What to agree before starting paid ads

Name the business action

Choose the action you want a campaign to support: a qualified enquiry, an appointment or a completed order. Describe what makes that action useful to your business. A larger list of contacts may be less helpful than a smaller list your team can serve.

Record the offer, intended audience and destination page. These decisions give the creative and channel plan a shared starting point.

Separate the costs

Make it clear which money pays for advertising and which covers management, creative work, pages or tools. Agree the approved amount, who can change it and how proposed changes will be discussed.

• Who owns and can access the advertising accounts?
• Which work is included in the agreed scope?
• What needs approval before launch?
• Who handles the enquiries the campaign creates?

Define the test and the evidence

Decide what question the first campaign should answer and which records will help answer it. Check the path from click to enquiry or sale before spending begins. Agree how duplicate, irrelevant or incomplete enquiries will be identified.

An illustrative test might compare two offers for the same service. Changing the offer, audience and destination together makes it harder to explain what affected the response.

Agree the review rules

Set a review point and decide what information will be available then. Write down when you would pause, change or continue a test. Include feedback from the people answering calls and closing sales. A useful review ends with a specific next decision, an owner and the reason behind it.