This explainer will help you understand the logic behind how we schedule your phishing simulations.
Concepts
Duration: The total number of days your campaign will run. This is independent of the period and frequency settings.
Period: A set timeframe or window the scheduler will use for its calculations. A number is expected in weeks on the platform.
Frequency: The number of emails each user will receive within a period.
Scheduled emails: The specific emails planned for delivery during a period.
Operating hours: You can design the daily operating hours to avoid out-of-hours notifications.
Key points
The scheduler creates randomised email schedules based on the provided frequency (emails per user), period (delivery timeframe), and overall campaign duration.
Campaigns can be highly customisable:
Start on any day of the week.
Run for any number of days.
Frequency settings are applied within the campaign duration, except for campaigns shorter than a week.
Frequency exceptions: If your campaign duration is less than a week, the period is automatically adjusted to fit the duration, ensuring all emails are delivered within that timeframe.
Examples
Continuous campaign delivering 3 emails every week
Start date: Tuesday 5th May
End date: Continuous (No end date set)
Frequency: Each person will receive 3 emails every 1 week (7 days)
Schedule: Every Tuesday a new schedule is created for the following week. It randomly distributes 3 emails to each user across the 7 days. This repeats until the campaign is deactivated. If you add a user to the campaign, they will be automatically added to the next scheduled week. We recommend having a wide variety of email templates selected to avoid people receiving the same simulation emails close together.
Table example of a continuous campaign scheduled for 3 emails every 1 week (7 days)
Month long campaign (starting on a Monday)
Period: 4 weeks (28 days)
Start date: 4th May
End date: 31st May (28 days)
Frequency: 3 emails every 4 weeks
Schedule: A total of 3 emails are scheduled for the 28-day period. We recommend having at least 3 different email templates selected to avoid a user receiving the same simulation email over the 4 weeks.
Table example of a 4 week campaign schedule
Month long (4 week) campaign delivering 2 simulation emails every week
Start date: Monday 4th May
End date: Sunday 31st May
Frequency: Each person will receive 2 emails every 1 week
Schedule: Each week, 2 simulation emails are scheduled to be delivered across the week. In total, 8 simulation emails will be scheduled. We recommend at least 16 email templates are selected to prevent a user receiving the same simulation email in this campaign. With these types of campaigns, it’s not impossible for the same email template to be scheduled close together.
Table example of a 4 week campaign delivering 2 simulation emails every week
Short campaign (3 days) sending 1 email over a 3 day period
Start date: Monday 4th May
End date: Wednesday 6th May
Frequency: Each person will receive 1 email every 1 week
Schedule: The duration of the campaign is less than the period set in the frequency (1 week) so the period is set to 3 days and 1 email is planned over that period.
Note here the frequency exception: if a campaign duration is less than a week, the period is automatically adjusted to fit the duration, ensuring all emails are delivered within that time frame.
Table example of a 3 day campaign (scheduled over 1 week, but taking into account to fit the specified duration).
FAQ
Q: How do I send 3 phishing emails to my users, and ensure they all receive three different emails? Rather than 3 of the same?
A: Match the period to the duration. For example: If you have 3 email templates selected, you should schedule 3 emails over 1 week or 1 email every week for 3 weeks. If you chose to send 2 emails every week and your campaign was 2 weeks long, 4 emails would be sent in total, and one of these would be a duplicate, as you have only selected 3 templates to be used in the campaign.
Additional resources
