What is the difference between trigger-based and custom campaigns
Understanding the two types of campaigns in Spear is essential for creating effective campaigns and optimizing your outbound performance.
What is a Campaign?
An outreach campaign is an organized sequence of messages designed for outbound prospecting. It uses a specific copy strategy and may include multiple follow-up messages sent at set intervals.
Spear's two campaign options:
-Trigger-Based Campaigns
-Custom Campaigns
Overview
Trigger-Based Campaigns
Trigger-based outbound is Spear’s core strategy. It lets you reach prospects with timely, personalized connection request messages - leading to higher connection rates and more conversations.
In this type of campaign:
- Spear monitors the web using the defined ICP and keywords.
- When a relevant signal or prospect is found, the system suggests the prospect with a trigger-based message.
- Each prospect receives a tailored connection request based on the origin trigger.
- Messages can be edited when approving the prospect suggestion.

Custom Campaigns
Custom campaigns use a fixed connection request message, which is sent to all prospects assigned to this campaign.
In this type of campaign:
- Excellent for event outreach, for example, inviting prospects to a webinar or to connect prior to a conference
- Can be used for a targeted list

Strategy: Moving Prospects for Higher Relevance
If you have prospects in a Custom Campaign but prefer to reach them with a personalized touch, you can move them back to the monitoring pool.
- Action: Select "Monitor for another trigger".
- Why: This tells Spear to stop the fixed-message flow and start scanning the web for new activity (job changes, posts, etc.).
- Frequency: The system will re-scan every three weeks until a fresh, relevant trigger is found.
The Result: You transform a "cold" custom outreach into a high-impact, trigger-based conversation.
Next Steps
Ready to build your campaign? Read our step-by-step guide on How to set up a campaign to start targeting sharper audiences today.

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