Campaign Set-up and Launch

Once the channels and type of campaigns have been planned, and budget has been set aside for each of them, activities towards campaign launch need to be set up. Campaign set-up includes all activities beginning with target list creation and development of target parameters thereby ensuring that the inventory has been booked, creative developed and tested, and landing pages created so that the campaign is executed successfully.

Campaign Set-up

Key activities for campaign set-up include:

1. Target list creation: involves all the activities and planning behind identifying, capturing, and qualifying prospects and leads which the firm would want to nurture and develop through multiple campaigns. These include:
   • List of pre-qualified leads integrated from firm’s previous campaigns, offline sales activities, events, forms, purchased contacts, etc.
   • Present customers if campaigns are also targeted towards them
   • New prospect type which the firm would like to develop
2. Channel specific research: Firms then need to plan for internal research to identify the best practices for different kinds of campaigns and channels. For example, in case of search marketing, firms need to do extensive research on top keywords for similar domain areas and in the case of display marketing they need to identify and analyze tools which best target and reach out to the specific audience that the firm is planning to target.
3. Develop targeting parameters: Involves setting up the targeting parameters and business rules for the specific channel on which the campaign is being run. For example, typical targeting parameters include bid, budget, geography, networks, devices, languages, ad extensions, scheduling, etc. We would cover these terminologies for different channel types in detail in the following sections.
4. Designing communication and landing pages: Once campaign parameters have been decided, firms need to plan for communication which includes developing the message, suitable creative and related tags for multiple channels, depending upon the type of communication each of them supports. Firms also need to develop specific landing pages, create templates, call-to-actions, etc., to ensure appropriate conversions.
5. Request and confirm placements: Involves putting a request for specific keywords (in case of search marketing) or inventory (in the case of display marketing) and confirming it. It also includes review of pending placements to ensure that firms do not miss out on running campaigns on the most suited keywords/inventory.
6. Pre-launch testing: Once inventory has been confirmed, immediately prior to the campaign launch, firms need to review and test all campaign elements including creative specifications, file sizes, landing pages, etc., as mentioned in the submission guidelines for each specific channel.
7. Developing campaign calendar: With all campaign elements in place and tested, firms should develop a campaign calendar that includes details on campaign start/end, creative deadlines, budgets allocated, number of units/type of keywords bought, deal type (CPM/CPC numbers), intended reach, etc.
8. Launch approval: Before the actual launch of campaign, all necessary approvals are to be obtained and campaigns are authorized to be launched as per decided calendar dates.