How do you forecast your SMS budget?

Surprises on an SMS invoice rarely come from the rate and almost always from the volume or the message length.

Count messages, not sends

A campaign to 5,000 people can be 5,000 or 10,000 messages depending on length. Count your characters first, your recipients second.

Count the dead numbers

On a list a few years old, five to ten per cent is unusable, and you pay for it. Cleaning up lowers your cost more than negotiating the rate.

Split transactional from marketing

Transactional volume follows your turnover and is therefore predictable. Marketing volume follows your calendar. Budgeting them together makes any deviation unexplainable.

Set an alert

A notification at a certain usage level stops a bug in a loop from only surfacing on the invoice. It is the cheapest insurance there is.

Look per country

If you send internationally, the destination mix determines your average cost. One new market can lift that average considerably.