/assign-a-number-to-an-agent).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why does Brilo ask me to confirm consent?">
    Because calling people who did not agree to be called is regulated, and the platform cannot tell a
    list of your own customers from a list somebody bought. The confirmation puts that decision in front
    of you before the calls go out.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does adding a contact start calling them straight away?">
    It can, if your first step runs immediately and you are inside your calling hours. Set your hours,
    your daily cap, and your steps before you add anybody.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Which plan do I need to run a campaign?">
    Starter or above for outbound calling, and Pro or above for email steps. You can build a campaign on
    Free and run it after upgrading.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [What is a campaign](/campaigns/what-is-a-campaign) for how the pieces fit together
* [Add contacts to a campaign](/campaigns/add-contacts) for the list it calls
* [Build a sequence](/campaigns/build-a-sequence) for the follow ups that do the work
* [Example instructions](/agents/example-prompts) for an outbound agent prompt to copy
* [My campaign did not call](/campaigns/my-campaign-didnt-call) if nothing happens