How to Write a Campaign Brief Your Agency Can Use
A useful campaign brief explains the business problem, the customer you want to influence, the behavior you want to change and the conditions the agency must work within. It gives the team enough direction to make good choices while leaving room for its expertise.
Download the editable worksheet (Markdown). Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details.
Write the brief after you have made the necessary strategic decisions. If the business has not agreed on the target customer or the offer, identify that as work to resolve with the agency. Asking for campaign ideas will not settle those disagreements reliably.
Explain the business condition behind the request.
Describe what is happening, why it matters and what evidence supports your interpretation. Include a baseline where you have one, and label assumptions where you do not.
For example, a hypothetical software company might say that too few trial users activate a particular feature and that activated users appear more likely to renew. That is more informative than a request for an email campaign. The agency can then investigate whether communication is a plausible intervention and what other causes need attention.
Avoid presenting your preferred deliverable as the only acceptable diagnosis. If you have already committed to a channel or format, explain why and say whether the agency can challenge that decision.
Specify the audience and the intended change.
Describe the people whose behavior matters to the objective. Include their situation, current behavior, concerns and reasons for delaying a decision.
A demographic description may help, but the agency also needs to understand the purchase or usage problem. An existing customer who cannot use a feature needs a different message from a prospect who has never heard of the business.
State the desired action in observable terms. Buying, booking a qualified conversation and completing a setup step are different objectives. Explain how you will identify the intended action and what happens afterward.
Choose a proposition and supply its evidence.
Explain the benefit the audience should understand and why it should believe you. Supply relevant product facts, customer research and substantiation for claims.
List genuine requirements, such as mandatory disclosures, approved terminology and accessibility needs. Separate them from preferences that the agency can question.
For U.S. advertising, the FTC's guidance requires support for objective claims before an advertisement runs. Have the appropriate expert review proposed claims and their implications. Read the FTC guidance.
Disclose budget, timing and operational constraints.
Give the agency a usable budget or an explicit range to plan against. Distinguish agency fees from media, production and other costs. If the amount is undecided, commission options against clearly stated assumptions.
Explain why the deadline exists. A contractual launch, a seasonal opportunity and a date chosen for convenience have different consequences if work slips.
Include the capacity needed after the campaign succeeds. Sales availability, stock, delivery lead times and customer support can change the appropriate message or scale of activity.
Agree on success before reviewing ideas.
Identify the primary business measure, useful diagnostic measures and the period over which results will be assessed. Include factors that could complicate interpretation, such as a simultaneous promotion or a product change.
Choose evaluation criteria for the proposed work. Ask whether it addresses the intended audience, communicates the proposition accurately and makes the desired action clear. Those criteria should be available when the agency presents its ideas.
The IPA and BetterBriefs guide connects marketing strategy, the written brief and the briefing conversation. Use the document to support a discussion in which the agency can question assumptions and confirm its understanding.
Review a worked example.
The following example is hypothetical and illustrates the level of specificity to seek.
A regional training provider wants more employers to book consultations about an established workplace course. Its sales records show that prospects often misunderstand the time employees need away from work. The brief asks the agency to explain the course's scheduling flexibility to HR managers who are considering training for the next quarter.
The provider supplies the actual schedule options, customer interview notes and the limits on what it can promise. It identifies consultation requests from eligible employers as the immediate measure, with later qualification and revenue tracked separately. The budget includes production and distribution, and the sales manager confirms capacity to handle inquiries.
The creative route remains open. The agency can recommend how to communicate the scheduling benefit, provided the recommendation fits the evidence and the agreed budget.
Use this campaign brief.
Answer these prompts in plain language and remove anything that does not affect a decision.
- We need to improve [business condition] because [commercial consequence].
- The evidence we have is [baseline and source], and we remain uncertain about [assumption].
- We want [audience] to move from [current behavior] to [desired behavior].
- They should believe [proposition] because [supporting evidence].
- The campaign must comply with [requirements] and work within [operational constraints].
- The available budget covers [items] and excludes [items].
- We need [milestones] by [dates] because [reasons].
- We will evaluate the work against [criteria] and results using [measures].
- [Approver] will consolidate feedback and approve the work through [process].
Have the agency explain the brief back to you in its own words. Resolve differences before production. When your circumstances change, use the brief-change process so the team can assess the consequences together.