---
title: Run campaign automation
slug: run-campaign
description: How the Run campaign automation works in Personizely: running a manual content personalization from a widget, its targeting, once per page and later visits.
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-10-16T20:08:05.727Z
---

The Run campaign automation starts a content [Personalizations](docId\:IEMreg0HgryEu6cNJiJcP) when the visitor interacts with a widget element. It connects what visitors tell you in a widget to what they see on your site: answer "I'm shopping for running shoes" in a quiz, and the homepage hero switches to running.

**Available on:** all platforms. **Plan:** listed when your plan includes campaigns, or during a trial.

## How it works

1. You create a content personalization in the visual editor with the **Manual** trigger. See [Content A/B testing with the visual editor](docId\:sRIV2YbnueXGJTEWlxZl8).
2. In the widget, you add **Run campaign** to an element and pick that personalization.
3. When the element's event happens, Personizely runs the campaign as if your code had called `ply.runCampaign(id)`: it checks the campaign's pages and target, then applies its changes to the current page.
4. Once the visitor has been shown the personalization, a manual campaign keeps applying automatically on their later page loads.

## Configuration

| Option   | What it does               | Values / default              |
| -------- | -------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Campaign | The personalization to run | Your content personalizations |

## Behavior details and limitations

- **Content personalizations only.** The list shows content personalizations. To run a content A/B test or a [Full-stack experiments and feature flags](docId\:OVRIbT_8RdOHkPkqg1u1S) campaign from a widget, use an [Execute JavaScript code automation](docId:_JnT5evbben9oq_of9Ll_) automation that calls `ply.runCampaign(id)`.
- **Use the Manual trigger.** A personalization with the **Immediate** trigger has already run as the page loaded, so the automation does nothing on that page.
- **The campaign's own targeting applies.** If the visitor isn't in the campaign's target or its pages don't match the current page, nothing changes.
- **Once per page.** A campaign runs at most once per page view. Running it again on the same page does nothing.
- **The campaign must be active.**
- **Combine with a field.** To remember the answer for targeting, add a [Change field value automation](docId\:v_G7CVz9VK6VbUALbnYAG) automation or bind the survey to a field, and use that field in the campaign's target.

## Examples

- **Quiz-driven homepage:** Survey "What are you shopping for?" bound to the custom field "Shopping for", with a Run campaign automation for a personalization targeted at "Shopping for is Running". Visitors who pick running see the running hero straight away and on later visits; others see no change.
- **"Show me prices in bundles":** Button in a callout runs a personalization that swaps product page sections to bundle offers.

## Related

- [Widget automations](docId\:J2UM-jhfDgQFopQlTvf_l)
- [Personalizations](docId\:IEMreg0HgryEu6cNJiJcP)
- [Content A/B testing with the visual editor](docId\:sRIV2YbnueXGJTEWlxZl8)
- [JavaScript API (window.ply)](docId\:d64TegyOiwNA2GFG1eXPm)