The 8 Steps of an Advertising Campaign
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2012
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Documents
2012
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Here are eight steps you can follow to keep your advertising campaign on track and successful.
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The8StepsofanAdvertising Campaign
November 30, 2009 | Written By Thursday Bram
In the past, I worked with a business
that made its decisions on where to advertise based entirely on
which publications and stations actually called up and solicited an ad.
While plenty of publications are cold-calling potential advertisers in
hopes of getting a little ad revenue these days, I wouldn’t really
recommend taking a similar route. Instead, approaching advertising
like any other business project can guarantee that your advertising
budget actually has the affect you want in the long-term. An
advertising project isn’t so different from buying a new office or
designing a new product: with the right process, you can complete
your project efficiently and with great results.
Here are eight steps you can follow to keep your advertising
campaign on track and successful:
1.
Market research:
Before you even start thinking about where
you might want to place an ad or even what it could look like,
it’s important to do at least some basic research. Even if you
aren’t in a position to bring in an expensive research firm, you
can ask your current customers questions about why they come
back to you, as well as taking a close look at your target
demographic’s needs and interests.
2.
Budgeting:
Your business probably has a set advertising budget
for the year
—
but how do you divvy it up between your various
advertising projects? For each project you’re planning, you
need to be clear on just how much money you’re willing to
spend. You’ll almost certainly change exactly how you divide it
between costs like copy writing and design, but you can treat
the overall amount as set in stone. Write it down and put it in
your project folder.
3.
Setting goals:
The aims you have in mind for a particular
advertising project need to be written down ahead of time.
While it’s good to be ambitious, it’s also i
mportant to decide
what constitutes a successful advertising campaign for your
business. Sales can be the simplest metric: if you’re advertising
a particular product, how many units will you need to sell to pay
for that campaign?
4.
Advertising venue:
The website, tv station, newspaper, radio
station, magazine or other advertising venue you place your ad
with is a crucial decision. You’ll need to look at not only the cost
of your preferred venues but also whether they reach your
target demographic. Ad buys can make up a significant portion
of your budget. Deciding on where you will place your ads first
tells you how much money you’ll have left over for actually
creating your ad.
5.
Choosing creatives:
Unless you’re planning to write, shoot and
design every part
of your ad, you’ll probaably need to bring in
some help. Finding the right freelancers for each aspect
requires checking through portfolios and rates
—
if you can find
a business or freelancer who can handle all aspects of creating
your ad, even if that means subcontracting, it can save you a lot
of time. You’ll also want to make sure that you find any talent
you’ll need for your ad (voice actors for radio, models for
photography and so on).
6.
Design and wording:
While you may not have a lot of actual
writing and designing to do for your ad, during the creation
process you will need to review and sign off on different stages
of the project. When starting with a new designer or other
creative, make sure that you both know any expectations for
timelines and progress checks.
7.
Placing the ad:
Once you have a finished ad in hand, it’s time to
actually place it with your preferred advertising venue. You may
have a few contracts to sign and a check to hand over. You’ll
also want to make sure you actually see your ad
once it’s run —
from a newspaper, for instance, you’ll want to see the tear
sheets of pages containing your ad.
8.
Evaluation:
Depending on your ad, how you evaluate it can
vary. If it included a coupon, for instance, you can simply count
how many customers brought in the coupon. For other ads, you
may be simply comparing sales before, during and after your
advertising campaign. Spend as much time on analyzing how
your advertising campaign worked as you can. That information
can point you to more effective uses of advertising in the
future.
While following such a set process may seem like it would stifle the
creativity necessary to put together a new ad, following these steps
can actually make it easier. You can minimize confusion and make
sure that everyone is meeting the necessary deadlines
—
and you can
ensure that you’ll be able to measure your ad’s actual cost and
responses during each step. You’ll be better equipped to tweak your
ad or move it to another publication in the future.
