How do I turn an automation on?
Updated 1 September 2026
The Short Answer
Flip the automation's switch and a check opens before anything runs. It shows how many people it reaches, which channel reaches each of them, how many cannot be reached, and what a run costs. Every line is a warning rather than a block — Turn On Anyway is a real button.
Step four of four. The one moment before an automation starts spending money and messaging people.
What does the check tell me?
Four things:
- How many people the audience came to.
- Which channel reaches each of them — your first channel, then your fallbacks, with a count on each.
- How many cannot be reached at all — no number and no email.
- What it costs — per run, and about how much a month at this schedule.
Can it stop me turning something on?
No. Every line on that check is a warning, never a block, and Turn On Anyway is a real button.
A missing channel is not fatal when you have fallbacks — the next one takes it. The check reports how many people each channel is first to reach, which is a number you can act on, rather than a cross you have to interpret.
What if it says nobody can be reached?
It reads Nobody in this list can be reached on the channels you chose.
That means the people in your audience have no phone number and no email against them. Fix it in Prospecting by filling in the contacts, or widen How to include a channel they do have.
What if it cannot reach me?
The check has a line for where the automation reaches you — the channel you set under Run On. If that is not connected, it says so, with a Connect button beside it.
The automation still works: its drafts still land in the app. What is missing is the nudge telling you they are there.
What happens after I turn it on?
The row moves from Not Running Yet up to Running, and its pill changes from Draft to Live — or to Sends Itself, if you chose Send Automatically.
Nothing runs until the next scheduled time.