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Create Campaign

Updated

Overview

A Campaign is a collection of one or more phishing, training, or callback tests. 

This article covers the process of creating a campaign (found by navigating to Tests/Campaigns > Create Campaign). 

Clicking "Create Campaign" will take you to the Campaign Wizard, where you will configure individual simulated phishing tests. At each step, clicking the "Save & Next" button will save your current campaign configuration, allowing you to edit your campaign at a later time or date if needed. 

Click any link to jump to a section:

  1. Campaign Type
  2. Schedule
    1. Course Auto-Enroll (optional)
  3. Targets
  4. Templates
  5. Review

 

Campaign Type

On this tab, you will choose the type of campaign you are creating. There are three options:

  1. Phishing Campaign - A simulation of a real-life phishing attack against your targets. The emails sent in a phishing campaign are meant to be deceptive. For these campaigns, you will use phishing email templates. 
  2. Training Campaign - This campaign type is meant to train your targets. Thus, targets cannot fail (only email opened, reported, and viewed training page actions will be recorded for this campaign type). 
  3. Callback Campaign - Send simulated phishing emails to your targets in order to get them to call a phone number, which will lead them through an interactive phone experience to raise their security awareness. 

 

Schedule

On this tab, you will be able to give your campaign a name, choose a group of targets to test (or multiple), and schedule your simulated phishing, training, or callback emails. 

The following are the configurable fields: 

Campaign Name - Choose a name for the campaign. It is recommended to name your campaigns descriptively, e.g., "Sales Team Employees Q3 2023". 

FOR RESELLERS: Here, you will also choose a selection type: by group or by account.

Group(s) and Target Selection - Select the group(s) of targets that you wish to test. Please note that if you select multiple groups for testing, you will not be able to omit individual targets in the groups being tested. However, you will still be able to exclude targets using various filter parameters in the Targets section. 

If target selection is turned off, groups that have smart sync enabled will add and remove targets as the group is updated. If you select a single group, you will also have the option of choosing individual targets or the entire group. If you wish to select targets from a group for testing, turn the toggle to "Yes" for Target Selection. However, please note that this will remove the ability for any targets to be added or removed from the test via smart sync. 

Courses - Switch course auto-enrollment on or off for failing targets. When on, targets that fail the simulated phishing test will automatically be enrolled pre-selected courses of your choosing. If enabled, this will display the Course Auto-Enroll step in the Campaign Wizard (which is covered in the next section of this article). Furthermore, Auto-enroll is only available for Phishing tests. 

Pilot - When toggled on, this campaign will be excluded from account, group, and target metrics, meaning that actions will not be counted against targets and will not affect failure rates. 

Frequency - Specify whether you would like the test to run one time or repeat in the future, the number of repetitions, and how often you would like the test to recur. 

If recurring is selected, additional fields will appear where you can configure intervals: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly. The default is set to repeat once per week. You will need different templates for each time the test is ran. Repeated tests' settings will be identical to the base test, aside from email templates used for testing. 

Start Date, Time, & Time zone - Specify a starting date, time, and time zone for the test to begin. 

Track Activity - Specify how long you would like to track activity after all of the emails have been sent. 

Sending - Specify how you would like the simulated emails to be sent:

  • "Send all emails when the test campaign starts at x per hour": Emails will be scheduled to send at the rate specific in the "per hour" field. The emails will be scheduled to send at the start time of the test. If the count of emails exceed the x per hour rate, the next x emails will be sent the next hour -- which will continue until all messages are sent. The default is 1,000, a minimum of 10, and no maximum. 
  • If you create a campaign with multiple groups, a test will be created for each group. The email rate limit is set on a per-test basis. For example, if a campaign is testing 10 groups with 100 targets, 1000 emails will be scheduled. If the email rate limit is set to 100, all of the campaign's emails will be sent in the first hour (100/hour for each of the 10 tests containing 100 emails). If the email rate limit is set to 10, all of the campaign's emails will be sent over ten hours (10/hour for each of the 10 tests containing 100 emails).
  • "Send x emails per target over y Business days/weeks/months": Emails will be scheduled to send evenly across the days and hours specified. The order in which the emails are sent is random. The "x emails per target" number represents the number of templates you want to send to a target per test. You will need to select the same amount of email templates that you specify in this field for each repeated test. 

NOTE: If the test is scheduled to begin on a day of the week that you do not wish to send emails, emails will not start sending until a day that you have specified for sending. This is also true for repeated tests. If a start date occurs on an off day, the emails will not send until a selected day of the week has been reached.

 

Course Auto-Enroll (skip if not enabled in Schedule)

The course auto-enroll step allows you to auto-enroll targets into selected courses based on their type of failure on a group-by-group basis. 

Each row represents a different group that is being tested. If you have selected courses on the "Edit Group" page, these will be populated here. 

Integration Settings Lock (lock icon): When checked, all the groups with LMS integrations of the same type (Litmos, SmarterU, no LMS integration type, etc.) will collapse on the screen and inherit the same Action Trigger specifications.

Email Click Actions: Targets who click links in phishing emails will be enrolled in courses in this column.

NOTE: Attachment open actions do not count as email click actions.

Landing Page Actions: Targets who enter data or click links on landing pages will be enrolled in course(s) in this column.

Reply Action: Targets who reply to reply-to phishing templates will be enrolled in course(s) in this column.

Repeat Offender: You can specify the course enrollment(s) targets will be assigned if they fail x number of tests in the last y weeks, months, or years.

NOTE: The present test's failures are included in the count of failures. 

For example, if this setting is configured to enroll targets that fail 1 test in the past y weeks/months/years, any target that fails this present test will be assigned the course configured for Repeat Offender.

Due Date: The due by date of any courses the targets get enrolled into as a results of failing the campaign. If not set, this will be dynamically determined based on the Default Due Date setting on the School Settings page. The Due Date will require the student to complete the course before the specified day. For example, if a course has a due date of 1/24/2024, then the course must be completed by end of day 1/23/2024. 

Override Target Manager Name and Email: If this option is turned on, then you can set a manager name/email address that will be used when the enrollments are created instead of the target's manager name/email address. If left off, the manager name and manager email address will be used as the manager for any enrollments created as a result of auto-enroll.

Enrollment Manager Name/Email: The name/email of the enrollment manager. The enrollment manager will be cc'd on all course enrollment, reminder, and past due emails that get sent to the student.

 

Targets 

The targets section will differ depending on whether Target Selection was toggled on or left off in the Schedule section. 

Target Selection Toggled On 

If target selection was toggled on, then the Targets section will have the following:

Columns - The targets' Full Name, Sub-Group, Address, and Last Test.

Further, there are various buttons: 

  • Filter Targets - Filter the targets currently in the list. 
  • Clear - Removes all filters. 
  • Add New - Add a new target to the list. 
  • Sync From... - Sync targets from LDAP, Microsoft Graph, etc. 
  • Import - Select a group and CSV file to import from. 

Target Selection Toggled Off

If target selection was left off, there will be two toggles on the Targets section in order to filter targets:

Use Mathematical Auto Selection - This will allow you to filter targets by the following:

  • Percentage - Select targets randomly until the given percentage of the targets in all groups have been selected, 
  • Number - Select targets randomly until the given number of targets have been selected. If you select multiple groups to include in the campaign, then the number of targets will be pulled from each group and included in each test that is scheduled), or 
  • Confidence Level - Select a sample of targets based on confidence level. We use statistical concepts to calculate the sample size needed to appropriately represent the population of targets in the selected groups. You can use this Sample Size calculator to see how our system selects a sample size. Input the following into the calculator: 
    • Set the confidence level to either 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 99%,
    • Margin of Error = 3%,
    • Population Proportion = 50%,
    • Population size should be set to the number of targets included in the selected groups.

Use Field Filters - Filter targets using field values such as language, title, etc. 

 

Templates

On this tab, you will be selecting the template(s) you intend to use in the campaign. You can use custom templates you have made or edited in your account, or you can use pre-made templates from the Portal template library. 

The Campaign Wizard will do its best to match the locales (languages) offered by the templates you select with the locales of your targets and groups. 

My Phishing/Training Templates: This section contains all the email templates that are owned by your account, e.g., any templates that appear on the Manage Templates page.

Template Library: In this section you can select pre-made templates from the Portal Template Library.

Filter Templates: This allows you to filter templates by name, language, or category. There is also a drop-down that lets you sort templates by date or name.

Template List: This contains a list of all the templates relevant to the tab you are viewing (My Templates or Template Library). 

Action Buttons: The following Action buttons are available: 

  • Add - Add the respective email template to the test. 
  • Remove - Take the template off the campaign (not to be included in the campaign). 
  • Get - If you are viewing library templates, click the "Get" button to both place the template in your account and add it to the campaign. 

Templates Selected for the Test: This will list all of the templates you have added to the test. Depending on the settings you configured in the Campaign Setup stage, you may have to select multiple templates for testing. This is indicated by the ratio displayed in the header text. The test will not begin until you have added the correct number of templates. Templates that have not been marked as a favorite will display a warning icon.

Locales Needed: Shows the language locales that are used at the target, group, and campaign level. It is recommended, but not required, that you pick templates to satisfy all the language locales for your targets. If all language needs are not met, you will be prompted with a warning. However, you can choose to continue anyway, and the default language will be used on the template.

Selected Group Locale Info: This shows the locale for the group(s) that are included in the campaign. It also gives the number of targets without a locale set. 

Default Locale: This is the default locale on the campaign. If a group does not have a language locale set, and a target in the group does not have a language set, then scheduled email(s) to that target will be sent using the locale at the campaign level (if any of the selected templates contain this locale).

The campaign wizard will try to match the target's locale as closely as possible. If the template(s) included in the test have the locale of the target, then that version of the template will be sent. If, however, the selected templates only have a close match, then that will be chosen. For example, suppose the target's language locale is "Spanish (Mexico)", but the template's locales are "English" and "Spanish (Spain)". The target will receive the "Spanish (Spain)" version of the template.

If the target's locale does not match any of the locales on any of the selected templates, then the same logic is applied for the group locale to determine which template to send the target. The campaign wizard will try its best to pick a template that matches as closely as possible with the target's locale.

If neither the target nor the group locales match with any of the locales for the selected templates, then the campaign wizard will try to pick a template based on the default locale of the campaign.

Finally, if the language locale of the target, group, and campaign do not match any of the locales for the template, then the default locale of the template is sent to the target.

Enforce Template Default Language: To only use the template Default Locale and not use Target, Group, or Campaign language to determine which locale is sent. 

Tip: Use this if you want to always send phishing/training in English or one language.

Auto Select Favorite Domains: Domains will be auto selected from templates that have been marked as a favorite on the Templates Domains page. 

 

Review

Here you will verify the details of the test, and then click "Finish" to run the test. 

Domain Authorizations: If a target domain has been authorized under Manage Target Domains, they will appear here, as authorized target domains. Target domains that are not authorized will require an email address to be entered in order to send a campaign authorization email. 

Microsoft Safelisting: Clicking the "View Microsoft Safelisting Instructions" will bring up tab containing information on how to set up Microsoft Safelisting. 

Group Targets: This dropdown allows you to see the name(s) of the group(s) in the campaign, as well as the corresponding number of targets for each group. Furthermore, if you have selected to use filters, then the counts of groups and targets are accurate to those filters. 

Tests: The Tests dropdown details the number of tests, the sending rate, the started timestamp, the sent by timestamp, the timestamp when tracking actions ends, and the length of the test. 

Templates: The Templates dropdown displays a list of all templates used in the campaign, detailing their respective names, from emails, and approximate number of emails per test. 

Campaign Notifications: If toggled on, a daily summary of campaign activity will be sent to the Admin that created the campaign.  

Direct Delivery: If toggled on, emails will be injected into the targets inbox rather than using conventional email sending. 

Embed Images: When toggled on, images are embedded (inline/CID) directly in the email instead of linked when supported by the recipient's mail client. Images are embedded in order until the combined size reaches 2MB; any remaining images will simply stay linked. Furthermore, if an image cannot be downloaded during send (e.g., timeout, blocked host, or authentication requires), it will remain linked instead of embedded. 

Reply Body Privacy: When enabled, the reply body text will be stored. Please note that reply and auto-reply actions will still be tracked. 

Advanced Mail Server Options: If toggled on, then you will be presented with the option to select any preconfigured SMTP servers. SMTP servers can be configured in the Mail Settings page. Furthermore, there is also the option to override the DKIM account settings. Setting this to "no" will use the DKIM settings configured on the Mail Settings page. 

 

 

 

 

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