SMS Campaigns let you send promotional text messages to your subscribed contacts. Use SMS for time-sensitive offers, flash sales, or announcements that need immediate attention.
This article shows you how to create, personalize, send, and track SMS campaigns in Omnisend.
Before You Begin
You need to have your contact's phone number in an international format: +11231234567 (+ country-code area-code phone number)
You need to have contacts subscribed to the SMS channel. To send SMS messages to US customers, you must collect TCPA consent and opt-in records.
To send SMS messages to the US and Canada, you need to verify your toll-free number.
You do not have to use your phone number to send SMS campaigns via Omnisend.
SMS access depends on when you subscribed:
Subscribed before May 4, 2026: SMS available on all plans (Free, Standard, Pro). Free and Standard include a $1 credit; Pro includes credits = subscription price.
Subscribed on or after May 4, 2026: SMS available on Pro plan only with volume-based pricing starting at $0.007/SMS. You can purchase SMS credits as a subscription service.
Add a link to your store to track the click rates for your SMS campaigns. Note that we shorten your URLs on SMS; this article explains how and why.
Setup Process
Step 1. To send an SMS campaign, go to Campaigns → New campaign → SMS Campaign → Create SMS.
Step 2. Click Create SMS. The SMS Campaign editor opens, where you can add your campaign name, message text, and opt-out instructions.
Note! The SMS sender's name is automatically added based on the name that you have saved in your store settings.
The Message Text field is where you create the main content of your SMS campaign. This text will be sent directly to your recipients, so it's important to keep it clear, concise, and actionable. Here’s how to make the most out of this step:
1. Write a Clear Message. Be concise. SMS messages have a character limit of 160 for standard messages, so prioritize your key message. For example: Celebrate the season! 25% OFF sitewide. Sale ends today at midnight! Shop now: [[account.website]]. Also, use a friendly and approachable tone that matches your brand voice.
Note! Special characters reduce the SMS character limit from 160 to 70, which could increase the message count. Learn about SMS character counting.
2. Include a Call to Action (CTA). Prompt your recipients to take action. For example: "Shop now: [[account.website]]"
3. Consider Personalization. Add personalization to include the recipient’s name or other details, making the message feel tailored and relevant.
4. Preview as You Go. On the right side of the editor, you can see a live preview of how the message will appear to recipients in the US/CA and non-US/CA regions. This helps ensure your message looks exactly how you intend.
Step 3. We are adding two options for customers to unsubscribe from your SMS marketing: Reply Stop to unsubscribe for US/CA customers and an Unsubscribe link for all non-US customers.
Add an Unsubscribe Link to the SMS
Even though adding the Unsubscribe link is optional, we highly encourage you to add it to your SMS campaign's content. SMS marketing is more sensitive compared to Email marketing. The customer can't choose when he wants to check the message, and it is almost impossible to ignore it. To avoid receiving spam reports or customer complaints, you should allow them to unsubscribe from your marketing.
When it comes to the SMS messages sent to the US/CA customers, adding the Unsubscribe option to the marketing SMS is mandatory. When a customer replies with STOP keywords, Omnisend should respond and update your opt-in list. Therefore, we allow you to include different opt-out instructions for US/CA and non-US/CA customers. Check this article for more information on TCPA-compliant marketing.
Please note that keyword replies can be used only for US/CA customers. Therefore, we advise adding a "reply STOP to opt-out" text for the US/CA subscribers and an Unsubscribe link for the rest of the recipients from different countries.
In the Preview section, you will see how both messages will look.
Important! Unsubscribing from the SMS channel will ONLY unsubscribe customers from the SMS channel; they will still receive email campaigns if they don't unsubscribe via the Unsubscribe link in the email.
Step 4. If you have enough credits, you can send a test SMS. You can send a test SMS to any mobile phone number. Test SMS is priced like a regular SMS message; check SMS pricing here.
If you need more SMS credits:
Legacy pricing (subscribed before May 4, 2026):
Pro plan: Included SMS credits = subscription price (e.g., $59/month = $59 in credits)
Free and Standard: Purchase SMS Credits Subscription separately (starting at $10/month)
New pricing (subscribed on or after May 4, 2026):
Pro plan: Purchase SMS Credits Subscription with volume-based pricing starting at $0.007/SMS
Free and Standard: SMS not available (must upgrade to Pro)
Find more information on SMS pricing in this article.
Important! SMS credits should not be mixed with your monthly email credits limit.
Step 5. Click Next step to select the recipients. You can send it to all SMS subscribers or subscribers of a particular segment. Also, you can exclude some segments, for example, a segment of contacts that haven't opened a couple of previous SMS campaigns.
Step 6. After selecting your recipients, you will receive a price estimate for the total SMS campaign.
If you need to send SMS messages to US/CA numbers, you will see the price for all non-US/CA and US/CA customers calculated separately on the Price Estimation stage of the SMS campaign. The final amount will include the cost of the SMS messages sent to non-US/CA customers to US/CA customers.
Tip 💡 Exclude countries you have no interest in sending SMS to, and reduce the campaign's total price using the toggles next to each country line.
Step 7. Review your SMS campaign and send it out immediately, or schedule it for later.
If quiet hours are enabled in Store Settings → SMS, you'll see a message indicating time restrictions for scheduled delivery.
You are all set! As with any campaign sent, your SMS campaign statistics will appear in the reports.
Reports
Reports for SMS campaigns contain:
SMS Sent. Subscribers who were in the chosen segments.
Revenue. If your customer placed an order after clicking on a link in SMS, you would see the tracked sales.
Click rate. If your message had a link, you would see how many recipients clicked on it.
Unsubscribe rate. The number of unsubscribed customers out of those who had this option.
Campaign cost. The total price for this SMS campaign.
Important note! Open rates cannot be tracked in SMS campaigns. Ensure you include a clickable link in your SMS messages to see how much action was initiated. Adding a link will let you know the click rates and measure client engagement via the SMS channel.
FAQ
Something needs to be fixed?
Please have a look at our Troubleshooting SMS channel article.
If you have more questions or need help, please don't hesitate to contact our support team. We are available 24/7 and can be reached via In-app chat or email at [email protected].