Create a campaign
Create a campaign, set its flight and brand-safety blocks, and switch it on so the line items inside it can start serving.
A campaign groups the line items for one goal and decides whether they may serve at all. Create one first, then add line items to it.
Before you start
- You can create and edit a campaign as soon as you have an account. Line items and creatives need an approved account to go live, so do the setup now and activate later.
- Decide the flight dates. The campaign must be active and inside its dates for any of its line items to serve.
Steps
- Open Campaigns and select New Campaign.
- Enter a Campaign Name. Add an objective if you want a note for your team.
- Choose the Buying Model and currency. Both are for your records.
- Enter the Total Budget ($). It is a hard cap on what all the campaign's line items can spend together.
- Set the Start Date and End Date.
- If your account shows brand-safety blocks, pick the publishers and channels this campaign must never run on.
- Select Create Campaign.
- A new campaign starts as a draft. Select the play icon on its row to make it active.
What the fields do
| Field | Effect on delivery |
|---|---|
| Start Date, End Date | Enforced. Outside these dates none of the campaign's line items serve. |
| Status | Enforced. Only an active campaign serves. The pause icon stops every line item in it. |
| Brand-safety blocks | Enforced. A blocked publisher or channel never receives this campaign's ads, even if a line item selects it. |
| Total Budget ($) | Enforced, in USD. When the combined spend of all the campaign's line items reaches it, every one of them stops serving. Spend of paused line items counts too. |
| Daily Budget ($) | Not enforced. It is recorded for your planning. Set a daily budget on each line item. |
| Buying Model, objective, currency | Not enforced. You are always charged per impression, in USD. |
The campaign total stops the whole campaign at once. To spread spend over the flight, put a Daily Budget ($) on each line item, and keep your wallet balance in mind. See Pacing and frequency.
Political and issue ads
If your account is set up for political or issue advertising, the campaign form asks you to declare it. These campaigns have extra rules. See Political and issue ads.
What happens next
Add line items to the campaign and upload a creative. Nothing serves until a line item inside the campaign is active.
If something goes wrong
- You cannot delete a campaign yourself. Pause it to stop its delivery.
- A campaign you paused or that is past its end date stops all its line items within moments, and they resume when you reactivate it or extend the dates.
- A campaign whose line items have spent its Total Budget ($) stops the same way. Raise the budget to resume.
- Not sure why a campaign is quiet? Follow Why a campaign is not delivering.