On The Campaign Registry (TCR), a Campaign is an A2P 10DLC messaging "use case" that a business or organization registers under a Brand. There are standard use cases, which are generally available to most TCR-registered Brands, and special use cases, which are sensitive and may require pre-post-registration approvals by the carriers.
Each Campaign corresponds to a specific use case, such as appointment reminders, surveys, or promotional messages. These use cases guide the type of Campaign and its throughput (the number of messages that can be sent per minute or day). Throughput requirements vary depending on the mobile network operator (MNO).
Each carrier allocates throughputs, or rate limits, differently as they each have different perspectives in regards to throughput limitations. Here is how rate limits are assigned by the three largest Carriers in North America:
What this means is that in order to maximize your rate limits without exceeding them, you need to proactively know who each message recipient’s Carrier is and how many messages are being sent to each Carrier from the Brand and its related Campaigns prior to sending a text message.
As mentioned, Campaigns fall into two main categories: standard and special.
Standard Campaigns, which are easier and faster to approve, include subcategories like Declared or Dedicated Campaigns (focused on a single use case) and Mixed Campaigns (covering multiple use cases).
For example, a business sends appointment reminders to patients at a dental office. The Campaign is focused solely on this single use case, making it a clear and straightforward option for approval. This type of campaign helps Carriers easily identify the purpose of the messages, ensuring quick processing and delivery.
With a mixed Campaign, let’s say a local retailer uses one campaign to send both promotional offers and customer service notifications. They might text customers about upcoming sales while also responding to inquiries about product availability. Since this Campaign involves multiple use cases, it is classified as a Mixed Campaign but remains under the Standard category for approval purposes.
Special Campaigns, on the other hand, require additional pre-registration or post-registration approvals due to the sensitive nature of their use cases. Although this process takes longer, Special Campaigns can offer benefits such as higher throughput and tailored features.
For example, a nonprofit organization conducts a political advocacy campaign, sending text messages to support a candidate or encourage voter registration. Since these types of messages involve sensitive content and may require stricter oversight, the Campaign goes through additional scrutiny during registration. Once approved, however, the nonprofit gains access to tailored features like higher throughput to ensure messages reach recipients quickly during critical times.
Campaign registration begins when a business submits a Campaign to TCR through their API provider, also known as a Connectivity Partner (CNP). The CNP forwards the Campaign to a Direct Connect Aggregator (DCA) – such as Syniverse, Sinch, or Infobip – for review. The DCA manually reviews each Campaign submission for compliance with Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) and mobile carrier guidelines.
As a Campaign Service Provider (CSP), you can check the status of a Campaign my navigating to ‘My Campaigns’ in your CSP portal and clicking on the Campaign. When first submitted, the ‘Elected DCA’ column in the ‘Carrier Status’ section with read “No” next to each carrier. If approved, the column will change to “Yes”.
If a Campaign is rejected, it’s considered an ‘event’. Head over to the ‘Event Type’ section at the bottom of the page – if you see “CAMPAIGN_SHARE_DELETE”, this means your Campaign was rejected. The ‘description’ column will show the DCA’s exact reason for the rejection and how to fix for re-submission.
