Marketing Campaign Planning Template

A marketing campaign is a coordinated set of activities across multiple channels, unified by a single objective, theme, and timeframe. The word "campaign" is used loosely — some teams call every email blast a campaign — but in this template, we define a campaign as a focused effort with clear goals, a distinct creative theme, a multi-channel execution plan, and a defined measurement framework.

This template covers the full campaign planning lifecycle: strategy, creative, execution, and post-mortem.

What Makes a Campaign Different from Ongoing Marketing

Ongoing marketing is always-on: your blog continues to publish, your email newsletter goes out weekly, your paid ads run continuously. These are the baseline.

A campaign is a temporary intensification around a specific goal. Examples:

• Product launch campaign (drive signups for a new feature)
• Seasonal campaign (Black Friday, back-to-school, end of year)
• Awareness campaign (expand brand recognition in a new market)
• Lead generation campaign (fill a pipeline gap before a quarter-end)
• Re-engagement campaign (win back lapsed users or customers)

Campaigns have a start date, an end date, and a clear objective that would be difficult to achieve through always-on activity alone.

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Part 1: Campaign Strategy

Campaign Brief

Campaign Name: _______________________________________________ (A memorable internal name that unifies the team: "The January Surge," "Product X Launch," "H2 Pipeline Push")

Campaign Owner: _______________________________________________ (One person responsible for the campaign's success — not a committee)

Campaign Start Date: _______________________________________________

Campaign End Date: _______________________________________________

Campaign Duration: ___ weeks / ___ months

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The Campaign Objective

Primary objective (one only — the North Star for this campaign):

• Drive new signups / leads
• Launch a new product or feature
• Generate pipeline for a specific segment
• Increase brand awareness in [market/geography]
• Re-engage lapsed customers / subscribers
• Drive attendance to an event
• Support a sales initiative (end-of-quarter push)
• Other: _______________________________________________

Primary KPI (the one number this campaign will be judged on):

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KPI target: _______________________________________________ (e.g., "500 new trial signups," "$200,000 in influenced pipeline," "10,000 net new email subscribers")

Secondary KPIs (supporting metrics, not the primary judgment):

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

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Target Audience

Primary audience for this campaign: _______________________________________________ (Be specific: "Heads of Content at Series A-C B2B SaaS companies with 20-200 employees")

Is this a new audience or existing?: New audience / Existing customers / Both

Estimated audience size (for paid targeting): _______________________________________________

Where this audience spends time (which channels reach them):

• ---

• ---

• ---

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Campaign Theme and Message

Campaign theme (the unifying creative idea):

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Core campaign message (the one thing the campaign is saying):

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Supporting proof points (2-3 facts/claims that support the core message):

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

Campaign CTA (the primary action we want the audience to take):

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CTA URL: _______________________________________________

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Campaign Assets Required

Check all assets this campaign needs. Assign an owner and deadline to each.

Asset	Owner	Deadline	Status
Campaign landing page
Email sequence (# emails: ___)
Social media posts (# posts: ___)
Paid ad creative (# variants: ___)
Blog post(s) supporting campaign
Video / webinar
Sales deck / one-pager
PR / media pitch
Influencer / partner brief
Event / webinar materials
Other:

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Part 2: Channel Plan

For each channel you're using, define the specific role it plays in the campaign, what content you're publishing, and the expected contribution.

Channel 1: Email

Role in campaign: _______________________________________________ (Primary conversion driver / Audience warm-up / Re-engagement / Announcement)

Audience segment(s): _______________________________________________

Email sequence plan:

Email #	Subject Line	Send Date	Goal	CTA
1
2
3
4

Expected open rate: ___% Expected click rate: ___% Expected conversions: ___

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Channel 2: Paid Advertising

Platform(s): Google / LinkedIn / Meta / Twitter/X / Other: ___

Campaign type: Search / Display / Social / Retargeting / ABM

Budget allocated: $_______________

Targeting approach:

---

Ad variants planned: ___ versions

Expected impressions: _______________ Expected clicks: _______________ Expected conversions: _______________ Target CPL (Cost Per Lead): $_______________

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Channel 3: Content / SEO

Campaign-specific content pieces:

Title	Format	Keyword Target	Target Publish Date

How this content supports the campaign: _______________________________________________

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Channel 4: Social Media

Platforms: _______________________________________________

Posting schedule for campaign period:

Platform	# of Posts	Content Types	Key Messages

Organic hashtags to use: _______________________________________________

Employee advocacy plan: Yes / No — Details: _______________________________________________

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Channel 5: PR / Media

Story angle: _______________________________________________

Target publications: _______________________________________________

Planned announcement date: _______________________________________________

Embargo strategy: Yes / No

Press contact: _______________________________________________

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Channel 6: Events / Webinars

Event name: _______________________________________________

Date and format: _______________________________________________

Expected attendance: _______________________________________________

Follow-up plan: _______________________________________________

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Channel 7: Partner / Influencer

Partners or influencers involved: _______________________________________________

Their role in the campaign: _______________________________________________

Deliverables and timeline: _______________________________________________

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Part 3: Campaign Timeline

Map the full campaign on a week-by-week basis. Adjust columns for your campaign duration.

Phase	Dates	Activities
Pre-launch preparation		Build landing page, create all assets, set up tracking, brief channels
Soft launch / warm-up		Tease content, email warm-up, organic social, PR outreach
Launch week		Primary announcement, all channels live, paid ads launch
Campaign body		Email nurture sequence, content publication, paid optimization
Final push		Urgency messaging (if applicable), re-targeting, last-chance email
Campaign close		Wind down paid, send wrap-up email, pull results data
Post-mortem		Analyze results, document learnings, update playbook

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Part 4: Budget

Category	Budget Allocated	Actual Spent	Notes
Paid advertising	$	$
Content creation	$	$
Design / creative	$	$
Events / venues	$	$
Tools / software	$	$
PR / influencer fees	$	$
Other	$	$
TOTAL	$	$

Budget approval required from: _______________________________________________

Contingency budget (10-15% reserve for optimization): $_______________

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Part 5: Tracking and Measurement Setup

UTM Tracking Plan

Every URL used in this campaign must have UTM parameters. Define the structure:

Channel	utm_source	utm_medium	utm_campaign	utm_content
Email	email	email	[campaign-name]	[email-#]
LinkedIn paid	linkedin	cpc	[campaign-name]	[ad-variant]
Google paid	google	cpc	[campaign-name]	[ad-group]
Twitter organic	twitter	social	[campaign-name]	[post-topic]
Newsletter	newsletter	email	[campaign-name]	[issue-date]

Dashboard Setup

Create a campaign dashboard that tracks:

• Campaign landing page visits (daily)
• Conversion rate on landing page
• Email open rate and click rate
• Paid ad CTR and CPL
• Total conversions against target
• Cost per conversion (blended across channels)
• Pipeline influenced (for B2B)

Dashboard tool: Google Analytics / Looker Studio / HubSpot / Other: ___

Reporting cadence during campaign: Daily / Every 3 days / Weekly

Who receives the report: _______________________________________________

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Part 6: Campaign Post-Mortem

Complete this section within 2 weeks of campaign end.

Results vs. Goals

KPI	Target	Actual	% of Goal
Primary KPI:
Secondary KPI 1:
Secondary KPI 2:
Secondary KPI 3:

Budget performance: $___ spent of $___ budgeted (___ %)

Cost per [primary conversion]: $___ vs. target of $___

Channel Performance Analysis

Channel	Contribution	Cost	CPL	Best-Performing Element
Email
Paid
Content
Social
PR

What Worked

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

What Didn't Work

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

Lessons for Next Campaign

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

If We Ran This Campaign Again

What we'd do differently: _______________________________________________

What we'd keep: _______________________________________________

What we'd cut: _______________________________________________

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Further Reading

• launch a new campaign playbook
• how to plan a multi-channel campaign in half the time with AI
• how to launch a full campaign in 7 days without a team of 10
• Averi's Strategy Map to tie every campaign back to your strategic priorities

Frequently Asked Questions

How far in advance should campaign planning start?

For major campaigns (product launches, large seasonal campaigns): 6-8 weeks before launch. For mid-size campaigns (quarterly lead gen, webinar series): 3-4 weeks. For quick-turn campaigns (a timely announcement or market event): 1-2 weeks with a simplified version of this template. The asset creation lead time is usually the constraint — landing pages, videos, and designed ad creative take time.

How many campaigns should a startup run per quarter?

Quality over quantity. For an early-stage startup with a small marketing team, one well-executed 6-week campaign per quarter is better than three poorly planned campaigns. As your team scales and your channel infrastructure matures, you can run concurrent campaigns (typically one per channel owner or segment).

What's the most common campaign planning mistake?

Defining the campaign theme before the campaign objective. Many campaigns start with "we want to do a content series about [topic]" before answering why. The objective should drive everything else: if your objective is pipeline generation, your theme, channels, and CTAs should all be built around that. If your theme comes first, you risk a beautiful campaign that doesn't move any meaningful metric.

Should every campaign have a dedicated landing page?

Almost always yes. Sending campaign traffic to your homepage dilutes conversion because the homepage serves multiple audiences with multiple messages. A campaign-specific landing page that matches the ad/email message exactly (message match) consistently converts at 2-5x the rate of homepages.

How do you measure campaign ROI for brand awareness campaigns?

Brand awareness is genuinely harder to measure than demand generation. Use a combination of: reach and impressions (how many people saw it?), direct traffic increase (more people coming to your site by name?), branded search volume change (more people searching for your brand?), share of voice (did your brand mentions increase relative to competitors?). For the most rigorous measurement, run a brand lift survey before and after the campaign.