---
title: "Create and Configure Proactive Chat Campaign"
slug: "create-proactive-chat-campaign"
description: "Create and configure Proactive Chat Campaigns to engage with your visitors on web pages where Sidekick is available."
updated: 2026-04-03T20:00:09Z
published: 2026-04-03T20:00:09Z
---

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

# Create and Configure Proactive Chat Campaign

| **REQUIRED USER ROLE** Administrator | **PERMISSION OVERVIEW** [View permissions by role](https://help.gladly.com/docs/managing-users-and-roles#roles-and-responsibilities) |
| --- | --- |

Create and configure Proactive Chat Campaigns to engage with your visitors on web pages where Chat is available. Once configured, you can leverage Proactive Chat to greet your visitors with a custom message and invite them to chat with an Agent.

## Before you start

Before you create a Campaign, we recommend that you first review the following:

- [**What is a Proactive Chat**](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-is-proactive-chat)
- [**Agent Experience for Proactive Chat**](https://help.gladly.com/docs/agent-experience-for-proactive-chat)
- [**Proactive Chat 'Order' and 'Trigger' Overview**](https://help.gladly.com/docs/proactive-chat-order-and-triggers-overview)
- [**Routing Rules for Proactive Chat Campaigns**](https://help.gladly.com/docs/routing-rules-for-proactive-chat-campaigns)

You also need to ensure you have Chat [embedded](https://help.gladly.com/docs/create-and-configure-glad-app#preview-and-embed-glad-app) on your website, even if you're not using Chat to enable Chat for Customers.

When you are confident that you understand how a Proactive Chat Campaign works, you are ready to create your Campaign.

## Create a Proactive Chat Campaign

[Video](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/proactive-chat-campaign-1.mp4)

1. Click ![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/hamburger-menu-icon(2).svg) on the top left corner of the screen.
2. Click **Settings**.
3. Under the **Proactive Conversations**category, click **Proactive Chat**. The Proactive Chat page will show you a list of current campaigns you have, both active and inactive. ![Proactive Chat settings with campaign details and options for managing triggers and actions.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/Order_Priority.png)
4. Click **Create Campaign**.
5. From the Create a Campaign page, enter the following information:
  - **Name –** Enter a name for the Campaign. This is the same name that will appear in the Conversation Timeline. Make sure it's a name that makes it easy to identify the Campaign. See [Agent Experience for Proactive Chat](https://help.gladly.com/docs/agent-experience-for-proactive-chat) for more information.
  - **Description –** Enter a description for the Campaign. This is the same description that appears in the Conversation Timeline. Ensure it's descriptive enough to give Agents enough context on what the Campaign is for. See [Agent Experience for Proactive Chat](https://help.gladly.com/docs/agent-experience-for-proactive-chat) for more information.
  - **Order –** Enter the [order](https://help.gladly.com/docs/proactive-chat-order-and-triggers-overview) of priority for the Campaign. "1" is the highest priority. If there is another Campaign with all of its Triggers met first, it will display first.
6. Next, you must set up the Campaign Trigger(s) [](https://help.gladly.com/v1/docs/proactive-chat-order-and-triggers-overview)and Actions.
  - **Triggers –**Select the Conditions that a Campaign must meet before a Proactive Chat Campaign is displayed to visitors. See [Proactive Chat 'Order' and 'Trigger' Overview](https://help.gladly.com/docs/proactive-chat-order-and-triggers-overview) to learn more about the Triggers. ![Triggers and actions for proactive chat greeting based on user behavior on a webpage.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/triggers pc.png)
    - By default, Proactive Chat Campaigns apply to all pages where Chat is embedded unless a URL is specified.
    - If using **URL** as a Trigger, do not include the URL protocol (i.e., https://, www.) or commas as part of the URL.
  - **Actions –**Determines what happens if Trigger(s) are met. ![Chat greeting setup instructions for women’s dress webpage with triggers and actions highlighted.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/actions pc.png)
    - **Greeting** **–** The first message or greeting displayed to the visitor when the Proactive Chat Campaign is launched.
7. Indicate if you want the Campaign to follow your current chat throttling setting and if you want to skip onboarding.
  - **Ignore chat throttling –**A Campaign will follow the chat throttling (auto or manual) thresholds currently set up for a Chat instance by default. Check this box if you want to ignore the chat throttling rules for a Chat instance. The Campaign will still respect your Chat business hour settings. Proceed with caution, as disregarding your chat wait times could mean visitors may need to be queued and may sometimes have longer than desired wait times.
    - If you don't check this box and set up a Campaign, you can use the "**Estimated Wait Time**" Trigger, which will only allow a Proactive Chat Campaign to engage if the estimated wait time is less than the threshold you configured.
  - **Skip onboarding –** If onboarding is activated on your Chat instance, checking this box [skips the onboarding process](https://help.gladly.com/docs/agent-experience-for-proactive-chat/?highlight=proactive+chat+onboarding#visitor-is-unknown-onboarding-is-not-active) (i.e., asking for the visitor's name and email address) and immediately starts a chat session.
    - If you check this box, Gladly won't identify if the visitor is a known Customer and will create a blank Customer Profile.
8. Click **Save**. Next, you can preview what the Campaign would look like.

> [!NOTE]
> **Multiple Chat instances**
> 
> Campaigns apply to all Chat instances. Use Campaign URL Trigger to target which Chat instance you want the Campaign to appear in.

## Preview Campaign Greeting in Chat

Next, you can preview what a Campaign greeting would look like to a visitor when shown through the Chat preview feature. From there, click the **Preview Chat With Proactive Chat** checkbox to preview what a Campaign would look like to a website visitor.

![Preview of a proactive chat greeting offering a 10% discount to users.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/proactive prewview.png)

## Route Campaigns to a specific Inbox using Rules

Once a Campaign is saved and you know what it would look like to a visitor, you can create a [Rule](https://help.gladly.com/docs/create-a-rule) to route chat requests from a Campaign to a specific Inbox. By default, without a Rule configured to route chats from a Campaign, the visitor will be routed to the Inbox that Chat (chat) is linked to in the [Entry Point settings](https://help.gladly.com/docs/add-and-configure-chat-entry-points) page.

- **Tip – Rules for Proactive Chat Campaigns**
  - See [Routing Rules for Proactive Chat Campaigns](https://help.gladly.com/docs/routing-rules-for-proactive-chat-campaigns) to learn more about Rules for Proactive Chat Campaigns.
  - See [Create a Rule](https://help.gladly.com/docs/create-a-rule) for more information on Rule creation.

1. Click ![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/hamburger-menu-icon(2).svg) on the top left corner of the screen.
2. Click **Settings**.
3. Under the **Routing** category, click **Rules**. The Rules page will list all the Rules that have been created, active or not.
4. On the top right of the page, click **Create Rule**. ![Overview of rules for automating email responses and creating new rules.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/Create-Rule1.png)
5. Set up the following to set up your Rule:
  - **Trigger**
    - Use *Communication is received*[Rule Trigger](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-are-rules-and-its-components#1-trigger).
  - **Condition**
    - Use *Proactive Chat is*[Rule Condition](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-are-rules-and-its-components#2-conditions) to identify chat requests from a Proactive Chat Campaign. ![Conditions for Proactive Chat and Mountain Bike Campaign settings are displayed.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/Condition-for-campaigns.png)
    - **Tip –**Click **View Campaign** to view the selected Campaign's settings.
  - **Actions**
    - Use *Route to Inbox*[Rule Action](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-are-rules#3-actions) to route incoming chat requests from a Campaign to a specific Inbox.
    - Use *Add Topics*[Rule Action](https://help.gladly.com/docs/what-are-rules#3-actions) to apply Topic(s) to Proactive Chat Conversations automatically.
6. Click **Save**. Next, double-check your Chat Display Rules.

## Check the Chat Display Rules

Next, double-check your [Chat Display Rules](https://help.gladly.com/docs/create-and-configure-glad-app/#h-display-rules). Proactive Chat Campaigns work with Chat Display Rules to determine which pages the Campaign appears on, and keep in mind that Campaign Triggers could override Chat Display Rules. For example, Campaign Triggers will ignore the Chat Display Rules if a Campaign is set to appear on a specific URL, but Chat Display Rules have an exception to hide the Chat on the same URL.

## Test a Campaign before it's made live on your website

> [!WARNING]
> Clear browser cache or test using incognito
> 
> The test won’t work unless you clear your cache or use incognito upon making changes to a Proactive Chat Campaign.

If you want to launch a Campaign on the URL (e.g., *retale.com/new-products*), add **?=[your test name]** at the end of the URL in your Campaign (i.e., retale.com/new-products?=TESTNOV2020). The text after the ?= can be anything, but it should be unique so your regular Customers don't inadvertently see the Campaign.

Once you've saved your Campaign, you can test it by navigating to [*retale.com/new-products?=TESTNOV2020*](http://retale.com/new-products?=TESTNOV2020) on your browser. Once you have confirmed everything is working correctly, remove *?=TESTNOV2020* from the URL Trigger. Continue to tweak your Campaign until it looks just right. After that, remove the addition you made to the end of your URL Trigger in your Campaign, click **Save**, and your Campaign should work as configured.