The client approval portal

A magic-link review page that lets your client approve or flag every part of their campaign - filters, leads, and email copy - before a single message is sent.

11 min read · Updated Jun 29, 2026

Overview

The client approval portal is a no-login, browser-based review page your client receives as a link before their campaign launches. It shows them a frozen snapshot of the exact draft Ken AI built: the audience search filters, the AI qualification rules, a sample of tested leads, and the full email sequences with personalized lines highlighted.

The client walks three stages in order:

Ideal customer - the search filters and AI qualification rules
Tested leads - a sample of prospects the qualification rules were tested against
Email copy - every email in every sequence, with personalized lines highlighted

They approve, flag, or comment on each item. When they submit, their feedback lands on your internal dashboard immediately.

The portal is accessible at /approvals/{token}. No account or password is required. The link is specific to a single campaign draft.

Before you start

The portal link is generated by Ken AI when a campaign draft is ready for review. You cannot access it from the Ken AI dashboard directly - it is a client-facing URL you share with your client.
The link is only valid while the draft is in its current state. If you rotate the link from the internal dashboard, the old link stops working immediately.
Your client needs a modern browser. No plugins or installs required.

How to review a campaign

Step 1 - Open the link

Your Ken AI team will share a review link with you. Open it in any browser. The page loads with your campaign name in the header and the status badge showing "In review."

The left sidebar (desktop) or the top bar (mobile) shows three stages: Ideal customer, Tested leads, and Email copy. A "Reviewed" progress meter fills as you work through items - both approved items and change-requested items count toward it, so the meter reflects how much you have actively reviewed, not just how much you liked.

Step 2 - Review the Ideal customer stage

The first stage shows:

Search Filters - the structured filters that build the initial lead pool.
AI Qualification - the rules the AI uses to screen each prospect (shown only when AI qualification is enabled for your campaign).
A segmentation summary if your campaign targets multiple audience groups.

For each card, use the three action buttons:

Approve - marks the item as accepted.
Request change - flags the item and opens a drawer to type what you want changed.
Note - adds a note without flagging the item as needing a change.

Once an item is approved the button turns filled green and shows "Approved." Once a change is requested the button turns filled red-orange and shows "Change requested."

You can also click individual qualification fields (persona description, what qualifies, what disqualifies) and leave a comment directly on that line by clicking the comment icon that appears on hover.

Step 3 - Review the Tested leads stage

This stage shows a sample of prospects that ran through the search filters and qualification rules. Each lead shows its AI verdict:

Qualified - the lead passed all rules.
Unqualified - the lead was screened out.
Pending - not yet processed.

You can approve or request a change on individual leads using the compact icon buttons on each row.

Step 4 - Review the Email copy stage

This stage shows the full email sequences. Each email is rendered in a realistic mail-client preview with personalized lines highlighted.

To comment on a specific paragraph:

Hover over the paragraph. A comment icon appears on the right.
Click the icon to open the paragraph composer.
Type your comment.
Optionally turn on Apply to all versions to apply the comment to every A/B variant of that email.
Optionally turn on Apply to all segments to apply the comment across all audience segments.
Click Comment to save.

Both scope toggles default to off. Turn them on deliberately if you want one comment to apply broadly.

Paragraphs with saved comments show a filled dark badge with a comment count. Click it to view and edit comments.

An email with any paragraph comment is automatically counted as needing changes - it cannot be counted as approved until the comment is resolved.

Step 5 - Submit your feedback

When you are ready to send your review:

Click Submit feedback in the header or at the bottom of any stage. The button is also available at the end of the Email copy stage.
A dialog opens showing a summary: how many items you approved, how many you flagged for changes, and how many paragraph comments you added.
If any items are still untouched, you see a note: "Untouched items will be treated as approved." You can also click Approve all pending at the top to explicitly approve everything remaining.
Optionally type in the General note field for anything that does not fit a specific item.
Click Send approval (if everything was approved) or Send (N changes) / Send feedback (if you flagged items).

After submit the page shows "Feedback submitted - thanks!" and locks to view-only. Your Ken AI team is notified immediately.

If the button label shows Sending... or you see a saving notice, wait a moment - your feedback is still syncing. Do not close the tab until the success screen appears.

How it works

The portal renders a frozen snapshot of the campaign draft as it existed when Ken AI prepared it for review. This is by design: the client approves the exact draft, not a live copy that could shift under them during review.

Every item in the review - a filter group, a lead, an email paragraph - carries a stable identity key embedded in that snapshot. The system reads these keys directly from the snapshot data, so the counts you see in the sidebar, the stage tallies, and the final submitted verdict all refer to the same items and can never silently disagree.

Autosave. Every approval, change request, and note saves to the server as you work. You do not need to click Save between items. Your progress is preserved even if you close and reopen the link.

Real-time visibility for your Ken team. Your team can watch your review progress in real time on their internal dashboard - they see your approvals and flags appearing as you make them, before you submit. This lets them start acting on changes early.

Paragraph-level comments. A comment left on a specific paragraph anchors to the exact copy the client saw. If you turn on "Apply to all versions," that one comment fans out to every A/B variant of that email. The scope toggles default to off to avoid accidentally locking unrelated copy.

Submit safety. When you click submit, the portal waits for any in-flight saves to complete before locking the draft. A comment you add two seconds before hitting submit will not be dropped.

What "not approved" means. A draft is recorded as not approved if any item has a change request, any item has a non-empty note, or any paragraph comment exists. Everything else - including items you never touched - counts as approved.

Troubleshooting & debugging

"Link not found" on load

Symptom: the portal shows "This review link is invalid or has expired."

Likely cause: the token was rotated from the internal dashboard, or the link was shared incorrectly.

What to check: ask the Ken AI team to share the current link for this draft. The team can rotate and re-share from their approvals dashboard.

"Still building your review" on load

Symptom: the portal shows "Still building your review - check back in a few minutes."

Likely cause: the draft is still processing and the snapshot is not ready yet.

What to do: wait a few minutes and reload the link. This is not an error - the draft is still being prepared.

"Review unavailable" on load

Symptom: the portal shows "Review unavailable" with a reason message.

Likely cause: the campaign draft reached a terminal failure state and could not produce a reviewable sample.

What to do: ask the Ken AI team for an updated link or a new draft.

"Something went wrong" on load

Symptom: a generic error screen appears instead of the portal.

Likely cause: a transient network or server error.

What to do: reload the page. If the problem persists for more than a few minutes, contact the Ken AI team.

Submit button is greyed out or shows "Your feedback is still saving"

Symptom: the "Send" button in the submit dialog is disabled.

Likely cause: one or more saves are still in progress, or a paragraph comment failed to save.

What to check: watch for the warning banner in the dialog. If it says "Your feedback is still saving," wait a moment and try again. If it says "A paragraph comment couldn't be saved," re-add that comment before submitting.

A paragraph comment failed to save

Symptom: dialog shows "A paragraph comment couldn't be saved" and the submit button is blocked.

Likely cause: a network error occurred while creating the comment. Unlike approval/flag saves, paragraph comment creates need a server-assigned ID and cannot auto-retry.

What to do: close the dialog, find the affected paragraph, add the comment again, then re-open the submit dialog. The error clears once the comment saves successfully.

The "Approve" button is greyed out on a card but "Request change" and "Note" still work

Symptom: the Approve button on a Search Filters or AI Qualification card shows a tooltip: "Resolve the comments on this section to approve."

Likely cause: there are outstanding per-line comments on individual items within that card. A card with unresolved line comments cannot be marked approved.

What to do: expand the comments on the affected lines, resolve them (delete or acknowledge them), and the Approve button will re-enable.

Leads all show as "Qualified" even though the campaign uses AI qualification

Symptom: every lead in the Tested leads stage has a green "Qualified" badge.

Likely cause: AI qualification ran and all sampled leads passed. This is normal if the qualification rules are broad.

What to check: if you expected some leads to be screened out, review the AI Qualification rules in the Ideal customer stage and flag them with "Request change" if the criteria need tightening.

The Email copy stage opens on an empty segment preview

Symptom: a segment is listed in the stage selector but the email preview panel is blank or shows no lead preview.

Likely cause: that segment has email templates but no sampled leads that passed qualification. This is a known edge case for campaigns where early segments have strict qualification rules.

What to do: switch to another segment using the segment tabs to review the emails for that audience group. The blank-preview segment's emails are structurally the same and will be used for qualified leads when the campaign runs.

Client clicked Submit, got an error, then received "already submitted" on retry

Symptom: the first submit attempt showed an error or timed out, but reopening the dialog or reloading shows the portal as view-only ("Feedback submitted").

Likely cause: the first submit actually reached the server and was recorded, but a network error or timeout prevented the success screen from displaying. A second attempt returns HTTP 409 (conflict), which the portal treats as "already submitted" and locks to view-only.

What to do: this is the correct outcome - the feedback was received. Confirm the Ken AI team received the submission notification on their dashboard. No action needed from the client.

FAQ

Does my client need a Ken AI account?

No. The portal is publicly accessible via the magic link. No login, password, or account creation is needed.

What happens if my client closes the tab mid-review?

All saves up to that point are preserved. When they reopen the link, the portal restores exactly where they left off. Nothing is lost.

Can my client change their review after submitting?

No. Once the Submit button is clicked and the success screen shows, the portal locks to view-only. If changes are needed after submission, contact your Ken AI team for a revised draft and new link.

What does "untouched items will be treated as approved" mean?

Any item the reviewer never explicitly approved or flagged counts as approved when the draft is submitted. The portal will remind you of how many items are still pending before you confirm. You can click "Approve all pending" in the header to explicitly mark all remaining items at once.

Can a client comment on individual email paragraphs without flagging the whole email?

Yes. Paragraph comments and the per-email Approve/Request change controls are independent. You can approve the overall email while still leaving a paragraph comment with a suggested edit. However, any paragraph comment causes that email to be counted as needing changes in the final submitted verdict.

Will my Ken team see my feedback before I click Submit?

Yes. Every approval, flag, and note you save autosaves to the server immediately. Your Ken team can see your review progress forming in real time on their internal dashboard. Clicking Submit finalizes the review and triggers their notification - but they may already be aware of your feedback before that point.