How to Use Instantly to Warm Up and Launch a Campaign

The short answer: connect your sending accounts, run Instantly's domain test for MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, enable warm-up and wait at least two weeks until the health score clears Instantly's readiness bar, add a custom tracking domain, then create the campaign with leads, a short sequence and an unsubscribe link, assign accounts, set limits of about 30 emails per account a day, and launch.

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Instantly lets you connect as many mailboxes as you like, in bulk if you want. Its help centre is just as clear that none of them should send a cold email on the day they arrive. Most of this guide is about the two weeks in between. For what the product includes and costs, see the Instantly glossary entry.

Prerequisites

• A workspace. The free trial gives 14 days, two accounts, 250 uploaded leads and 1,000 campaign emails, per the trial article. After that, the Outreach Growth plan is $47 a month on monthly billing on the pricing page (checked on 23 October 2026).
• Sending accounts. Use your own Google, Microsoft or IMAP/SMTP mailboxes, or buy them inside Instantly: the pricing file lists domains at $15 a year and done-for-you accounts from $4 a month.
• A clear legal basis for the list. Article 13 of the ePrivacy Directive (EUR-Lex) makes prior consent the rule for marketing email to individuals in the EU and leaves company recipients to national law, so the answer changes by country. Check yours before importing anyone.

Step 1: Connect the sending accounts

Click Email Accounts in the left sidebar, then Add or Buy Accounts, then Connect Existing, as the connection article describes. Google Workspace accounts connect by OAuth and personal Gmail accounts by app password. Microsoft accounts need SMTP access enabled and connect one at a time through OAuth; bulk connection is not available for them. Other providers connect by IMAP and SMTP, singly or in bulk from a CSV. IMAP is mandatory, because Instantly needs it for reply detection and warm-up.

Step 2: Test the domain setup

In the Email Accounts dashboard, click Test Domain Setup and confirm that MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC all show as configured. The pre-launch checklist puts this first because missing records cause bounces and spam flags.

Step 3: Enable warm-up

Click the flame icon next to an account, or select several and choose Bulk enable warmup from the three-dot menu. Warm-up starts at the next 12:00 AM UTC, so a new account may show no activity at first, according to the warm-up article. A Weekdays only option limits warm-up to Monday to Friday. A green flame means the standard pool, blue the premium or private pool, red disabled.

Step 4: Wait until the account is ready

Instantly's readiness article sets two conditions: at least two weeks of warm-up, or three for AirMail accounts, and a health score above 90%, measured on the last seven days of warm-up mail. Pre-warmed accounts are the exception and can send at once. If the score lags, the article suggests checking DNS again and using these warm-up settings: increase per day 1, daily warm-up limit 10, reply rate 30%. The checklist goes further for new domains and recommends three to four weeks.

Step 5: Add a custom tracking domain

If you track opens or clicks, the pre-launch checklist says to always use a custom tracking domain. It acts as a proxy for tracking links and keeps your reputation separate from other senders'.

Step 6: Create the campaign and add leads

Open the Engage dashboard and click + Create New, per the campaign setup guide. In Leads, either search Instantly's lead database or import your own: CSV, manual entry, Google Sheets, HubSpot or Pipedrive. When importing, map each column. Email is required; first name, company, job title and the other predefined fields map directly, anything else becomes a custom variable, and columns you do not need can be set to Do Not Import.

Step 7: Write a short sequence

In the Editors section, draft with Instantly AI or write it yourself. Add variants to test subject lines and copy, set the wait between steps, and add follow-ups with the plus button. The setup guide recommends no more than three or four steps for most cold campaigns. Leave a follow-up's subject empty to keep the previous subject and the thread.

Personalise with variables, placeholder values for missing data, spintax or Liquid syntax. Then click Insert Unsubscribe Link in the toolbar. Google's sender guidelines require marketing messages from senders of more than 5,000 a day to Gmail to support one-click unsubscribe and show a visible unsubscribe link, so treat the link as part of the template, not an extra.

Step 8: Preview, test and assign accounts

Click Preview to see each variable filled for a chosen lead and account, send test emails to yourself, and check the deliverability score, as the setup guide describes. Then, in Settings, select the accounts that will send. A campaign can use any number of accounts, and if you assign by tag, make sure the tag has active accounts behind it.

Step 9: Set schedule and limits, then launch

Choose the start date, sending hours, timezone and the campaign's daily limit. Instantly runs two limits side by side, according to its limits article. The account limit caps campaign emails per mailbox per day across all campaigns, with 30 recommended for ordinary mailboxes and a maximum of 20 for AirMail. The campaign limit caps the whole campaign, and the article's rule is the number of accounts x 30. Campaign Slow Ramp, when on, raises an account by two emails a day until it reaches its limit. Warm-up emails count toward neither.

Run the final check: leads uploaded, variables mapped, sequence saved, tests sent, accounts assigned, schedule and limit set. Then click Launch.

Mistakes Instantly's guides flag

• Sending from new accounts straight away. The checklist says never send cold emails from brand-new accounts without warming up first.
• A campaign with nothing to send from. The checklist warns that it will not send if no accounts are assigned or all of them are inactive.
• Letting the workspace lapse. When a workspace expires, warm-up and accounts pause automatically, and done-for-you account subscriptions do not keep warm-up running on their own, per the readiness article.
• SMTP without IMAP. The connection article does not permit it.

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FAQ

How long before a new account can send campaigns?

At least two weeks of warm-up with a health score above 90%, or three weeks for AirMail accounts, per the readiness article. For new domains, the checklist recommends three to four weeks.

What daily limit should each account have?

Thirty campaign emails a day for ordinary mailboxes and up to 20 for AirMail ones, with the campaign limit set to the number of accounts x 30, according to the limits article.

Why does a new account show a health score of zero?

Warm-up begins after 12:00 AM UTC on the day after you enable it, and the score only reflects the last seven days, so it stays at zero until warm-up mail has gone out. The readiness article adds that a week without warm-up activity resets it to zero.