--- title: Transactional messages slug: campaign/docs/transactional-messages docTags: createdAt: 2026-07-20T15:44:20.696Z --- # Overview ## About transactional messages Transactional messages are messages sent automatically in response to an action of the recipient. To use such messages in Optimizely Campaign, you first need to define a transactional campaign on the page **Transactional Mails**. When this is done, there are two ways to send transactional messages: - **API messages**. Result from an API call, such as placing an order from a web shop. Can be triggered via [REST API](https://world.optimizely.com/documentation/developer-guides/campaign/rest-api/), [SOAP API](https://world.optimizely.com/documentation/developer-guides/campaign/SOAP-API/) or [HTTP API](https://world.optimizely.com/documentation/developer-guides/campaign/http-api/). - **Marketing Automation messages**. Used in a [Marketing Automation campaign](docId\:rH-CVuXsKjRWjl4DSmNsl). You cannot directly edit message drafts in a Marketing automation campaign. Instead, select a previously defined message draft from a transactional campaign. Both use cases require that your transactional campaign is properly defined and started. Once started, transactional campaigns have the status **Sending**. This status means that the campaign is ready to send messages via API calls or via a Marketing Automation campaign. **Notice:** Sometimes transactional messages and transactional campaigns are called "transactional mails". For viewing and editing transactional campaigns, go to the page **Transactional Mails**. ## Calling up the page Transactional Mails 1. In the Menu bar, select **Campaigns** > **Transactional Mails**. → The page **Transactional Mails** shows the transactional campaigns in your client. **Notice:** You may need to edit the filtering of the list to see all transactional campaigns in your client (see [below](docId:6JbMqxBf1Te6K0YPlNSxo)). # Viewing campaign details ## Presentation of campaigns and messages The list of transactional campaigns shows campaigns and the corresponding message drafts. The message drafts in a campaign are displayed below the row for the entire campaign and three dots "..." are added before their name. This is the same presentation that is also used for Smart Campaigns. Usually, transactional campaigns contain only one message draft, but they may contain more if an A/B test is used. ## Possible states Each transactional campaign or message draft has one of the following states: - **New**. Fully configured but not started. - **Incomplete**. Elements are missing or necessary parameters are not defined. - **Sending**. Active and ready to send messages. - **Canceled**. Sending was canceled and cannot be restarted. - **Sent**. This applies when a transactional campaign used to have multiple message drafts for an A/B test and then one of the message drafts is removed. The removed message draft remains in the list with the status **Sent**. **Notice:** Message drafts with the status **sent** are hidden by default. You can change this by editing the filtering options of the list (see [below](docId:6JbMqxBf1Te6K0YPlNSxo)). ## Filtering the list of transactional campaigns **Context:** The list of transactional campaigns can be filtered by the values in the **status** column. **Caution:** This filter excludes values if you checkmark them. Clear the selection to see all messages. 1. Click on the header of the **status** column. → A Menu is displayed. 2. Checkmark all values that you want to exclude from the list. 3. Click outside of the menu. → The menu disappears. The entries are filtered. # Creating and editing transactional campaigns ## Similarities with Smart Campaigns Many aspects of working with transactional campaigns are similar to working with Smart Campaigns. The list view and the campaign editor work the same way. See [Creating and editing campaigns](docId\:Cs9h76oKiBCgyL3ITuBP5) to learn how to - create - open - edit - save a transactional campaign. There, you can also learn how to: - send test messages - analyze your campaigns. ## Differences to Smart Campaigns Transactional campaigns do not have campaign drafts. You start with a blank campaign, as if you had selected the empty draft for a Smart Campaign. The campaign editor offers fewer types of nodes. Since transactional campaigns work in combination with API calls or Marketing Automation campaigns, there is less need for complex logic within a transactional campaign. Transactional campaigns must use a recipient list that is suitable for transactional campaigns. If you do not yet have an appropriate list, contact customer support. The structure of the selected list is important but the recipients it contains are not important, because the recipients for transactional messages are controlled by incoming API calls or the recipients defined in a Marketing Automation campaign. ::::hint{type="info"} **Tip** ## Copying a transactional campaign to another client :::hint{type="info"} **Note** **Prerequisites:** The registered user has permission to create Campaigns in the target client(s). The target clients have the same message template used in the transactional campaign that you want to copy. ::: 1. On the page **Transactional Mails** select a transactional campaign and click **Copy to Client…**. → The **Copy Transactional Mail to Client** window opens. 2. In the **Transactional Mail** area, in the **New Transactional Mail Name in the Target Client** field, enter the name for the copy of the transactional campaign in the target client. 3. In the **Target Clients** area, select clients into which you want to copy the transactional campaign. To select all available target clients, check the box in the menu bar. 4. Click **Copy**. → The campaign is copied to the selected clients. Recipient lists and target groups are not transferred to the target clients. 5. Archiving of messages ## Purpose of the archiving function Some messages contain information with long-term relevance for legal reasons. You can configure message drafts so that the messages generated from them are archived in Optimizely Campaign. Then you can prove a message was sent to a specific recipient at a given time. ## Archiving period You can change the archiving period any time. The change will be applied to already archived messages as well. If you disable archiving, all new sent transactional messages will not be archived anymore and the existing archived mails will be removed according to the last configured period. **Warning:** Shortening the archiving period can lead to immediate deletion of existing archived messages! ## Activating archival for a message node **Prerequisites:** You have created or opened a transactional campaign and you see the campaign in the campaign editor. 1. Click on a message node and select **properties**. 2. Click **Edit content**. 3. In the top right of the page, click **More > Archive sent emails.** 4. Activate archiving by clicking on the checkbox. 5. Select the time for which the messages should be archived. 6. Click on **Apply**. 7.  Close the message draft by clicking on **Close**. 8. Save the campaign. → Messages sent via the configured message node will be stored for the configured time. ## Displaying archived messages **Prerequisites:** There are archived Messages. The selected archival time has not yet passed. 1. In the menu bar, click on **Recipients > Recipient History**. 2. In the field **Search Recipient Based on**, select the recipient property you want to use for searching. 3. In the field **Search Value**, enter a search string. 4. Optional: Use the fields **Start date** and **End date** to search for messages sent within a given period of time. 5. Optional: If you want to limit your search to one or some recipient lists, select these lists in the field **Search In**. 6. Click on **Start Search**. → Matching archived messages are displayed in a list. 7. Select a message by clicking on it. 8. Below the list, click on **Show Sent Mail**. → The archived message is displayed. ::::