Launching Your Campaign

Why it matters

This is the moment of truth: your campaign finally goes live!

Flip the switch and turn your campaign on. If you are running your campaign internally, this can involve “pushing” the campaign live by going into the self-serve platforms you are using to click the “go live” button. If you are working with a vendor or consultant, they will do this for you.

Activities include turning on the campaign, QA’ing the assets are running correctly and that data is being received in your reporting system.

Once the campaign is launched and activity verified, your focus will shift to analyzing data and making changes to the placements and activity to improve performance.

How it works

Because you pushed everything out during Production, you are now waiting for it to go live. This involves monitoring the self-serve platforms as well as your analytics platform for activity.

How long it takes

Digital media typically goes live right away (within 24 hours) while “traditional” media have varying lead times:

Digital Media

Paid Social: Immediately. However, if this is your first time running paid media through your page, some platforms (like Facebook) will launch you in “learning” mode and cap your ability to spend for the first 14 days of your campaign.
Paid Search: Immediately.
Display: Within 24 hours. Most ad networks have an automated review process that can take up to 24 hours to complete.
Streaming: Within 24–48 hours.
Digital Out of Home (OOH): “Digital live board” placements are deployed by the media owner from a central platform and can go live within about 24 hours, or on your scheduled date, depending on available inventory.
Streaming Audio: Immediately.

Traditional Media

Out of Home (OOH): OOH units have scheduled live dates. If you are using a “digital live board” placement it can be as fast as a day or two to launch. For non-digital OOH placements, the lead time is at least two weeks so the ad can be printed and installed.
Print: The more frequent the publication, the shorter the lead time. This ranges from 1-2 days for a daily news publication to 1+ month for a monthly publication.
Direct Mail: Direct Mail can easily take 4-6 weeks to get into homes. That’s because the mailers have to be processed which includes data processing, mail-piece production, printing, and personalization, and preparation to be put in the mail. How long it takes for the mailer to be delivered depends on the class of postage purchased and the distance traveled, generally taking around 1-2 weeks.
TV: Generally about a week or less for Cable, potentially more if you are buying Network.

Do it in a day

Focus on digital channels that support immediate launch (paid search, paid social, and streaming audio).

Outputs

Screenshots of live placements to share with stakeholders
Verification that live ads are sending traffic to the right places
Verification that live campaign tracking is working
First performance report (1 week after launch)