Help Center/Campaigns: Leads/Pause, stop or delete leads in a campaign
Open OutreachFox →

Pause, stop or delete leads in a campaign

Sometimes one lead needs different treatment from the rest of the campaign: a prospect asks you to hold off for a month, a colleague is already talking to them, or the address turns out to be wrong…

Draft — written from product facts + domain knowledge; UI labels to be verified before publishing.

Sometimes one lead needs different treatment from the rest of the campaign: a prospect asks you to hold off for a month, a colleague is already talking to them, or the address turns out to be wrong. You can act on individual leads (or a selection) from the campaign Contacts tab without touching the campaign itself.

The three actions

**Action****What happens****Reversible?**
**Pause**Sequence stops for this lead. Their position is kept.Yes, **Resume** picks up at the next step.
**Stop**Sequence ends for this lead. Status becomes **Stopped**. History is kept.No, but you can re-add the lead to another campaign.
**Delete**Lead is removed from the campaign entirely. Their contact record stays in **Contacts**.No.

Steps

  1. Open the campaign in Campaigns.
  2. Click Contacts.
  3. Find the lead with the search bar or the Status filter.
  4. Tick the checkbox next to the lead, or tick several to act in bulk.
  5. Open the actions menu (three dots or the bulk-actions bar) and choose Pause, Stop or Delete.
  6. Confirm the dialog.

The lead's status updates immediately. Paused leads show Paused; use the same menu and choose Resume to continue them.

When to use which

  • Pause when a lead says "not now, try me in Q1". Resume them later, or note the date and stop them instead if you plan a fresh campaign.
  • Stop when a conversation is happening outside OutreachFox (a colleague booked a call, the lead replied from another address). Stopping prevents an embarrassing automated follow-up.
  • Delete when the lead should never have been in the campaign: wrong ICP, an existing customer, a competitor. Deleting from the campaign does not delete the contact from Contacts; delete there too if you want them gone for good.
  • For bounced and unsubscribed leads you do not need to do anything; OutreachFox stops them automatically.

Tips

  • Bulk-stop everyone who replied Not interested before you reuse a list in a new campaign, so they are not contacted again.
  • Prefer Stop over Delete for anyone who replied; you keep the thread and the AI category for reporting.
  • If you need to pause everyone, pause the campaign instead (campaign menu → Pause), not the leads one by one.

Troubleshooting

  • Paused lead still received an email: the email was already queued in the sending window before you paused. Pausing takes effect on the next step.
  • Cannot find the lead: check the Status filter is cleared; a filtered view hides leads in other statuses.
  • Deleted lead appears again: they were re-added from a list that still contains them. Remove them from the list in Contacts as well.

Related articles

  • Lead statuses explained
  • Move or copy leads between campaigns
  • Managing bounced leads and cleaning your lists
  • Why did my campaign pause or stop sending?

Was this helpful?

More in Campaigns: Leads

Upload a CSV of contacts and assign it to a list→Handle duplicates and map CSV columns to contact fields→Add more leads to an active campaign (from a list or a new CSV)→Check lead statuses and replies inside a campaign→Set up AI reply categorisation and create custom categories→Lead statuses explained→Move or copy leads between campaigns→Export leads to CSV→Managing bounced leads and cleaning your lists→Lead activity log: see every email, open and reply for a contact→Import leads from Google Sheets or your CRM→