Create a LinkedIn campaign

A LinkedIn campaign sends a connection request to each prospect, waits for them to accept, then sends your follow-up messages with waits in between. Anyone who replies is stopped automatically. Campaigns are built in Distro and carried out by the Distro extension in your own Chrome. LinkedIn campaigns sit in the same Campaigns list as your email campaigns, under the LinkedIn tab.

Before your first campaign, set up the extension: see Getting started with LinkedIn outreach.

How a campaign runs

1. Connection request (with or without a note)
2. Wait for acceptance (up to 14 days by default)
3. Message 1, once they accept
4. Wait, then the next message
5. End

Messages only go to people who accepted your invitation. If someone doesn't accept within the waiting time, their sequence ends as No acceptance.

Create the campaign

1. Go to Campaigns, click New campaign and choose LinkedIn.
2. Give it a name at the top. The campaign saves automatically as you edit ("All changes saved").
3. In the To row, click Select prospects and add people From a list, by Import a CSV, or with Search & pick. Lists come from the LinkedIn prospects tab under People. Only active prospects who aren't marked do not contact are added. A campaign can hold up to 5,000 prospects.
4. Edit the steps (below), check Settings in the sidebar, then click Show preview to see exactly what each prospect will get.
5. Click Launch campaign.

A new campaign starts with a connection request without a note, a 14-day wait for acceptance, one message, and an end step.

The connection request and invitation note

Click the connection request step to choose the note:

The Invitation note must be 300 characters or fewer once variables are filled in for each prospect. Distro checks this per person and leaves out anyone whose note would be too long or would be missing a value without a fallback.

If notes run out. LinkedIn gives free accounts only a few invitations with a note each month. When a note is set, the sidebar shows If notes run out:

• Send anyway (default): send the invitation without the note.
• Don't send: don't send, and hold the person.

Messages, waits and the end step

• Wait for acceptance: Wait up to (days), 1 to 30 (default 14). Distro checks about once a day whether the invitation was accepted.
• Message: plain text, up to 3,000 characters per prospect after variables are filled. Use Add a follow-up message to add another message with a 3-day wait before it.
• A wait: from 15 minutes to 30 days, set in minutes, hours or days.
• End sequence: ends the sequence with an outcome such as Completed or No acceptance.

Use or add another step for extra steps, and each step's menu to Move up, Move down or Delete step. A sequence starts with the connection request and can have up to 18 steps, including up to 8 messages.

Personalisation variables

Click Insert variable in any note or message.

{{firstName}} {{lastName}} {{fullName}} {{jobTitle}} {{company}} {{location}}
{{custom.your_field}}

Add a fallback for empty values: {{firstName | there}} becomes "there" when a prospect has no first name. Custom fields come from columns you mapped as custom fields during a CSV import. Prospects that came from an intent audience can also use intent variables such as {{openingLine}} and {{signalTopic}}.

Sidebar settings

• Working hours: actions only happen on these days and hours, while your Chrome is open. A campaign uses your LinkedIn account's working hours unless you choose Custom for this campaign in Goal, details & working hours.
• Pace: how long Distro waits before the next person and when it takes a break (Fast, Balanced, Careful or Custom).
• Daily limits: the most connection requests a day and a week, and messages a day, across all your LinkedIn campaigns. These are the same limits as Change limits on the LinkedIn account page.
• Goal: what you want from these conversations. Distro's writing help uses it.
• Stop on reply: always on. When someone replies, their follow-ups stop.

Pace and limits are explained in LinkedIn daily limits, pace and safety pauses.

Writing with Distro

If AI writing is available on your account, Write the sequence with AI drafts a connection note and up to 7 messages from your goal and choices (goal, ask, tone). Each note or message also has an AI menu to write, rewrite, shorten or change the tone. Nothing changes in your campaign until you choose to use a suggestion, and each action shows how many AI credits it uses before you confirm.

Launch

When you click Launch campaign, Distro saves, checks your LinkedIn setup and the sequence, then shows a summary: how many prospects, the working hours, your daily limits, and that messages only go to people who accept. Click Launch campaign again to start.

If something is missing, you'll see a list such as "Finish the one-time setup" or "Your Chrome isn't checking in", each with what to do. You can launch while Chrome is closed: the work waits until the extension checks in.

Distro also leaves out people it shouldn't contact, for example someone already invited from this LinkedIn account through Distro, or already queued in another running campaign.

While it runs

Open the campaign from the LinkedIn tab of Campaigns and click View live run to open the run page. It shows who is Awaiting acceptance, In sequence, Replied, No acceptance, Skipped or Stopped, and the next scheduled action for each person. Use Pause, Resume or Cancel run there. Edits you make to the campaign apply the next time you launch it.

If LinkedIn shows an already-pending invitation or you're already connected, that person is skipped. If Distro couldn't confirm whether a request or message went out, it never retries that step automatically.

Other campaign actions are in the campaign's ⋮ menu in the Campaigns list: Open, Duplicate, Archive (and Restore), and Delete for a campaign that was never launched.

When someone replies, see LinkedIn replies and stop on reply for where it shows. To reach the same person by email and LinkedIn in one flow, create an Email + LinkedIn campaign instead: see Email + LinkedIn campaigns.