Digital Campaign Execution Checklist

Steps an account team and media group run to take a digital campaign from brief intake through launch, optimization, and post-buy reporting. Covers paid search, paid social, programmatic display, and CTV with brand-safety and disclosure compliance.

6 sections 30 steps Collects data
1

Brief Intake & Planning

  1. Confirm the SOW and media budget
  2. Capture campaign objectives and KPIs
  3. Define audience segments and personas
    • Document primary and secondary audiences with first-party CRM segments, lookalikes, and contextual targets. Note any COPPA, HIPAA, or regulated-category restrictions before handing to the media team.

  4. Flag the regulated-category review path
    • Pharma, alcohol, gambling, financial services, and cannabis carry platform-specific restrictions and pre-approval steps (FDA fair balance, FINRA/SEC pre-clearance, age-gating). Choosing a category here triggers the appropriate legal review track downstream.

    Collects list
  5. Build the flighting and pacing calendar
    • Lay out flight start, flight end, optimization checkpoints, and reporting milestones. Reserve buffer days for tag QA and platform approvals — Meta and TikTok review can hold creative for 24-48 hours.

2

Creative & Landing Experience

  1. Develop creative concepts against the brief
    • Concepts must ladder back to the single-minded proposition and KPI named in planning. CD walk-through before any client share — internal sell first, external sell second.

  2. Build the deliverables matrix by placement
    • One row per placement: Meta 1:1 and 9:16, TikTok 9:16, YouTube 16:9 pre-roll plus 6s bumper, programmatic display 300x250 / 728x90 / 160x600 / 970x250, CTV :15 and :30. Note copy length, file size, and aspect-ratio limits per platform.

    Collects file
  3. Clear music, stock, and talent rights
    • Verify sync, master, and performance rights match the channels and term of the buy. Editorial-only stock cannot run in paid placements. Influencer or talent contracts must cover whitelisting and dark-post usage if the media plan includes them.

  4. Run legal and brand review on final assets
    • Substantiation memo for any product claim, FTC #ad disclosure on influencer assets, trademark clearance on taglines. Regulated categories route through the additional review track flagged in planning.

  5. Build the campaign landing page
    • UTM parameters match the trafficking sheet, consent banner gates GDPR/CCPA pixels, and the page passes Lighthouse on mobile. Confirm form fields align to the CDP / CRM segment they feed.

  6. Route assets through Frame.io for client approval
    Collects list
3

Regulated-Category Legal Review

  1. Submit assets to client regulatory or MLR
    • Pharma routes through Medical, Legal, Regulatory (MLR) with fair balance and ISI in spec. Financial services routes through compliance for FINRA/SEC pre-clearance. Document approval IDs in the campaign brief.

  2. Apply age-gating and audience restrictions
    • Alcohol requires 73.8% LDA targeting on Meta and equivalent on other platforms. Gambling and cannabis vary state-by-state. COPPA-applicable creative cannot collect any PII without verifiable parental consent.

  3. Capture the regulatory approval reference
    Collects text Collects file Collects date
4

Trafficking & Tag QA

  1. Set up campaigns in CM360 and the DSP
    • Mirror the flighting calendar into Campaign Manager 360 and the buying DSP (DV360, The Trade Desk). Naming convention follows the agency taxonomy so reporting joins cleanly downstream.

  2. Apply IAS or DoubleVerify pre-bid filters
    • Set brand-safety, viewability, and IVT thresholds per the client's verification standards. Attach the inclusion and exclusion lists supplied by the client; never run open exchange without filters.

  3. QA conversion pixels and server-side events
    • Fire test events through the Meta Pixel, GA4, and CAPI. Verify deduplication keys match between client-side and server-side. Confirm consent-mode signals gate the EU traffic correctly.

  4. Confirm UTM taxonomy and tracking sheet
    Collects file
  5. Run end-to-end test in staging
    Collects list
  6. Fix tag failures before launch
    • Block launch until every priority pixel and conversion event passes. Document each fix in the trafficking sheet — bad tag setup at launch is the single biggest source of unreliable post-buy reporting.

5

Launch & In-Flight Optimization

  1. Push campaigns live across platforms
    • Stagger launches across Meta, TikTok, Google, DV360, and the CTV partner so any pacing or creative-rejection issue surfaces before the full budget is exposed. Confirm spend pacing in the first six hours.

  2. Monitor pacing and delivery daily
    • Trader checks pacing against flight target each morning. Flag any line item delivering under 80% or over 120% of plan; investigate creative-disapproval, audience-size, or bid-floor issues.

  3. Run the week-one optimization pass
    • Shift budget to top-performing audiences and creatives by CPA / ROAS. Pause sub-scale ad sets. Document all changes in the optimization log so the post-buy narrative reconstructs cleanly.

  4. Review brand-safety and IVT post-bid report
    Collects list
  5. Escalate and remediate verification breach
    • Tighten exclusion lists, blocklist offending domains and apps, and request make-good from the SSP or publisher. Notify the client lead within 24 hours per the verification SLA.

  6. Refresh creative to combat fatigue
    • By week three CTR typically degrades 20-30% on social. Rotate in the second creative wave, hold the top performer as control, and document the test design before the swap.

6

Post-Buy Reporting & Wrap

  1. Pull final delivery from CM360 and DSPs
  2. Reconcile spend against the media authorization
    • Match platform-reported spend to invoices and the signed media auth. Flag overdelivery, underdelivery, or make-good owed before billing closes the cycle.

  3. Build the post-buy report deck
    • Structure: KPI vs. benchmark, channel breakdown, creative learnings, audience learnings, brand-safety summary, recommendations. Avoid raw screenshots — synthesize the story.

    Collects file
  4. Hold the client wrap and post-mortem
    Collects list Collects paragraph Collects signature

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Sections 6
Steps 30
Category Advertising
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