Campaign, in Business –
Definition: In online marketing and retail, a campaign is a series of activities linked by a plan of action which all contribute toward a larger defined business goal. … A campaign is not defined by any one specific activity, but rather by the larger goals to be achieved and the plan linking each activity to those goals.
If you are more interested in exploring the various intricacies that exist for budget allocations, especially for 2026 – visit the how and the when of marketing budget allocations.
Where to start
The first step is to ask: what’s the goal?
Do you want to:
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Increase purchases?
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Grow your following?
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Keep customers loyal?
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Improve your Net Promoter Score?
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Win new users?
Clear goals make campaigns measurable.
Channels vs. Tools — What’s the Difference?
It’s easy to confuse channels with tools. A simple way to split them is:
| Channels (Where your message goes) | Tools (What makes it stick) |
|---|---|
| Search, PPC, Social, TV, Radio, Outdoor, Events, Email | Offers, Content, Competitions, Rewards, Memberships, Recognition |
A campaign often mixes both — for example, running a competition (tool) on Instagram (channel) while linking it to outdoor QR codes.
We now need to add AI to the mix…
AI as Channel vs. AI as Tool
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AI as a Channel |
AI as a Tool |
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Conversational discovery (chatbots, ChatGPT, voice assistants) |
ROI calculators, interactive apps, solution-finders |
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Users ask for recommendations or answers directly (e.g., “Who’s the best freelancer in Essex for SEO + strategy?”) |
Predictive models, dynamic content creation, automated bidding |
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Replaces traditional search behaviour — people bypass Google and ask AI |
Provides utility beyond an offer: data tables, estimators, personalised workflows |
AI isn’t just optimising campaigns in the background anymore — it’s becoming the front door/leading channel where people go for answers. The most valuable “offer” or tool is often a solution (an app, calculator, or feature that solves the user’s problem on the spot)
Every campaign starts with one question: “What are we promoting — and why now?”
Your answer determines everything that follows: messaging, channel mix, tools, and timing.
Common campaign drivers:
Type | Trigger / Focus | Example Goal |
New Product Launch | Entering market with something new | Awareness + early sales |
New Category | Educating users on an unfamiliar offer | Understanding + adoption |
New Service or SaaS | Solving a problem or improving efficiency | Free trials + retention |
Seasonal / Travel / Experience | Holiday, event, or lifestyle-driven | Bookings + reviews |
- Defining the Objectives
What’s the measurable success marker?
- Awareness – reach, impressions, recall
- Engagement – shares, follows, participation
- Conversion – sales, sign-ups, trials, bookings
- Retention – return customers, advocacy, feedback
Every tool and channel choice should tie back to one of these.
- Channels, Tools & AI Integration
Channel Type | Purpose | Example Tools | AI Functionality |
Digital | Reach & data capture | PPC, SEO, email, social, influencers | Predictive targeting, automated bidding, personalised content |
Offline | Tangibility & trust | Print, events, radio, outdoor, packaging | QR activation, digital triggers, NFC tagging |
Omnichannel | Seamless connection between online & offline | Loyalty programs, integrated POS, app notifications | Cross-channel analytics, chat-assisted recommendations |
AI Channel | Direct discovery & conversation | Chatbots, voice assistants, ChatGPT responses | Intelligent recommendations, calculators, product matchers |
- Cross-Pollination: Linking Physical and Digital
How do you make an in-store experience fuel your digital campaign (and vice versa)?
Example: Bricks & Mortar Product Launch
- In-store: QR codes linking to online demos or influencer reels.
- Online: retarget visitors who viewed the product page with local stock availability.
- AI: chatbot that answers “Where can I buy this near me?” in real-time.
- Tool: loyalty competition — “scan and win” for customers who engage both online and offline.
Example: Travel or Self-Catering Holiday Home Campaign
- Channel mix: social + influencer content (experience), PPC (intent), outdoor media (location).
- Tools: user-generated content competitions (“Share your sunset”), referral rewards, AI itinerary planner or “packing list” app.
- Cross-pollination: QR codes at local attractions linking back to booking sites, digital guidebooks for guests that prompt rebookings.
- Timing, Testing & Touchpoints
How long should it take to see results?
Guide to expected marketing results.
Layer your campaign:
- Tease – curiosity and soft entry (2–4 weeks)
- Launch – primary burst (4–8 weeks)
- Engage – build relationships and loyalty (8–24 weeks)
- Review – analyse and optimise (ongoing)
How do you create a persona when campaign planning?
HOW DO YOU PROFILE SOMEONE YOU HAVE NEVER MET BEFORE?
How fixed are your customer types, and how do you go about targeting them?
Demographic profiles, used to be the holy grail to the marketer, this is less true now. Profiling is not about recording personal information – so it is a great exercise to do. Essentially, you are building an imaginary person, building a picture of their interests, activities, spending preferences. These assumptions should be based on analysis of the behaviours and activities of your customers and web visitors and are not including any personal contact information and are therefore, free of constraints surrounding GDPR.
It is simply about getting your marketing messages out to those people who will appreciate the information you want to provide. The pitfalls are many, often and especially so with social media, you create your awesome new marketing strategies and content, and then start sharing on social and all too often you realise that the majority of your followers are actually your business competitors, especially difficult for those in the start-up phases.
Your website, your database and your customers provide you with vast amounts of information and if you are looking at a retention campaign (It is advisable, for most sectors, to have at least one campaign running of this type) it provides a valuable way to invite your customers to get involved. Ask for an opinion or feedback and they feel included, if you provide a worthwhile gift or thank-you it is indeed an attractive offer – providing a reward as opposed to selling. So how much should you reward – well, that will ultimately be a different answer depending on your business. However, the value of a quality, accurate opinion by an impartial customer or exceedingly loyal customer – is significant. It could save you tens of thousands in cold, hard cash!
Social Advertising provides some of the best opportunities we have ever had – looking past the instant stats you get from your web traffic. Look further into whether these people are likely to be single or married with children, retired or working from 7am to 9.30pm every day. Try and build a picture and persona for your ‘typical’ customer and then personalise.
Influencer marketing can be a great way to generate interest and engagement – however, pick the influencer very carefully, if you are FMCG or food product – its all about being on trend and the TASTE or the HEALTH product that you simply can’t ignore, however, if you are a more special purchase, how do you get noticed – the answer is much more subtly.
Content marketing, backed up by strong landing pages and graphic styles, is by far and away the single-most effective solution, that provides longevity and trust. This form, if you are clever will also be far more difficult for your competitors to steal, copy and may even manage to escape their radar completely.
PPC and Search are intrinsically linked to your content marketing and your strategies should be very clearly set and reported on. It is also as transparent to your competitors as it is to post your most brilliant offer via social onto their timeline. It is therefore imperative to Know your Audience. The work and analysis involved in doing this accurately is extensive and skilled work that involves analysing across all channels and conducting market research and product positioning along side competitor analysis and trends.
Profiling: Demographics, Psychographics, Behaviours
How do you profile someone you’ve never met? Not by harvesting personal data, but by creating an informed persona.
|
Profile Layer |
What It Shows |
Why It Matters |
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Demographics |
Age, gender, income, location |
Familiarity in design and messaging — people often do conform to type. |
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Psychographics |
Values, motivations, lifestyle |
Reveals why they choose what they do. |
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Behaviours |
Purchase patterns, digital activity, browsing times |
Tells you when and how to engage. |
Personas blend all three layers — giving campaigns precision without breaking GDPR rules.
Here are a handful of hand drawn illustrations that demonstrate the importance of Know your Audience – Marketing
The timing of your campaigns
How long should it take to see results from a good campaign?
This will largely depend on your business, where the starting point is, how used, your end users are to interacting with you, what your social media following is like and how long your lead time is. By rule of thumb, a lightweight, well-worked campaign should provide real results within a three month period for a small business.
Essentially, the larger the business and more well-known, the quicker the results will be achieved, however, this in itself creates different issues. And small businesses need to plan for this – especially when utilising tv endorsement or influencers.
“How long until it works?” is the most common (and most uncomfortable) campaign question. Results depend on spend, market awareness, and the learning curve of the campaign.
The other difficult Question from a campaign perspective is:
Once I have achieved a strong campaign – how long will it last?
This is a bit more complex and you may be interested in the PRBC (Permanent Random Brand Campaign) framework. While most effective in the context of brand marketing it can also be applied to product and sales campaigns – G Ads particularly so. Essentially, it is a strategy to beat the algorithm and stay ahead of the competition extending the lifetime of the campaign.
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Business Type / Campaign Style |
Budget Range |
Expected Early Results |
Strong Momentum (Reliable ROI) |
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Small business, small budget (local services, independent ecommerce) |
£500–£5,000 per month |
6–12 weeks |
6–12 months |
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Established SME, mixed channels (digital + offline, B2B services) |
£10k–£50k per campaign |
4–8 weeks |
3–6 months |
You should expect to see some sort of planB and crisis management strategy as part of any campaign, a sort of risk assessment that looks at the possibilities of how different people could interpret the messaging, creative and product and what to do if your internal teams struggle to meet demand.
For more detailed information and a chat feature to explore campaign planning for larger organisations and in more detail – please visit the AVF Knowledge hub.
The above should provide you with a guide on How to create your Marketing Campaigns.
If you opt for a Campaign Specialist freelancer to run your campaigns what should you expect to receive? Initially, you will need to provide your business goals – what is more important to you – Tighten-up and improve the ROI on your search marketing? Increase visibility and Branding or generate more followers to increase opportunities to improve your NPS?
In response to this information you should get a pitch, which if you are a small business that is not committed to any contract may well require a fee. Alternatively, they may suggest that they run one campaign for you and this should be supported with the stats and analysis to outline the strategies and include indicators of reasonable assumptions.
This One Campaign Only is useful in two ways. It allows the freelancer to get a good feel of you as individuals and how the business works whilst also generating additional statistics and performance data for a single campaign. It also allows you to experience the working relationship with little stress, this should set the work pattern for a successful on-going relationship and complex multi-goal, multi-message campaigns.
It is important to remember that campaigns are highly targeted messages that can be delivered across multiple mediums, channels and with different CTAs – your specialist cannot and should not try to incorporate all of your business objectives into one campaign – nor should you ask them to do so. Planning and scheduling a complete business campaign is a skill and one that requires dedication on the analysis, strategy, creative, content and performance monitoring – this is a separate work pattern to the delivery of the content and should be identified as such in any quote or estimate.
