Playbooks Overview

Purpose

Playbooks are a strategic layer above campaigns. A playbook captures the offer, target segment, messaging angle, and hypothesis behind one or more campaigns. Performance from all linked campaigns rolls up to the playbook level so you can compare strategies, not just individual sends.

This article explains what playbooks are, how to create them, how to link campaigns, and how to read playbook performance data.

Prerequisites

• You must be signed in and a member of the team where the playbook will live.
• At least one campaign should exist (or be planned) to get value from linking.

What Is a Playbook?

A playbook answers: "What are we testing, who are we targeting, and what do we expect to happen?"

Each playbook includes:

Playbooks are owned by a team and can link to any number of campaigns within that team.

Create a Playbook

1. In the left sidebar, click Playbooks.
2. Click New Playbook (top right).
3. Enter a Name for the playbook.
4. Select an Offer Type from the dropdown.
5. Optionally enter a Hypothesis describing what you expect.
6. Click Create Playbook.

The playbook is created and you're taken to the playbook detail page where you can fill in the remaining strategic fields.

Link Campaigns to a Playbook

There are three ways to link a campaign to a playbook:

During campaign creation:

1. In the campaign creation wizard, step 1 (Campaign Name) shows a Playbook dropdown if any playbooks exist for your team.
2. Select a playbook from the dropdown. This is optional — leave it as "None" to create the campaign without a playbook.

From campaign settings (retroactive linking):

1. Open the campaign and go to Settings.
2. In the Campaign tab, find the Playbook field.
3. Select a playbook from the dropdown, or change to a different one.
4. The setting saves automatically.

From the playbook detail page:

1. Open the playbook.
2. Go to the Campaigns tab.
3. Click Link Campaigns.
4. Search for and select the campaign(s) you want to link.

Unlink a campaign from a playbook (detail page):

1. Open the playbook Campaigns tab.
2. In the linked campaigns table, click Unlink on the row for that campaign.
3. Confirm when prompted. The campaign is not deleted; it is only removed from this playbook and no longer rolls up in the playbook’s metrics.

Read Playbook Performance

Playbook List

The playbooks list page shows aggregated metrics for each playbook:

Use the status filter to narrow by playbook status. Use Sort to order the list by created date, last modified, campaign count (most or fewest linked campaigns), or overall playbook reply rate (highest or lowest).

Playbook Detail

Open a playbook to see comprehensive performance data:

• Total sends, replies, interested, and meetings booked aggregated across all linked campaigns.
• Reply rate trend — how the reply rate has changed over recent sends.
• Best campaign — the linked campaign with the highest reply rate.
• A full list of linked campaigns with their individual performance.

Edit a Playbook

1. Open the playbook from the Playbooks list.
2. On the Overview tab, click into any field to edit it: value proposition, offer type, segment details, messaging angle, or hypothesis.
3. Changes save when you click Save Changes.
4. Use the Outcome Notes tab to record learnings after running campaigns.

Archive a Playbook

Archiving removes a playbook from the default list view without deleting it or unlinking its campaigns.

1. Open the playbook.
2. Click the Archive button.
3. The playbook moves to the "Archived" filter tab.

Archived playbooks and their performance data remain accessible through the status filter.

Expected Result

You can create playbooks that capture the strategy behind your outreach, link campaigns to track performance at the strategy level, and use aggregated metrics to compare which offers and angles work best.

Troubleshooting

• Issue: No playbook dropdown appears during campaign creation.

Fix: The dropdown only appears if at least one active playbook exists for the team. Create a playbook first.

• Issue: Playbook metrics show zero even though linked campaigns have sent emails.

Fix: Verify the campaigns are correctly linked — open the playbook and check the Campaigns tab. If campaigns are listed but metrics are zero, the campaigns may not have generated send events yet.

• Issue: Cannot find an archived playbook.

Fix: On the Playbooks list page, click the Archived status filter tab to view archived playbooks.

Related Articles

• Campaigns Overview
• Create a Campaign

Updated on: 03/04/2026