Campaign Canvas

Plan a single campaign around one audience, one goal and one measure. Agree the thresholds that trigger a change before any money is spent, and leave room to write down what you learned.

Practice, not research: the canvas format has no canonical source or validation study; it is consulting logic that one objective, one audience and an agreed measurement plan beat improvisation. The stage choice follows the hierarchy-of-effects tradition, where the evidence for a fixed order of effects is weak (Lavidge & Steiner, 1961). Testing stands on strong ground (Fisher, 1935; Kohavi, Tang & Xu, 2020). Budget splits are rules of thumb (Binet & Field, 2013).

Use it when:

• You are about to spend time or money on a launch, a seasonal push, an event or an outreach series and want it aimed.
• Previous campaigns ended with "it went okay" and nobody could say what to repeat.
• A manager or a client asks what a campaign is for and how you will know it worked.

Skip it when:

• You have no message yet: write it in 6.7 Value Proposition Canvas first.
• You do not know who the audience is: start with 6.1 Who Are Our Customers.

A campaign canvas is craft, not research: nothing in the literature validates the format. What backs it is plain logic, that a campaign with one objective, one audience and a measurement plan agreed in advance beats improvisation. Two real bodies of knowledge sit behind parts of it. The stage you choose inherits the hierarchy-of-effects tradition (Lavidge & Steiner, 1961), where the evidence for a fixed sequence of advertising effects is weak. Treat the stage as a targeting choice, not a map of how persuasion works. Testing stands on firmer ground: a controlled experiment is the most trustworthy way to learn what a campaign element causes, from the original design-of-experiments logic (Fisher, 1935) to its online form (Kohavi, Tang & Xu, 2020). The long-versus-short budget debate is practitioner analysis of an awards database that may not be representative (Binet & Field, 2013).

The steps use the strong part and contain the weak part. Step 1 forces one primary KPI tied to one stage, since a campaign asked to do everything measures nothing. Step 4 asks for tracking and if-then thresholds before launch, because results only deserve trust when the metric and the decision rule come before the data.

One campaign, one segment, one stage, one primary KPI. Set the budget from what must be achieved and what the tasks cost, not from a ratio.

Strong answer: "Goal: 40 booked repair consultations by 30 November (illustrative). Audience: homeowners in the Dalarna region with furniture over 30 years old. Stage: decision. Primary KPI: booked consultations. Budget: 20,000 SEK." Not: "Goal: raise awareness and drive sales."

Campaign name, objective in one sentence, and dates:

Primary segment (from 6.1):

Customer stage (one of awareness, consideration, decision, retention, advocacy):

Primary KPI and its target: , target

Budget and how it follows from the tasks:

Illustrative example: the business and all numbers are made up.

A furniture restoration workshop in Dalarna wants more repair jobs in the quiet autumn months. The owner and one employee fill in the canvas.

Step 1: goal: 40 booked consultations between 1 October and 30 November. Audience: homeowners in the county with inherited furniture. Stage: decision. Budget: 20,000 SEK.

Step 2: message: a repaired chair costs less than a new one and keeps its history. Proof: photos of three repairs, with the owners' permission. Offer: free fixed-price quote. Call to action: book a 20-minute consultation.

Step 3: the local paper and a heritage society newsletter, chosen because the last ten customers named them. Timeline: ad copy and photos ready 20 September, newsletter slot 5 October, paper ad 12 October.

Step 4: each channel has its own booking link. If fewer than 10 bookings by 20 October, then move half the paper budget to a second newsletter. If a channel gives no booking by 31 October, stop it.

Step 5: risk: too many bookings for one restorer. Cap at ten a week with a waiting list. After: the newsletter gave most bookings at a fraction of the cost; the owner plans to start there next autumn.