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Learn how to pull everything together into a launch-ready campaign, with tips for choosing the right channels, scheduling content, and reviewing results.
Creating and launching an advertising campaign can feel like assembling a puzzle – all the elements need to fit together to form a clear picture. If you're new to this process or looking to refine your approach, this guide will walk through how to plan, launch, and optimise your campaign so you can achieve real, measurable results.
Before launching a campaign, it’s important to be clear on why you're doing it and what you want to achieve. A well-planned campaign connects your creative efforts with tangible outcomes, whether that’s driving ticket sales, generating bookings, or building awareness.
Start by answering these core questions:
Why are you launching this campaign?
What outcomes do you want?
What channels and formats will you use?
What will you measure to define success?
Your campaign plan becomes the home for all these details. It connects your brief, budget, creative assets, and media choices into a single, strategic document.
Once you have a clear campaign plan, you’re ready to bring it to life. Depending on how involved you want to be, you can manage the campaign yourself or work with a creative or media partner.
There are two main approaches to campaign management:
Set and forget
You launch your campaign and let it run without checking in until it's over. This can work if your plan is tight, but you risk missing opportunities to improve results.
Optimising as you go
This approach involves monitoring and adjusting your campaign while it's live. For example, if ticket sales are lagging midway through, you might tweak your targeting or test new creative assets. This helps increase the chances of achieving your goals. Even small adjustments – like targeting a new age group or reallocating spend to a higher-performing channel – can make a big difference.
To reach your audience effectively, you'll need to select the right mix of media channels. Your budget, timing, and goals all come into play here. Here’s a quick overview of the main options:
Social media advertising: Affordable and immediate, with self-managed options across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and more.
Digital advertising: Wide reach and precise targeting across websites and digital networks.
Influencers: Partner with content creators to create authentic, high-impact content within niche, engaged audiences.
TV and connected TV: Great for broad awareness, but more expensive.
Radio: Reaches local or national audiences with flexibility in format.
Out-of-home: Street posters and billboards are good for local buzz and visibility.
Print: Local and national options, best for awareness.
Promotional activity: Face-to-face engagement at local events or high-traffic areas, often supported by social sharing.
Start by understanding where your audience spends time and what channels fit your budget and objectives.
Once you've selected your channels, it's time to schedule and launch your campaign:
Load creative assets into your social platforms or send them to media partners.
Use a scheduling platform like Meta Business Suite, Hootsuite, Later, or Buffer to plan and automate your posts across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or LinkedIn. This saves time and helps you stay consistent.
Submit assets early (ideally 48 hours before launch) to allow for approval and testing.
Monitor results closely in the first few days – this is when you can test and optimise for the best performance. Platforms like Meta Ads Manager, Google Analytics, or even simpler dashboards in Canva Pro and Later can help you track reach, clicks and engagement. If you're using a media partner, ask them for a performance report mid-campaign.
Social and digital platforms allow for real-time feedback. Even basic insights – like which ad got more engagement or which audience responded best – can help you make smarter adjustments while your campaign is still live. If one ad is performing better than another, you can shift your budget accordingly – a tactic known as A/B testing.
At the end of the campaign, review the results carefully. Compare what you planned with what happened:
How many people saw your campaign?
Did they click through or engage?
Did you hit your commercial goals?
Document what worked and what didn’t. These insights should feed into your next campaign – they’re a key part of improving your results over time.
To get your campaign off the ground:
Define your objective: be specific about what success looks like.
Finalise your creative brief: include your audience, goals, and messages.
Select your media channels: focus on where your audience is active.
Build your campaign plan: include timings, budget, and key deliverables.
Set up your platforms: load assets and prepare for launch.
Monitor and optimise: track performance daily and adjust if needed.
Review and record learnings: use insights to shape your next campaign.
Summary – Getting your campaign liveAdvertising campaigns are most effective when they’re grounded in clear planning and flexible enough to adapt as they run. You don’t need a huge budget to create impact – you just need a clear goal, the right channels, and the willingness to learn and refine as you go.
By taking the time to plan, manage, and reflect on your campaigns, you can build stronger connections with your audience and achieve more meaningful outcomes from your marketing efforts.
Read more of the Brand Out Loud series
This article is part of an impactful series designed to help you plan, develop and deliver creative campaigns that connect with the right audience:
Brand Out Loud: a creative strategy series for getting noticed
Brand Out Loud Topic 1: Brand Identity
Brand Out Loud Topic 2: Creative Briefs
Brand Out Loud Topic 3: Creative Assets
Brand Out Loud Topic 4 : Getting your campaign live (this article)
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