A campaign only finds planning applications inside its search area, and writes to the people on them. You can set the area as a distance around a town or postcode, or draw it yourself on the map.
Start a new campaign
Click Letter campaigns in the sidebar.
Click New campaign.
Under What's this campaign for?, type a Campaign name. Name it after the work and the place, like "Loft conversions in Manchester", so your team can tell it apart. Only your team sees it.
Set a distance around a place
Under Where should this campaign find leads?, choose Distance around a place.
In Centred on, type a postcode or town and pick it from the list. A new campaign starts on your office, if you gave one when you signed up.
Choose how far out to go from Radius.
The map shows the last 12 months' planning applications in the area as dots, coloured by the council's decision.
Draw your own area
Use this for a patch that isn't a circle.
Choose Draw your own area. The Area tool is picked for you. If you'd already set a circle, it stays on the map as a shape you can change or clear.
Click points on the map round the area you want, then click the first point again to close it.
To add a circle instead, click Circle, click the middle, then click again to set its size.
Draw as many shapes as you like. The campaign searches inside all of them. Press Esc to stop drawing.
To change a shape, turn on Move & reshape and drag the shape or its points. To remove one, select it and click Delete shape. Clear shapes removes them all.
You need a bigger screen than a phone to draw. If you switch back to Distance around a place, what you drew is thrown away.
Check how much of your plan it uses
Your plan covers a number of leads a year across all your running campaigns. A lead is a planning application your campaign's targeting picks out in its search area, so the area on its own doesn't use any of your plan. You see how many leads a year a campaign finds on the next step, Targeting. Your running campaigns are drawn on the map in grey.
If the campaign already has targeting, for example a running campaign or one you've come back to, a leads a year card shows under the map: how many leads a year its targeting finds in the area you're drawing, a bar of your plan, and how many are left of it (or how far over it you are). With other campaigns running, a key under the bar shows what they use and what this campaign adds. Each campaign's leads are added up, so a lead two campaigns both target counts for each.
When it looks right, click Next: Targeting. A new campaign saves itself as you go, so you can leave and come back to it.
Why can't I click Next?
The leads a year card is red and says how far over your plan the campaign is, and to Narrow your targeting or search area, or upgrade. Make the area smaller, click Edit targeting to pick fewer jobs or add filters, or click Upgrade to add more leads a year to your plan. Only your team's billing members can upgrade; anyone else sees Ask one of your team's billing members to upgrade.
The count for a new area is still loading. Wait a moment.
Give the campaign a name, Choose a place or Draw an area on the map: that part of the step is still empty.
What counts as a lead?
A lead is a planning application your campaign's targeting picks out in its search area: the keywords, document keywords, planning agents and company owners you're after, and the filters you set. It's counted over the last 12 months: the applications your targeting would have picked out in that time. So a big area with narrow targeting can use less than a small area with broad targeting. Click the info icon beside the count to read this on screen.
A manual campaign has no targeting, so it doesn't use any of your plan.
Why was my campaign fine here but refused when I started it?
The campaign fits on its own, but not together with your other running campaigns. The bar turns red and you can still go on, but the campaign won't start until the total fits. You'll see a message like With your other running campaigns, your campaigns target about N leads a year. Your plan covers M leads a year. Make an area smaller, narrow the targeting, pause another campaign, or upgrade.
Don't want a search area at all?
Click Skip, I'll add leads myself to make a manual campaign, which only writes to the leads you add to it. See "How to run a manual campaign".