# Campaign brief

One page, written before the campaign exists, that says what this campaign is
for and how you will know whether it worked.

A brief is not a plan. The plan says where the money goes; the brief says why
it is worth spending and what has to be true at the end. Write the brief first,
then the plan, then the campaigns.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file. Answer every field in a sentence, not in a phrase.
2. Leave `Baseline` and `Target` blank until you have read them off your own
   account. A target set before the baseline is known is a target nobody will
   defend later.
3. Get the brief approved before anything is built. The `Approver` field is the
   name of the person who said yes, and the date they said it.
4. Keep the brief with the campaign. When somebody asks in week three why a
   line exists, this is the answer.
5. The CSV version is the same eighteen fields as columns, one row per brief,
   so a team can keep a register of every brief it has written.

## The fields

**Brief name.** What this campaign is called in conversation. Short enough to
say out loud.

**Business outcome.** What changes in the business if this works, in a sentence
that does not name a metric. "Sell through the spring range without discounting
the core line" is an outcome; "improve ROAS" is not.

**Primary metric.** The one number that tells you whether the outcome happened.
One. A campaign judged on three metrics is judged on whichever one looks best
at the end.

**Baseline.** What that metric reads today, and over what window, and from
which account. Without the window and the source, the number is an opinion.

**Target.** Where the metric has to get to for this to have been worth doing.
Blank until the baseline is filled in.

**Audience.** Who this is for, described so specifically that somebody could
build the audience from the sentence.

**Offer.** What the person is actually being offered. If the answer is "the
product", say so — that is an offer, and knowing it is the offer changes the
creative.

**Message.** The one thing the ad has to get across. One sentence, in the
words a customer would use.

**Proof.** Why anyone should believe the message. A number, a guarantee, a
review, a demonstration. No proof means the message is a claim.

**Landing page.** Where the traffic goes, exactly. A campaign pointed at a home
page is a campaign with no landing page.

**Channels.** Where it runs, and nothing else. Keep the list short enough that
each one gets a real budget.

**Flight start / Flight end.** `YYYY-MM-DD`, inclusive. A campaign with no end
date never gets reviewed.

**Budget (minor units).** The whole budget for the campaign, in the smallest
unit of its currency: `150000` is 1,500.00. Split it across lines in the media
plan, not here.

**Currency.** The ISO 4217 code of the account that will be billed.

**Guardrails.** What must not happen. The campaigns that are not to be touched,
the budget move that needs a second approval, the creative that is not to be
reused. This is the field that lets somebody act without asking, so write it
properly.

**Approver.** Who signed the brief off, and when. One name.

**Definition of done.** What has to be true for this campaign to be finished
and written up — not "it ran", but the result compared against the baseline.

## The brief

| Field | Answer |
|---|---|
| Brief name |  |
| Business outcome |  |
| Primary metric |  |
| Baseline |  |
| Target |  |
| Audience |  |
| Offer |  |
| Message |  |
| Proof |  |
| Landing page |  |
| Channels |  |
| Flight start |  |
| Flight end |  |
| Budget (minor units) |  |
| Currency |  |
| Guardrails |  |
| Approver |  |
| Definition of done |  |

## Before you send it for approval

- The business outcome names no metric, and the primary metric names no
  outcome.
- The baseline says where it came from and over what window.
- The guardrails would let somebody else act on this brief without asking you.
- The definition of done can be answered yes or no on the end date.