PostRSS Campaign Setup: Add a Temporary Source in 8 Steps

Short answer: to run a short campaign in PostRSS without touching your everyday setup, add a second, temporary source to the same target. Give it a keyword filter so that only campaign items qualify, add a line of static text and your own hashtags, set exact times or a posting window, limit the posts per update, and switch the source off when the campaign ends. Your regular source keeps working as before, and when the campaign is over you simply disable the temporary one instead of undoing a dozen edits.

Every business has weeks when the message changes: a winter sale, a conference, a product launch, a charity drive. The website usually reflects this with a handful of special articles, while the rest of the blog carries on. If you change the main source to promote the campaign, you risk forgetting to change it back, and you lose the steady stream of ordinary posts. PostRSS offers a cleaner way because a target can hold more than one source, and each source has its own settings. This guide walks through a campaign setup step by step, using only options that exist in PostRSS today: filters, static text, hashtags, tracking parameters, timing, limits and the on and off switch.

The idea: one target, two sources

A target is a destination such as a Facebook Page or a Telegram channel. Behind the target sit one or more sources. A source is a feed address together with the rules for how its items become posts. Because every source carries its own message format, filters, hashtags, timing and limits, you can have a quiet everyday source and a loud campaign source that post to the same destination without interfering with each other.

Here is the situation we will use as an example. A garden shop publishes a blog and a product feed. For two weeks in winter it runs a sale on tools and wants its Facebook Page and Telegram channel to promote only sale articles, three times a week, with a short line of text and campaign hashtags. At the end of the sale the Page should return to the normal rhythm. The same approach fits a conference, a launch or a seasonal event.

Step 1: prepare the feed so that campaign items are easy to find

A filter can only select what the feed gives it. PostRSS applies keyword filters to the item title, the description and the categories or tags, so the easiest way to make campaign items recognisable is to give them a category or tag on your website, for example winter sale. If you publish through WordPress, assigning a category to the sale posts is enough, because categories appear in the feed. If your platform has no categories, put a distinctive phrase in the title.

Decide the exact words before you open PostRSS. A short, specific word works better than a common one. Use one campaign tag, write it consistently and avoid spelling variants, which would force you to list every spelling in the filter.

Step 2: add the temporary source

Open the target that should carry the campaign and add a new source with the same feed address as your main source, or with a dedicated campaign feed if your site has one. Give it a name that explains its purpose, such as winter sale, so that you recognise it in a month. A clear name matters because the reports list items by source, and you will want to read the campaign results separately.

Leave the main source untouched. At this stage both sources read the same feed, so the next step is the one that prevents the campaign items from being posted twice or the ordinary items from being posted by the campaign source.

Step 3: set the keyword filter

On the campaign source, write the campaign word in the include filter. PostRSS posts only items that contain one of the words or phrases you list, searches the title, description and categories, ignores letter case and also matches parts of words. If you want an exact match, put the word in quotes and it will match only the whole word. When you list several words you can choose whether an item must match any of them or all of them.

For the garden shop, the include filter is the sale tag. If some sale articles mention a product that you do not want to promote, add that word to the exclude filter. Exclude always wins over include, and items removed by a filter are not posted and do not use your plan allowance. They appear in reports with the status filtered, which is how you will confirm that the filter does what you expect. The guide to include and exclude keyword filters goes deeper into the rules.

Check the main source as well. If it still posts every item, sale articles will be published once by each source. Add the campaign word to the exclude filter of the main source for the length of the campaign, or accept a deliberate repetition only if that is what you want. Remember to remove the exclusion when the campaign ends.

Step 4: write the message

PostRSS can build each post from the item title, the item description, the page title or your own static text, in nine combinations. For a campaign, a short static line followed by the item title is the most useful: for example, a line saying that the winter sale is on, then the title of the article. Choose the format that combines static text and the item title, and type the static line once in the source settings.

Keep the line short and concrete, and avoid promises that the website does not make. If the sale has an end date, say it in the static text so that visitors know. You can also add extra query parameters to the links, such as a campaign name for your analytics. That way the visits from the campaign are separate from your ordinary traffic. The article on tracking the return on RSS automation with UTM parameters suggests a naming scheme.

Step 5: add campaign hashtags

PostRSS can add your own hashtags to every message on networks where hashtags make sense, and it can also turn the categories and tags of the item into hashtags. For the campaign, list two or three hashtags of your own, such as the sale name and your brand. You can place them at the end of the message or at the start, and you can limit the total number. On Facebook and LinkedIn PostRSS uses at most five hashtags in total, with yours first, so a short list protects the message from clutter.

If you have a longer list of tags that you want to rotate, the random option picks a small subset for each post, which avoids repeating the same set. The article about automatic, custom and random hashtags explains the choices. Hashtags that do not fit the length limit of a network are dropped, and the link is never cut.

Step 6: choose the timing and the volume

The campaign is short, so the timing deserves attention. With exact times you list the days and hours when PostRSS should check the feed and publish, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday at ten in the morning in your time zone. With a posting window you let PostRSS check at an interval but publish only between two hours. Both options come from the same timing settings that are described in the guide to exact times, windows and intervals.

Set the maximum number of posts per update to one or two. If the shop has published ten sale articles at once, a limit of one means that one goes out at each slot, and the others wait for later slots instead of flooding the Page. Choose the publishing order to match your goal: newer first for freshness, older first for a story that builds, or random for a mixed feel. If you also want the campaign to cover articles that were published before the source was created, set a start date and enable catch-up, and keep the limit low so that the backlog is spread over the days of the campaign.

Step 7: test, then watch the first run

Before the campaign day, test the source on a quiet target, such as a private Telegram channel, if your plan has a spare target. Set a slot a few minutes ahead and watch the report. The first things to confirm are that the sale items appear with the status processed, that ordinary items appear with the status filtered and that the message looks as you intended. If something looks wrong, fix it in the source and run again at the next slot. The article on testing an auto-posting setup gives a short routine.

When you are satisfied, point the source to the real targets or connect the same feed to them. Keep an eye on the posts used this month, because a campaign with several targets uses the allowance faster than the everyday rhythm.

Step 8: switch it off and tidy up

When the campaign ends, disable the temporary source. A source has an active setting, and turning it off stops the posts without deleting the configuration, so that next year you can switch it on again and only change the dates and the static text. If you excluded the campaign word in the main source, remove that exclusion now.

Write a short note about the results: which posts brought the most visits according to your analytics, which times worked and what you would change. A source that stays disabled and well named is a ready template for the next campaign.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Changing the main source for a campaign and forgetting to change it back.
• Using a common word as the include filter, so that unrelated items pass.
• Leaving the main source unfiltered, so that sale articles are posted twice.
• Setting a high limit per update and publishing the whole campaign in one hour.
• Adding too many hashtags, which the network may truncate anyway.
• Deleting the campaign source instead of disabling it.

การอ่านที่เกี่ยวข้อง

• Seasonal and holiday campaign planning with RSS automation
• How to combine multiple RSS feeds into one posting schedule
• How to read PostRSS reports and item statuses

The bottom line

A campaign in PostRSS is a second source on the same target. Filter it to the campaign items, add a line of static text and a few hashtags, control the timing and the volume, test it once and switch it off when the campaign ends. Your ordinary rhythm stays intact, your analytics stay clean and next season you can reuse the same source. Check the numbers of your plan on the pricing page and the available options on the features page.

FAQ

Can one PostRSS target have more than one source?

Yes. A target holds one or more sources, and each source has its own feed address, message format, filters, hashtags, timing and limits.

How do I keep campaign items out of my normal posts?

Add the campaign word to the exclude filter of the main source for the length of the campaign. Exclude wins over include, so those items are not posted by the main source.

Do filtered items count toward my plan?

No. Items removed by a keyword filter are not posted and do not count toward the plan allowance. They show in reports as filtered.

How do I stop the campaign without losing my settings?

Turn the temporary source off. It stops posting, and the configuration stays so that you can reuse it later.

Can I add my own hashtags only for the campaign?

Yes. Hashtags are a source setting, so the campaign source can have its own list while the main source keeps its own.

Can I post campaign articles published before the source was created?

Yes. Set a start date and enable catch-up, and keep the posts per update low so that older items are spread over several slots.