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Archive a campaign

Easy steps to archive campaign

Learning Objective

By the end of this guide, you'll know how to archive campaigns, how to find archived campaigns using the Status filter, what happens when campaigns are archived, and how to unarchive them from either the campaign list or the campaign editor.

Why This Matters

As you run more campaigns, your campaigns list can get cluttered with completed, seasonal, or test campaigns you're not actively using. Archiving keeps your workspace clean while preserving all campaign data, analytics, and structure for future reference.

Archiving is reversible. You can unarchive campaigns anytime to view their data or reactivate them. This makes archiving the safe choice when you're done with a campaign but might need it later.

What Happens When You Archive

When you archive a campaign, lemlist automatically:

Pauses the campaign – All scheduled emails and activities stop immediately

Moves it to Archived – It's removed from your default active campaigns view

Preserves all data – Leads, analytics, sequence structure, and settings remain intact

Makes it reversible – You can unarchive anytime to view or reactivate

Nothing is deleted. Campaign and lead data remain available.

Prerequisites

Before archiving, consider:

  • Is the campaign still running? Archiving will pause it and stop all activities immediately.

  • Do you need a report right now? While data is preserved, exporting analytics beforehand can make reporting easier.

  • Is this better than pausing? Pausing also stops all activities. Use pause if you plan to resume soon; use archive when you want to clean your campaigns list while keeping all data.

How to Archive a Campaign

Go to Campaigns, click the three dots (⋮) in the Actions column next to the campaign you want to archive, then select Archive campaign.

The campaign is immediately paused and moved to Archived.

How to View Archived Campaigns

Open Campaigns, click the Status dropdown, and select Archived.

Open the Status dropdown and select Archived

Your archived campaigns will then appear in the campaign list.

Archived campaign shown in the campaigns list

How to Unarchive a Campaign

Option 1: Unarchive from the campaign list

First, filter your campaigns by Archived in the Status dropdown. Then click the three dots (⋮) next to the archived campaign and select Unarchive campaign.

Open the archived campaign actions menu and select Unarchive campaign

Option 2: Unarchive from the campaign editor

Open the archived campaign, click the Archived status dropdown at the top of the editor, and select Unarchive campaign.

Open the Archived dropdown in the campaign editor and select Unarchive campaign

After unarchiving, the campaign moves back to your active campaigns list and remains paused until you resume it manually.

When to Archive vs. Pause

Archive when:

  • The campaign is complete, and you don't plan to run it again soon

  • You want to clean up your campaigns list but keep the data

  • The campaign is seasonal (e.g., holiday outreach) and you'll reference it later

  • You're testing campaigns and want to save old versions for analysis

Pause when:

  • You're temporarily stopping a campaign but plan to resume it soon (within days or weeks)

  • You need to fix the content or update the settings before continuing

  • You're waiting for more leads to import before resuming

💡 Best practice: If you want to tidy up your campaigns list, archive. If you expect to continue shortly, pause. In both cases, your campaign and lead data remains available.

Practical Application / Real-Life Example

Agency Managing Multiple Client Campaigns

A marketing agency runs dozens of campaigns across various clients. Each quarter, they archive completed campaigns to stay organized.

Their workflow:

End of Q1:

  1. Filter campaigns by date to find all Q1 campaigns

  2. Select completed campaigns (those with 100% leads through the sequence)

  3. Archive them to remove them from the main list while keeping all data

  4. Export analytics for quarterly reporting when needed

Result:

  • Main campaigns list shows only active campaigns in their default view

  • Archived campaign data is preserved for client reporting and future reference

  • They can unarchive campaigns anytime to reference successful messaging

Impact:

  • Reduced cognitive load when managing 50+ campaigns

  • Faster campaign selection for team members

  • Easy quarterly performance reviews using archived campaign data

Troubleshooting

Issue: I can't find my archived campaign

Root cause: The Status filter isn't set to show archived campaigns

Fix:

  • Go to Campaigns

  • Click the Status filter

  • Select Archived

  • Your archived campaigns will appear in the list

Issue: I archived a campaign but leads are still receiving emails

Root cause: This shouldn't happen. Archiving automatically pauses campaigns and stops all activities

Fix:

  • Check if you archived the correct campaign

  • Verify the campaign is listed as Archived

  • If emails continue, contact lemlist support. This may be a technical issue

Issue: I want to archive campaigns older than a certain date

Root cause: No automatic date-based archiving exists

Fix:

  • Manually filter campaigns by date or name

  • Archive the campaigns you no longer want in your active view

  • Consider naming campaigns with dates (e.g., "Q4-2024-Campaign") for easier filtering

Optimization Tips

Archive on a schedule: Set a quarterly or monthly reminder to review and archive completed campaigns. This keeps your workspace consistently clean.

Use naming conventions: Name campaigns with dates or status indicators (e.g., "2024-Q1-SaaS-Outreach") to make it easier to identify which campaigns to archive.

Export before archiving: While data is preserved, export key analytics to your reporting tools when you need to report results.

Document campaign outcomes: Before archiving, add notes about what worked or didn't. When you unarchive later, you'll remember why that campaign succeeded or failed.

Archive test campaigns: After testing different approaches, archive the unsuccessful versions and keep only the winner active. This prevents confusion about which version to use.

Unarchive for reference: When building new campaigns, unarchive similar past campaigns to copy successful messaging or structure. You can duplicate them, then re-archive the original.

Keep active campaigns list short: Aim to keep your main view focused on campaigns you actively manage. Archive everything else.

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