10DLC Campaign Registration: Use Cases and How to Choose One

Once your brand is verified, you register a campaign: a declaration of what you will actually send. The anchor of that declaration is the use case. Choose it well and review goes smoothly; choose it badly and you invite rejection or a suspension later when your traffic doesn’t match your declaration.

The standard use cases

TCR defines a set of standard use cases any verified brand can register:

• Marketing: promotions, offers, sales announcements. The most scrutinized category: reviewers expect airtight opt-in.
• Mixed: a combination (e.g. reminders + occasional promos). Convenient, but often costs more monthly and gets marketing-level scrutiny. Prefer a precise case when you can.
• Account Notification: non-marketing updates about an account, such as appointment reminders, billing alerts, and status changes.
• Customer Care: two-way support conversations.
• Delivery Notification: order/shipping updates.
• 2FA / Security: one-time passcodes and security alerts.
• Higher Education, Polling/Voting, Public Service Announcement: narrower institutional cases.

There are also special use cases (Charity, Political, Emergency, Agents & Franchises, Sole Proprietor) with extra eligibility requirements (e.g. 501(c)(3) status for Charity, Campaign Verify tokens for Political).

How to choose

1. List everything you will send in the next year. Not just today’s messages, because a use case mismatch discovered later can suspend the campaign.
2. If any of it is promotional, say so. The temptation is to register Account Notification and sneak in offers. Carriers audit content against declarations; honesty is cheaper than a suspension.
3. Prefer the narrowest honest case. Pure reminders? Account Notification. Pure OTP? 2FA. Narrow cases cost less per month and face lighter review than Marketing/Mixed.
4. One campaign can serve many numbers. You usually do not need a campaign per number or per location; group numbers with the same purpose under one campaign.

What else the campaign form asks

Beyond the use case, the form asks for a campaign description, sample messages, your opt-in process (how consumers consent), and message flags (embedded links? phone numbers? age-gated content?). These free-text fields are where most rejections happen, and a vague description is the #1 failure point. We wrote dedicated guides with copy-paste-adaptable examples: how to write the campaign description and sample messages that pass review.

Monthly cost by use case

Recurring campaign fees vary by use case, from roughly $2/month for low-volume and special cases up to about $10/month for Marketing and Mixed, plus a one-time ~$15 vetting fee per campaign. Full numbers in our cost guide.

The meta-lesson: the campaign registration is a promise about your traffic. Reviewers approve promises that are specific, consistent with your website, and plausible for your business. Keep all three true and the use case choice becomes easy.

Frequently asked questions

Can I register multiple use cases on one campaign?

The Mixed use case exists exactly for that, but it costs more monthly and draws marketing-level review. If your traffic types are cleanly separable, two narrow campaigns are often cheaper to review and safer to operate than one Mixed.

What happens if my messages don’t match my declared use case?

Carriers spot-check content against declarations. Mismatched traffic can be filtered, and the campaign can be suspended, with the incident recorded against your brand’s reputation at TCR.

How many phone numbers can one campaign have?

Standard campaigns support many numbers (Twilio manages this through Messaging Service sender pools; very large pools may require justification). Sole Proprietor campaigns are limited to exactly one number.