dag: Who needs to approve this marketing campaign?
version: 1.0.0
image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1553877522-43269d4ea984?w=1200&q=80
description: Run a structured go/no-go decision process before launching any marketing campaign. This tree checks the four most common failure points — campaign brief completeness, budget approval, legal and compliance sign-off, and audience list readiness — and routes you to one of four outcomes: Launch as Planned, Launch with Modifications, Delay for Revision, or Do Not Launch.
tags: marketing, campaign management, approval, operations
entry: Q1

Q1: Is the campaign brief complete and signed off by all key stakeholders?
  hint: A complete campaign brief must include a clearly defined objective (with a measurable KPI), a target audience definition, core messaging and value proposition, creative assets list with owners, channel plan, timeline with milestones, and success metrics tied to business outcomes. Briefs missing any of these elements routinely cause mid-campaign pivots, creative rework, and stakeholder misalignment that are far more costly than a short delay at the outset. Stakeholder sign-off should include at minimum the campaign owner, the channel manager, and the budget holder — verbal agreement does not count. If the brief is partially complete, assess whether the missing elements could block execution within the first week of the campaign going live.
  yes -> Q2
  no  -> [DELAY]

Q2: Has the campaign budget been formally approved through your finance or procurement process?
  hint: Formal budget approval means the spend has been reviewed and authorised in your financial system — not simply discussed or verbally agreed in a meeting. Campaigns launched without formal approval frequently encounter mid-flight purchase order issues, vendor payment delays, and emergency budget reallocations that interrupt delivery and damage channel relationships. If a partial budget is approved, assess whether the approved amount is sufficient to achieve the minimum viable campaign scale; under-funded campaigns often produce results too small to draw meaningful conclusions and waste the spend that was committed. Budget approval should also confirm which cost centre the spend is attributed to, as misattribution causes reconciliation problems in post-campaign reporting.
  yes -> Q3
  no  -> [NO_LAUNCH]

Q3: Has the campaign received legal and compliance sign-off on all creative assets, claims, and audience data usage?
  hint: Legal and compliance review covers several distinct areas that must each be cleared before launch: advertising claims must be substantiated and not misleading under applicable consumer protection law; data usage must comply with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, or other applicable privacy regulations based on your audience geography; any required disclosures (FTC influencer guidelines, financial promotions, health claims) must be present in the correct format in all assets. Even a single non-compliant asset in a campaign can expose the organisation to regulatory fines, forced takedowns, and reputational damage that far outweigh any revenue the campaign might have generated. If some assets are cleared and others are pending, do not launch the pending assets — proceed only with what has received explicit sign-off.
  yes -> Q4
  no  -> [MODIFY]

Q4: Is your audience list or targeting configuration fully built, validated, and ready for activation?
  hint: Audience readiness means different things by channel: for email, it means the list has been cleaned, segmented, suppressed against opt-outs, and loaded into your ESP; for paid media, it means audiences are uploaded or targeting parameters are configured and have cleared platform review; for events, it means invitees have been confirmed and communications are scheduled. A campaign that launches with an incomplete or unvalidated audience list frequently results in wasted spend, deliverability problems, compliance violations from mailing suppressed contacts, or simply reaching the wrong people with a message that doesn't resonate. Allow at least 48 hours for list processing and platform audience population before scheduling the first send or activating paid campaigns — platforms like LinkedIn and Meta can take 24–48 hours to build custom audience segments.
  yes -> [LAUNCH]
  no  -> [MODIFY]

[LAUNCH]: Launch as Planned
  color: #10B981
  description: All four pre-launch gates have been cleared — your campaign brief is approved, budget is formally committed, legal and compliance have signed off on all assets, and your audience is built and validated. Confirm the go-live time with all channel owners within the next 24 hours and send a campaign launch notification to your internal stakeholders so sales, customer success, and leadership know what is going live and when to expect early performance signals. Set up your tracking dashboard before the first asset goes live, including UTM parameters, conversion pixel firing confirmation, and CRM campaign attribution tagging so that no early data is lost. Schedule a 72-hour post-launch check-in with the campaign owner to review initial performance signals and confirm that all channels are delivering as expected before the campaign reaches significant spend levels.
  code: MKT_CAMP_LAUNCH

[MODIFY]: Launch with Modifications
  color: #F59E0B
  description: The campaign has passed most pre-launch checks but one or more elements require remediation before full activation — a controlled, phased launch is the right path forward rather than either a full hold or a full launch with known gaps. Identify specifically which assets, channels, or audience segments are cleared versus pending, and activate only the cleared components immediately to preserve momentum and avoid missing your launch window entirely. Create a written remediation checklist for the pending items with a named owner and a deadline no more than 5 business days out — open-ended remediation tasks rarely get resolved without explicit accountability. Communicate the phased launch plan to your sales team so they have accurate expectations about which channels are live and what lead volume to expect in the interim period. Document the root cause of the modification requirement in your campaign retrospective file to improve pre-launch process compliance on future campaigns.
  code: MKT_CAMP_MODIFY

[DELAY]: Delay for Revision
  color: #EF4444
  description: The campaign brief is incomplete or stakeholder sign-off is missing, which means the foundational agreement on objectives, audience, message, and success metrics does not yet exist — launching without this alignment consistently produces campaigns that generate activity but not results, and that cannot be meaningfully evaluated or improved. Schedule a mandatory brief completion session within 48 hours with the campaign owner, key stakeholders, and the channel leads responsible for execution, with a hard deadline for returning a complete, signed brief. Use this delay productively: have creative teams refine assets, have the legal team begin their review of draft materials, and have channel managers pre-configure targeting so that activation time is minimised once the brief is approved. Set a realistic revised launch date based on the time required to complete and sign off the brief, and communicate the delay to any external partners or vendors who are affected by the timeline shift. Treat this delay as a process improvement signal and review your campaign intake workflow to identify what caused the brief to reach the approval gate incomplete.
  code: MKT_CAMP_DELAY

[NO_LAUNCH]: Do Not Launch
  color: #6B7280
  description: The campaign budget has not received formal financial approval, which is a hard stop — proceeding without it creates financial and operational risk that no marketing outcome can justify, including unauthorised spend commitments, vendor contract exposure, and internal compliance violations. Immediately pause all campaign preparation activity to prevent further resource investment in a campaign that may not proceed as scoped, and notify all involved vendors and channel partners of the hold to avoid incurring commitments you are not authorised to make. Escalate the budget approval request through the appropriate finance or procurement channel with a clear business case, the campaign timeline impact of the delay, and a specific deadline for a decision — open-ended budget requests sit in queues indefinitely. If the budget is formally denied rather than delayed, revisit the campaign objective and scope to determine whether a modified, lower-cost version can be approved, or whether the initiative should be shelved until the next budget cycle. Use this pause to strengthen the campaign brief and business case so that the resubmission has a higher approval probability.
  code: MKT_CAMP_NOLAUNCH