An Auto Campaign gives your content team a recurring assignment: what to create, how often, and which channels to post to. You set it up once, and MarketingBlocks keeps creating content on your schedule.

A campaign doesn’t publish content the moment it’s made.

Here is how it works:

1. Your team creates content on the creation schedule you set.
2. You review the writing and finished content, depending on the approval process you choose.
3. Approved content joins the channel’s publishing queue.
4. The channel publishes it at its next posting time.

If you set up a first campaign during Pre-Flight Setup, it was saved as a draft. You’ll find it here, and you can activate it here.

Before You Start

• Connect at least one channel. See Connecting Your Channels.
• Set that channel’s posting times, because approved content publishes at those times. See Setting Your Posting Times.
• Campaigns use your saved brand voice, visual styles, and production defaults, so your brand setup should be done first.

How to Get There

From the left-hand menu, click Automation to expand it, then click Auto Campaigns.

What’s on the Page

The page is titled Auto Campaigns, with the line “Give your content team a recurring assignment and manage what reaches your publishing queues.” Two tabs run along the top:

• Campaigns: where you create and manage campaigns.
• Publishing queue: where approved content waits to be posted. It’s covered at the end of this article.

On the Campaigns tab, the heading says Recurring content, made for you. If you haven’t made a campaign yet, the page says Give your team its first assignment and reminds you that your brand preferences are already available. Click Create campaign, either at the top-right or in the middle of the page.

Step 1: Content

The campaign setup has four stages across the top: Content, Creation, Publishing, and Review. You can click Cancel at any time to leave without saving.

1. Campaign name: give the campaign a name so you can find it later.
2. Content type: use the dropdown to choose what the campaign creates.
3. Content pillars (optional): tick the pillars you want the campaign to focus on. If you leave them all unticked, your team uses your saved brand and content strategy. You can change your pillars under Content -- Pillars and Angles.
4. Click Continue.

Step 2: Creation

This stage asks When should your team create content? It sets when your team starts making content. It doesn’t set when posts go live, because each channel has its own posting times.

1. How often should we create? Choose the frequency, for example Every day.
2. How many to create each day: use the – and + buttons. The label follows your content type, for example “Image posts to create each day.”
3. Start creating at: set the time your team starts.
4. Timezone: choose the time zone for that start time. Check it, because it may not match yours.

A summary box underneath tells you what will happen, for example “Start creating 1 image post every day at 06:00.” It also reminds you that creation starts after you activate the campaign, and that finished posts go to your channel queues for publishing.

Two sections can be expanded for more control.

Creative preferences uses your saved brand voice, visual styles, and production defaults. Click Manage defaults to change the defaults themselves. For this campaign you can set:

• Content style: the default is Use saved format default.
• Use my digital twin for media
• Include my brand offer where relevant
• Creative direction: extra guidance for the campaign.

Advanced settings has two options:

• End date (optional): choose a date to stop creating. Leave it blank and your team keeps creating until you pause the campaign. Posts that are already created can still publish after the end date.
• Unpublished posts limit: limits how many posts can be in progress, awaiting approval, or waiting to publish at once. Creation waits when there is no room for the next scheduled group.

A note at the bottom says that creating posts uses credits, and extra channel versions may use more. Click Continue.

Step 3: Publishing

This stage decides where the content goes.

1. Primary channel: under Post to, choose one channel from the dropdown. Your team creates each original post for this channel.
2. Also post to (optional): tick any other connected channels. This shares the same post on more channels, or turns it into another format for each channel.
3. Read When will these go live? Finished content waits in each channel’s queue, then publishes at that channel’s posting times. The creation schedule only controls when your team starts making it. Click Manage channel posting times to adjust them.
4. Approval process: choose how much you review. The option shown is Review writing and finished media before queueing.

A note under the approval process explains that approved queue entries publish automatically at the account’s posting times. Manual recordings always need your input. Click Continue.

Step 4: Review

Check everything before you save. The Review campaign page shows:

• What we’ll create and How often, including the time creation starts.
• Post to: your primary channel, which receives the originals.
• Also post to: any extra channels, or “No additional channels selected.”
• When posts go live: a reminder that you review the writing and finished content before it can be posted, and that each channel posts at its own posting times.
• Posting capacity and limits: click to expand it.

If something is wrong, click Back to fix it. When you’re happy, click Save campaign.

Step 5: Activate Your Campaign

Saving creates a draft, so nothing is created yet. Activate the campaign when you’re ready for your team to start. Your campaign opens on its own page. Open the Actions menu there to activate it.

Your Campaign Page

Each campaign has its own page. At the top you’ll see:

• The campaign name and the line “Set a brief and schedule. Your team creates content for the channels you choose.”
• All campaigns, which takes you back to the list.
• A message when work has started, for example “Production batch queued. Follow the briefs and content below.”
• The campaign’s status, for example Active, with a label such as Daily production.
• Next batch: the date and time your team will start creating again.
• Publishing queue and Actions.

Below that are two tabs, Assignment and Batches. Assignment repeats your settings: what your team will create, how often, the end date if you set one, where it posts, and when posts go live.

The Publishing Queue

Click the Publishing queue tab at the top of Auto Campaigns, or the Publishing queue link on a campaign page, to see what’s waiting to be posted. The page says approved content waits here for the next posting time on each channel.

• Channel: choose which channel’s queue to look at.
• Posting times: a link to that channel’s schedule.
• Up next: the items waiting, with a count, for example “0 items.”

When nothing is waiting, the page says No content waiting and explains that finished campaign content enters the queue after its required approvals. Click View campaigns to go back.

Pause or Change a Campaign Any Time

Open a campaign from All campaigns whenever you want to look at it again. Your team keeps creating until you pause the campaign or it reaches the end date you set.

Stuck or have questions? Click the chat widget at the bottom-right of your dashboard, or email our support team at support@marketingblocks.ai. We’re happy to help.

Next up: Setting Up Auto Comment & DM