The social media campaign checklist: before, during and after launch

Social media campaign checklist: strategy and offer (3 to 4 weeks out)

If anything here is vague, every later list gets harder. Our campaign brief template covers each of these in more detail.

• One primary goal written as a number with a date, such as "400 orders at under $45 each by March 31"
• The ad optimization event chosen to match it: purchase, lead, install or add to cart
• One offer with a real reason to act now: launch bundle, early access, first-order discount or limited first batch
• Offer terms written down: start and end time, code, exclusions, stock limit
• Target buyer described by situation and problem, not just age and gender
• Three or four creative angles agreed: problem, demo, proof, objection
• Platforms chosen (one or two for launch) with a reason for each
• Budget split into production, ad spend and creator fees, with a weekly ad spend number
• Launch date confirmed against stock, shipping cutoffs and any holiday or sale period you'll be competing in
• One person named who can approve creative within 24 hours

Creative checklist: every ad, before upload

Run each video and static through this list. It takes two minutes per ad and saves rejected ads and wasted impressions.

• Shot or exported vertical 9:16. Meta recommends 1440 x 2560 for Reels ads; TikTok recommends 9:16 at a minimum of 540 x 960
• Text, logo and offer kept out of Meta's Reels margins: top 14%, bottom 35%, 6% on each side
• Checked against TikTok's downloadable safe zone overlay for the caption length you're using
• Hook lands in the first 1 to 2 seconds, on screen and in the voiceover
• Product visible by second 3
• Captions burned in, because many people watch with sound off
• Offer and call to action said out loud and shown on screen near the end
• At least 2 or 3 hook variations for each winning body cut
• Music cleared for ads: TikTok's Commercial Music Library or licensed tracks only, never trending personal-use sounds
• Claims checked: no before-and-after, health or income claims the platform or the law won't allow
• File names that match your UTM content values so reports line up with ads

Landing page and funnel checklist

This is where campaigns quietly fail. A great ad sending traffic to a slow, generic page is the most expensive mistake on this list. More on building these in campaign landing pages and funnels.

• Headline repeats the promise the ad made, in nearly the same words
• Product, price and offer visible on the first phone screen without scrolling
• One primary call to action. Main nav removed or reduced
• Page loads quickly on a phone over cellular data, tested on a real device
• Reviews, ratings or UGC clips above the fold or just below it
• Email or SMS capture for people not ready to buy, with a reason to sign up
• Discount code applies automatically or is tested by hand, including edge cases like bundles
• Real test purchase made on a phone, then refunded
• Order confirmation and welcome emails sent and checked for broken links
• Out-of-stock and sold-out states designed, in case the launch works

Tracking checklist: before you spend a dollar

If tracking is wrong, the platforms optimize toward the wrong people and you can't tell which ad worked. Check this list with a test order, not by looking at settings.

• Meta Pixel and Conversions API both live, sending the same event ID so events aren't counted twice
• TikTok Pixel and Events API both live, with matching event IDs
• Domain verified in Meta Business Manager
• Test purchase appears in Meta Events Manager, TikTok Events Manager and your analytics within the hour
• Purchase value and currency passed correctly, not a flat $1 or zero
• Every ad link tagged with utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign and utm_content using one naming convention
• Email platform tagging sign-ups with the campaign source
• One dashboard or sheet that shows spend, clicks, conversion rate and cost per result side by side

Accounts, permissions and compliance

Creator ads and regulated categories add steps that can stall a launch for days. Our influencer and creator campaigns page covers the creator side in depth.

• Ad accounts, pixels and business manager owned by the brand, with the team added as partners
• Payment method on file and account spending limit raised above the launch budget
• TikTok Spark Ads codes collected from every creator, set to the longest window the creator will allow (7, 30, 60 or 365 days)
• Instagram partnership ad codes collected, or account-level permission granted, for every creator post you plan to boost
• Creator contracts cover paid usage, duration, platforms and exclusivity
• Sponsored posts disclosed inside the video, said and shown, not only in the caption. The FTC's influencer guide also says not to rely on platform labels alone
• Paid partnership label or TikTok content disclosure switched on for every creator post
• Category rules checked for supplements, alcohol, finance and weight loss. See our notes for health and supplement brands

Launch-day run sheet

Hour by hour, for a launch going live at 9am in your main time zone. Assign every row to a person before the day starts.

Week-one checklist (daily)

The goal in week one is to catch broken things fast and leave working things alone. The fuller playbook is in how to launch a social media campaign.

• Tracking still firing: orders in your store match orders reported by the platforms within a reasonable gap
• Spend pacing at roughly the planned daily budget on each ad set
• Comments answered on every ad, especially questions about price, shipping and sizing
• Hook rate and click-through compared across ads, not against outside benchmarks
• Any ad that has spent 2 to 3 times your target cost with no conversion paused
• No budget changes larger than about 20% at a time, and no new ads into running ad sets before day 4
• Landing page conversion rate checked daily; if clicks are fine and sales aren't, fix the page before the ads
• Spark and partnership ad codes still active on every running creator ad

After launch: weekly optimization and the results report

From week two the job changes from watching to improving. Each week, find the weakest step in the funnel and fix that one thing.

• Winners identified by cost per result, then given 2 or 3 new hooks each
• Losers turned off and their angle noted so you don't remake it
• Budget moved to winning ad sets in steps of about 20%
• Landing page test running: headline, offer framing or first-screen layout, one at a time
• Email and SMS sequence checked for sign-ups who didn't buy
• Weekly report sent: spend, revenue or leads, cost per result, what changed and what's next
• Fresh creative briefed before fatigue shows up as rising cost on the same audience
• End-of-campaign report covering results against the original goal and the three lessons for next time

Too many boxes for one person?

That's the honest read on this list. It spans strategy, production, web, tracking, media buying and creator management, and most launch problems happen where one person's list hands off to another's. We run social media campaign management as one team for that reason, and you can see what that approach did for a new product we launched, in 2 weeks, in our case study.

Email us your brand, goal and launch date and we'll reply within 48 hours with a free campaign plan.