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Use a Klaviyo campaign for a one-time broadcast to a list or segment; use a flow for an automated, trigger-based journey that sends as each person qualifies. Campaigns fit newsletters, sale announcements, and launches with a known send date. Flows fit lifecycle moments such as a signup, abandoned checkout, product view, purchase, price drop, or low inventory. Most mature programs use both: campaigns create scheduled communication peaks, while flows provide always-on follow-up. The choice affects audience selection, timing, message structure, suppression rules, and how you interpret performance, so setting the right format before building saves rework.
What is the difference between a Klaviyo campaign and a flow?
A campaign is a manually prepared, one-time send to a pre-established list or segment. A flow is an automated sequence set in motion by a trigger, with one or more messages delivered individually as recipients meet the trigger and any filters.
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|---|---|---|
| Audience | A list or segment selected before sending | People who meet a trigger and pass profile or trigger filters |
| Timing | Sent immediately or scheduled for a chosen date and time | Runs automatically whenever qualifying events occur |
| Structure | Usually one broadcast message (though you can plan a series of separate campaigns) | One or more messages connected by delays and branches |
| Best for | Newsletters, promotions, launches, announcements, and calendar-led updates | Welcome, abandoned-cart, browse-abandonment, post-purchase, price-drop, low-inventory, and winback journeys |
| Delivery pattern | Batch delivery to the chosen audience | Individual qualification and queued steps |
Klaviyo describes a campaign as a “one-time send to a pre-established target group of contacts,” while its comparison describes flows as automated messages curated from triggers and filters. Its glossary (updated October 8, 2026) adds that flow emails are sent one at a time as individuals qualify, rather than as a batch. That distinction is the practical dividing line: campaigns answer “Who should receive this scheduled message?”; flows answer “What should happen when this customer does something?”
When should I choose a Klaviyo campaign?
Choose a campaign when the message is tied to a calendar date, a planned promotion, or an announcement and you can define the audience in advance. You control the send moment and the final recipient set.
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Newsletters and editorial updates
A weekly newsletter, product roundup, or company update normally goes to an engaged list or a segment such as “subscribed in the last 12 months and clicked in the last 90 days.” The content is the same for everyone in that send, aside from personalization fields.
Sales and promotional events
Black Friday, a weekend sale, a free-shipping offer, or a limited coupon has a start time and often an end time. A campaign lets you schedule the announcement, reminder, and final-hours message as separate broadcasts while applying exclusions and Smart Sending to reduce fatigue.
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When a new collection, feature, store opening, or policy change needs to reach a known audience on a specific day, a campaign gives you a single approval point. You can preview the message, test links, select the segment, and schedule it for the launch moment.
Messages that should not repeat for every customer action
If a customer views a product ten times, you probably do not want ten identical “new product” emails. A campaign sends once to the selected audience; a flow would need frequency controls and filters to avoid repeated entry.
When should I choose a Klaviyo flow?
Choose a flow when an individual event or attribute should start communication. The trigger determines entry, and the flow can then wait, branch, filter, and send different steps based on what happens next.
Welcome journeys
A list- or segment-entry trigger can start a welcome sequence immediately after subscription. Delays let you introduce the brand, explain benefits, and make an offer over several days instead of sending everything at once.
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Abandoned-cart and browse-abandonment recovery
An event such as checkout started or product viewed can trigger a reminder. Trigger filters can narrow the event (for example, a cart containing a particular product category), while a delay prevents an email from arriving before the shopper has had time to finish.
Post-purchase education and retention
An order-placed trigger can start shipping guidance, product education, review requests, replenishment reminders, or cross-sell messages. Conditional splits can send different instructions for different products or customer properties.
Price-drop and low-inventory alerts
Catalog-driven events can trigger a message when a saved or viewed item changes price or inventory reaches a defined condition. These are event-based communications, not calendar broadcasts, because each recipient qualifies at a different time.
Winback journeys
A flow can identify a period of inactivity, wait, and branch based on engagement. One path might offer helpful content, another a promotion, while profiles that purchase during the wait can be filtered out of later steps.
How do campaigns and flows actually deliver messages?
Campaigns build a recipient batch first; flows evaluate people continuously. Understanding that operating model helps explain why a campaign can be paused before a send while a flow needs entry, queue, and exit controls.
Campaign delivery
- Select Campaigns in Klaviyo and create a new email campaign.
- Choose the destination list or segment. Add exclusions for unengaged, recent purchasers, or anyone who should not receive this particular message.
- Build the email with a template or the editor, then check personalization, links, and the mobile layout.
- Choose Send now or schedule a date and time. Confirm the account time zone and any Smart Sending setting before final approval.
- After sending, review delivery, clicks, conversions, and revenue rather than judging the message by opens alone.
The audience is selected in advance, so a person who joins the segment after the send begins will not automatically receive that campaign. A later campaign or a flow is needed for new entrants.
Flow delivery
- Open Flows and create a flow from a template or from scratch.
- Choose one trigger: list or segment entry, an event such as placing an order, a profile date, a price drop, or a low-inventory condition.
- Add Flow filters to decide who may enter. These inspect profile attributes or other entry conditions.
- Add Trigger filters when the event data itself matters, such as order value, product, category, or quantity.
- Place one or more messages on the canvas and insert time delays between them.
- Use conditional splits for profile or behavior-based branches and trigger splits when the original event data should determine the path.
- Set each action to the appropriate draft, manual, or live state, test with preview profiles, and monitor the queue after activation.
When an event occurs, Klaviyo evaluates the trigger and filters for that individual. Qualifying people enter the queue, wait through the configured delays, and proceed through the branches unless a filter or suppression rule stops them.
What are flow triggers, filters, delays, and splits?
These controls turn a basic automated email into a lifecycle program. Use each for a different decision so the logic remains understandable and debuggable.
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A trigger is the single condition that starts a flow. Common choices include entering a list or segment, placing an order, reaching a profile date, viewing a product, a price change, or a low-inventory event. A flow has one trigger; if two unrelated events should start the same program, use separate flows or a trigger design that genuinely represents both cases.
Flow filters: who is allowed in
Flow filters check whether a profile should enter or continue. Examples include consent status, customer type, geography, lifetime value, or whether the person is already in another lifecycle state. They are useful for protecting existing customers from an acquisition sequence or excluding contacts who have already purchased.
Trigger filters: what happened
Trigger filters inspect the event that caused entry. For an order event, they can distinguish a product, collection, quantity, or order value. For a viewed-item event, they can limit the flow to a category or catalog condition. Keeping event logic in trigger filters makes the flow easier to audit than hiding it in several later branches.
Time delays: when the next step occurs
A delay can be measured in minutes, hours, or days, depending on the flow’s purpose. A short delay can prevent an abandoned-cart reminder from racing a checkout; a multi-day delay can separate welcome education from an offer. Always account for the recipient’s time zone, quiet hours, and whether an action during the delay should remove them.
Conditional splits: which path a person takes
Conditional splits evaluate profile or behavior data at the split. For example, purchasers can receive a product-specific education path while non-purchasers receive general guidance. Put the most important exclusion or conversion check early enough that people who have completed the goal do not continue receiving irrelevant messages.
Trigger splits: which event details control the path
Trigger splits branch on the data carried by the starting event. An order flow can route customers by product type; a signup flow can route by the form or source that collected the address. This keeps event-specific logic close to the event and avoids creating a separate flow for every minor variation.
How do I build a campaign in Klaviyo?
A campaign is quick to launch, but a disciplined setup prevents sending the wrong version to the wrong audience.
- Define the one-time objective. Write the intended action, such as placed order, event registration, or content click, before choosing the creative.
- Prepare the audience. Use an engaged list or segment and create explicit exclusions for unsubscribed, suppressed, recent purchasers, employees, or anyone covered by another message.
- Create the campaign. In Campaigns, choose the email channel, name the send clearly, and select the list or segment.
- Compose and personalize. Use a template or editor. Check subject line, preview text, sender identity, dynamic content, fallback values, and every destination URL.
- Set timing and safeguards. Send immediately or schedule the date and time. Check Smart Sending, frequency limits, and the account’s time-zone setting.
- Preview and test. Send test messages to internal addresses, render on mobile and desktop, and verify coupon codes, inventory claims, and unsubscribe behavior.
- Send and annotate. Record the campaign’s objective and offer so later reports are compared with similar sends rather than unrelated messages.
How do I build a flow in Klaviyo?
Flows require more logic than campaigns, so map the trigger, goal, exit condition, and timing before adding copy.
- Map the customer moment. State the event that should start the journey and the conversion that should end it.
- Select the trigger. In Flows, choose list/segment entry, an event, a date, price drop, or low-inventory trigger that matches the moment.
- Protect entry. Add profile and trigger filters for consent, geography, product, recency, or other conditions that must be true.
- Add the first message. Keep the first step useful even if later steps are skipped. Set its status deliberately while testing.
- Insert delays. Choose waits that reflect the customer’s decision cycle; do not use a generic interval for every product or audience.
- Add conversion checks and branches. Use conditional or trigger splits to separate purchasers, repeat visitors, product types, or engagement levels.
- Set exits and suppression. Prevent people who complete the goal, unsubscribe, or enter a conflicting lifecycle flow from receiving stale messages.
- Test with realistic profiles and events. Confirm the trigger payload, filter evaluation, split path, delay calculation, and rendered message.
- Activate gradually and monitor. Review the first queued recipients, delivery errors, skips, and conversions before expanding the flow’s audience or switching every step live.
Can I schedule a Klaviyo campaign, and can I schedule a flow?
Yes for campaigns: they can be sent immediately or scheduled for a chosen date and time. A flow is not scheduled as one batch; it runs continuously, and each person receives steps according to the time they qualify, the delays, and the branches they encounter.
You can use delays and time-of-day controls inside a flow to shape delivery, but that is different from scheduling a single broadcast. If every recipient must receive the same announcement at 9:00 a.m. on a launch date, use a campaign. If each recipient should receive a message a day after their own purchase, use a flow.
Should I use a campaign or a flow for common scenarios?
Match the format to whether the timing belongs to your calendar or to the customer’s behavior.
| Scenario | Recommended format | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly newsletter | Campaign | The editorial content and send date are planned in advance. |
| Holiday sale announcement | Campaign | A shared promotion starts at a defined time for a selected audience. |
| New product launch | Campaign | Everyone should hear about the launch around the same calendar moment. |
| New subscriber onboarding | Flow | Each person joins on a different date and needs a timed sequence. |
| Abandoned checkout | Flow | The reminder depends on an individual checkout event and subsequent purchase status. |
| Product-view follow-up | Flow | Entry depends on browsing behavior and can be filtered by catalog data. |
| Post-purchase education | Flow | Content should follow each order and vary by product or customer status. |
| Price-drop or low-inventory alert | Flow | The event occurs when a catalog condition changes, not on a fixed date. |
| Re-engaging inactive customers | Flow | Inactivity and later behavior determine who enters and which path they take. |
Can campaigns and flows be used together?
Yes. A lifecycle program is usually stronger when campaigns handle shared calendar moments and flows handle individual follow-up. For example, a campaign can announce a seasonal sale, while a browse-abandonment flow reminds each shopper about products viewed during the sale and a post-purchase flow provides education after an order.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should I compare campaign and flow performance?
Compare the formats against the same conversion goal, not against open rate alone. A placed-order event, registration, or qualified lead gives both a campaign and a flow a common outcome.
- Delivery: Check delivered, bounced, skipped, and suppressed recipients to ensure audience quality is comparable.
- Clicks: Use click rate and click-to-open rate carefully, and verify that links lead to the intended page.
- Conversions: Measure the same event window and attribution rule for both formats.
- Revenue: Where available, compare revenue per recipient or per delivered message rather than total revenue from audiences of different sizes.
- Unsubscribes and complaints: A high conversion rate does not justify a message that damages list health.
- Time to conversion: Flows may convert after a delay, so set a window that includes the full journey rather than stopping at the send timestamp.
Klaviyo’s guidance says flows generally show higher open rates than campaigns and cites around 40% open rates for welcome, abandoned-cart, browse-abandonment, and post-purchase or thank-you flows. That figure is guidance from a page dated 2025, not a universal benchmark. Apple Mail Privacy Protection can record opens that do not represent a person reading the message, so use clicks and conversions as the stronger decision signals.
What are the most common campaign and flow mistakes?
Using a campaign for an event-driven need
A manually exported abandoned-cart list becomes stale quickly and cannot naturally adapt when someone completes checkout. Use an event-triggered flow with a purchase check instead.
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Using a flow for a calendar announcement
A launch flow can cause people to receive the announcement on different days, undermining a coordinated release. Use a campaign for the announcement and reserve a flow for behavior that follows it.
Skipping exclusions
Without exclusions, recent buyers may receive acquisition offers, or a purchaser may continue receiving cart reminders. Add suppression logic before activation and test a profile that should be excluded.
Ignoring event data quality
A trigger can fire correctly while missing product IDs, values, or consent properties needed by later splits. Inspect the actual event payload in test profiles and keep catalog names consistent.
Leaving every step live during testing
Activate gradually. A draft or manual state for later messages lets you confirm entry and branch logic before a real recipient reaches the end of the sequence.
Optimizing opens as if they were purchases
Privacy-related open inflation can make a flow look stronger than it is. Tie the optimization decision to the conversion event and monitor deliverability signals alongside engagement.
What should I check when a campaign or flow does not send?
Start with the audience or trigger, then inspect consent, filters, status, and suppression. The following checks isolate the most common failures.
- No campaign recipients: Confirm the list or segment currently contains eligible, subscribed profiles and that exclusions did not remove everyone.
- A scheduled campaign did not arrive: Verify the account time zone, scheduled time, Smart Sending, and whether the recipient received a recent message that triggered a frequency limit.
- A flow never starts: Confirm the trigger event is being received with the expected profile identifier and that the profile meets consent and entry filters.
- People skip a flow step: Check the action status, quiet-hour settings, suppression, and whether a conditional split evaluated differently than expected.
- The wrong branch is used: Inspect the event or profile property name, value format, capitalization, and whether the property existed when the split ran.
- Messages arrive too close together: Increase delays, review competing flows and campaigns, and apply Smart Sending or an explicit priority rule.
What is the simplest decision rule?
Ask one question: Is the send time determined by my calendar or by the customer’s action? Calendar-led, one-time communication belongs in a campaign. Action-led, repeatable communication belongs in a flow. If both are true, use a campaign for the shared announcement and a flow for the individualized response, then coordinate them with exclusions and a common conversion metric.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do flows in Klaviyo send to the same person more than once?
They can, depending on the trigger and flow settings. A person may qualify again when the trigger occurs again, so add re-entry limits, purchase checks, or profile filters when the journey should happen only once or only after a defined interval.
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Can I change a campaign into a flow after it has been sent?
There is no useful one-click conversion: a campaign’s batch audience and a flow’s trigger logic are different objects. Rebuild the message in a new flow, choose the appropriate trigger and filters, and test the resulting path before activating it.
Why do two flows appear to send at the same time?
The same event may qualify a profile for multiple flows, or a delay may end while a campaign is also scheduled. Review the profile’s timeline, competing triggers, Smart Sending, and suppression rules, then define which journey has priority.
How long should I wait before judging a flow?
Wait until enough people have completed the longest delay and reached the conversion window you use for campaigns. A flow with a seven-day delay should not be compared with a campaign on first-day clicks; align the observation period and attribution rule.
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