This article explains the fastest way to get a large audience into a campaign, and when a recipe is still the right choice. It’s for admins and campaign owners planning to send to tens of thousands of contacts or more.

Why does the method matter?

The way you add contacts to a campaign decides whether your send goes out in under an hour or across several days. Adding contacts always takes longer than sending the email, so picking the right method is the biggest lever you have on timing.

Bulk actions are built to move a large, known list in one go. Recipes are built to watch for a condition and add contacts as they meet it. Both can add contacts to a campaign, but only one is designed for volume.

Here’s what that looks like for a 100,000-contact send:

Please note that these times are approximate. Processing speed depends on overall platform load at the time you run the action.

Who can access this?

• Bulk add to Campaign. Super Admin, Sourcing Admin, Sourcing Standard, Sourcing Confidential, Marketing Admin, Marketing Standard, Marketing Limited, Recruiter Standard, Recruiter Confidential. (Should a custom configuration be required, reach out to your CSM to provide guidance.)
• Recipes. Only Super Admins and Marketing Admins can create and edit recipes that add contacts to campaigns.
• Bulk action limit. Your organization sets a limit on how many contacts a single bulk action can be applied to. If you go over it, you’ll see a message telling you so. If you need to send to more contacts than your limit allows, please speak with Product Support to temporarily increase your bulk action limit. 

Please note that you can’t add contacts to a Triggered campaign manually or with a bulk action. Triggered campaigns only accept contacts from a recipe. For a large one-off send, use a Dynamic campaign.

How do I choose the right method?

Use the Add to Campaign bulk action when:

• You’re sending a one-off message to a list you can filter today, like a newsletter, an event invite or a re-engagement push.
• Speed matters and you want the whole audience in the campaign before you send.

Use a recipe when:

• Contacts should join the campaign over time, as they meet a condition.
• The trigger is an event, like a form sign-up, a status change or a consent workflow.
• You’re using a Dynamic or Triggered campaign.

For examples of recipes that work well, see Best Practice Examples of Automated Processes Made by Recipes.

How do I add a large audience with a bulk action?

Sending to an audience within your bulk action limit

1. Create a Dynamic campaign, or open an existing one.
2. Go to People in the CRM module or open a Pool of filtered contacts.
3. Use filters to build your audience.
4. Select the contacts using the checkboxes.
5. Click Bulk Actions, then choose Add to Campaign.
6. Pick your campaign from the list.

Give it time to finish before your first touchpoint sends. For 100,000 contacts, plan for about an hour. You can track the progress in campaign analytics on deliverability statistics.

Sending to an audience bigger than your bulk action limit

Split the audience into segments, and write a message for each one. Most large sends are a mix of audiences anyway (by region, role, or how recently someone engaged), and one email to everyone rarely lands well with any of them. Segmenting keeps each bulk action inside your limit, and it keeps your spam rates down. See Best Practices for Reducing Spam Rates for more on why that matters.

If you need to add more contacts in one go than your limit allows, contact Beamery Product Support before you start. We can raise your limit temporarily for the send (and set it back afterward) or permanently.

What's next?

You should now be able to pick the right method for a large send and plan how long it will take. For step-by-step detail, see:

• How to Apply Bulk Actions to Groups of Candidates
• How to Add Candidates to an Existing Campaign
• What is the difference between a Single, Dynamic and Triggered campaign?
• How to Use Recipes to Add Candidates to Campaigns, Pools and Vacancies Automatically

Planning to send hundreds of thousands of contacts? Talk to your CSM before you build it, and we’ll help you plan the segments and timing.