Retail Social Media Campaign Checklist

Pull on-hand and on-PO from the inventory system (Lightspeed, Shopify, NetSuite) for every SKU you plan to feature. Killing a campaign mid-flight because the hero SKU sold through in week one is the most common avoidable mistake here — set a minimum weeks-of-supply floor before committing.

Match channels to the audience: Reels and TikTok for sub-30 apparel and beauty, Pinterest for home and gift, Facebook for 45+ regional store traffic, Google Business Profile for BOPIS-driving local search. Don't default to "all of them" — pick what the audience actually uses.

Tie at least one KPI to a register-side metric — BOPIS orders attributed to the campaign, in-store redemptions of the campaign promo code, comp-sales lift in the featured department. Reach and engagement alone don't tell the operator whether the campaign moved the P&L.

Aim for 9:16 vertical, 15–30 seconds, native captions burned in. Reuse the same source footage across IG Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts — but trim platform-specific cuts; cross-posting a watermarked TikTok to Reels is throttled by the algorithm.

Pull tagged posts and branded-hashtag content from the last 30 days. DM each creator for explicit written permission before reposting — "tagged us so it's fair use" is not a defense. Save the permission thread to the asset folder.

Marketing lead reviews against the brand voice and visual guide. Common rejects: off-palette product shots, copy that contradicts current pricing, model imagery that doesn't reflect the store's customer base. Mark "Revisions needed" if anything fails — the next step branches on it.

Address each flagged item, then route back to the marketing lead. Don't skip the second pass — most brand-voice failures are downstream of a half-fix on the first round.

Confirm each featured product is approved in Meta Commerce Manager and TikTok Shop, with current price and inventory pulled from Shopify. A pending or rejected catalog item won't render the product tag — the post publishes without the shoppable link and you lose attribution.

Verify pickup hours, store-locator link, and order-ready SLA across Instagram bio, Facebook About, and Google Business Profile. Stale curbside hours are a top driver of negative reviews when customers show up outside the window.

Standard SLA during business hours. Triage by intent: sizing and stock questions go to the store associate on shift, BOPIS order issues go to the fulfillment lead, complaints go to the store manager. Don't let a sizing question sit overnight — that customer is buying from a competitor by morning.

Move shipping damage, sizing failures, in-store service complaints, and any safety mention to the store manager same-day. Public reply with an apology and a DM offer to make it right; never delete a negative comment unless it violates platform policy.

Sync the segment of customers who browsed featured SKUs in the last 30 days, plus loyalty members who haven't purchased in 60. Exclude anyone who already bought the hero SKU — paying to retarget a converted customer is the most common waste of paid budget on this kind of campaign.

Two creative variants, one CTA variant, identical audience and budget. Let each cell run at least 72 hours before declaring a winner — Meta's algorithm needs the learning phase to stabilize. Document the winning variant in the campaign log so future campaigns inherit the lesson.

Export from Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads, Google Business Profile insights, and Shopify Analytics. Attach the consolidated report to this step so the next campaign starts with last cycle's baseline.

Match Meta-reported conversions against Shopify orders using the campaign UTM and promo code. Meta's last-click attribution typically overstates by 15–30% versus Shopify's first-party view; reconcile both numbers before reporting ROAS to leadership.

Walk store managers, the visual merchandiser, and the paid-media buyer through what's changing — new hero SKU, revised promo, updated creative direction. Capture the decision rationale so the playbook reflects why the original cut didn't work.