Getting our message to our target audience must be imperative for any company, and it is precisely here where the concept of an advertising campaign comes into play.
However, an advertising campaign is not just about creating ads and putting them into circulation.
The problem many times that today it is “so simple” to advertise for any business has caused that in the vast majority of occasions we forget to create the strategy before the advertisements.
Therefore, my objective with this article, in addition to explaining the definition of an advertising campaign, is to show you the process you have to take into account.

What is an Advertising Campaign?

If I had to stay with a definition of an advertising campaign, I would tell you that it is a strategic process in which different media will participate to get our message to our target audience.
For this, we can have different formats of digital and offline advertising.
Of course, when doing an advertising campaign, we will also have to consider what the company’s objective is.
They forgive you for a much more enjoyable explanation.
We have to understand the concept of an advertising campaign as if it were a puzzle.
A puzzle in which different elements intervene (which we will see later on), and each plays an essential role in achieving the company’s objectives.
If any of these pieces are missing, the puzzle is incomplete, and therefore we will have wasted time and money.

Objectives of Advertising Campaign?

Indeed from the definition that we have seen before, you will have already left what an advertising campaign consists of, but just in case, I will explain it to you based on the objectives that we can pursue.
Now, depending on our objective, you should know that you will have to adapt the ads and the tone of your messages.
It is not the same to advertise for someone who already knows us and someone who has no idea about our brand or what we offer.
Has the concept of an advertising campaign become more apparent to you in this way?

Elements of an Effective Advertising Campaign

All advertising campaigns have a series of elements in common that must be considered so that our message arrives correctly.
In addition, it is not the same to carry out this type of campaign yourself that is managed directly by an advertising agency.
But they all start with the definition of the briefing, so we will see some aspects that we should take into account.

Description of the product or service

If we are going to carry out an advertising campaign, the first point will be to understand and know what we will commercialize.
So at this point, we will have to know all the technical details and the product’s marketing history (if any).

Set goals

I have already told you before that usually, the marketing objectives are focused on:

  • Discovering us,
  • They begin to consume us
  • They consume us more

Therefore, note that we are not always talking about sales.
There are another series of objectives that we also have to consider. That will depend mainly on the degree of knowledge our target audience has about our brand and the solution we can provide.
Here it is essential to understand what the buying process of a customer is, which usually takes the following form: Awareness – Knowledge – Preference – Proof – Loyalty
And precisely this series of objectives can be divided into three:

  • Tactical
  • Strategic
  • Final

Tactical Objectives

Tactical objectives are usually short-term and are more linked to the awareness of our brand.
Some examples of tactical objectives would be:

  • Draw attention.
  • Report.
  • Remind.
  • Increase interest and predisposition towards the brand.
  • Persuade.
  • Etc.

Strategic objectives

Strategic objectives are usually defined more in the medium and long term and are more related to the product or service itself, such as:

  • The shopping experience.
  • The frequency of purchase.

Final Objectives

While the final objectives are more linked to the profitability of the campaigns themselves.

Definition of the target audience

A phrase that I use a lot is “It is useless to have the best product if we do not communicate it to our target audience or they are not interested in it” –
So in this section, it is essential to be clear about who we are going to address.
Typically, in advertising campaigns, the term target is used more.
But mainly, it is to consider a series of variables that allow us to meet this “type of people” whom we are going to impact.

Determination of the geographical scope

We have to know what the dimension of the campaign that we will carry out will be.
They are usually regional, local, national, and even international.

Message design

It is the point where many businesses usually start to create the ad directly.
Although, as you can see before, we have seen a series of points that allowed us to advance in the design of our strategy.
Here we will see to take into account how to differentiate our product.

For this, we will have mainly three areas to take into account:

  • The content of the message: is it going to be informative, emotional, moral, etc.?
  • The structure of the message: what the argument will be.

6. Media plan

Now is when we have to choose the means, we will count on to spread our message.
You must understand that there are different types of advertising and that we do not have to focus only on the online part, but rather that we have to integrate it with offline.
Some of them can be:

  • Advertising on Social Networks.
  • Mailing.
  • Mobile advertising.
  • Video advertising.
  • Display advertising.
  • Remarketing.
  • Print advertising.
  • Radio advertising.
  • External advertising.
  • Telephone advertising.
  • Television advertising.

Regardless of which ones you select, you will also have to consider the frequency and duration of the campaign.

7. Budget

It is useless to create a mega-media plan if, later, we are not going to have sufficient human and financial resources to execute it.
So in this section, we will not only have to take into account how much budget we have, but we will also have to assign a budget to each of the previously established media.

8. Measurement of advertising effectiveness

Finally, an analysis must be made of the objectives that we have previously established and the results that contain stood obtained.
And now you will understand why it is so important to define the objectives correctly.
Because based on them, we will define later a series of KPIs in marketing that will help us analyze the results.
For example, if the advertising objectives were in terms of knowledge, some KPIs that we can measure are:

  • Impressions
  • Scope.
  • Notoriety.
  • I remember the ad.

If the objectives were in terms of attitude, the KPIs could be:

  • Reactions and interactions.
  • Attitude towards the brand or advertisement.
  • Analysis of purchase intention.

While if the advertising objectives were in terms of behavior, other KPIs to take into account would be:

  • Sales.
  • Repeat purchase.
  • Related sales.
  • Cross-selling.

All these are the elements that you should take into account when planning your advertising strategy.

Also read: Practical Applications for Companies or Professionals