Business

Advertising Plan: How to Create an Advertising Plan in 4 Steps

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Mar 30, 2022 • 4 min read

An advertising plan details a company’s strategies to promote a new product to potential customers. Learn more about advertising plans and tips to implement one for your business.

Learn From the Best

What Is an Advertising Plan?

An advertising plan is a document or report that outlines a company’s tactics to promote itself and its products over a given period. It includes a breakdown of content, channels, demographics, budget, timelines, and metrics for evaluating success.

An advertising plan is one component of a company’s overall marketing and business plans. Still, while the marketing plan includes additional elements—details about marketing campaigns, overarching marketing goals, marketing research, and pricing strategies—the advertising plan focuses on the efforts to promote products and services through paid ads. However, some marketing teams and advertising agencies use advertising plan and marketing plan interchangeably.

6 Elements of an Advertising Plan Template

While there is not a one-size-fits-all advertising plan template, many successful plans include the following:

  1. 1. Advertising content: Advertising plans include details about the kind of content the team will use in their ad campaigns. While the copy and design may not be final, the advertising plan offers a roadmap for what the promotional content will look like in different ad formats.
  2. 2. Channel breakdown: Advertising plans include a breakdown of the advertising channels the marketing team will use for their promotional efforts. These physical and digital advertising strategies may include email marketing, ads on social media platforms or search engines, billboards, direct mail, and print advertising.
  3. 3. Costs and budget: All advertising plans include advertising costs and the plan’s advertising budget, so the marketing department can ensure plans fall within projected costs and timelines. The advertising budget is one portion of the overall marketing budget.
  4. 4. Evaluation metrics: A good advertising plan includes a rubric for evaluating the effectiveness of each component of the plan, whether that’s a particular sales goal, click-through rate, number of new customers, return on investment, brand awareness level, or engagement rate.
  5. 5. Schedule and deadlines: Your plan should lay out the proposed timeline for promotional campaigns and milestone deadlines the team will need to meet to make the plan a reality.
  6. 6. Target audience demographics: While broader plans outlining marketing tactics and strategy include details on demographics and target audiences—often in the form of buyer personas—an advertising plan may also feature information about who the ads will aim to reach to ensure the advertising message aligns with the target market.

How Does an Advertising Plan Work?

Advertising plans support overall marketing efforts. Here’s how they work:

  • The marketing team crafts the plan. For an advertising plan to be successful, the marketing team must formulate the plan based on the company’s objectives and goals. In the planning process, you should consider the target audience, overarching goals, and advertising formats.
  • The team enacts the plan. Once the designated period begins, the marketing team enacts its advertising plan through various platforms. This may include emails, social media posts, blog posts, and more.
  • The team tracks data. While the advertising continues, the team collects data and assesses metrics in real-time to ensure the plan is performing well.
  • The team reviews and adjusts the plan. As the advertising plan progresses, the team evaluates the data to make adjustments to help reach metrics and goals. After the campaign's life cycle is over, you should also analyze the plan in-depth to note improvements and optimizations for future advertising plans.

How to Create an Advertising Plan in 4 Steps

Advertising plans are crucial for large and small businesses. To craft an advertising plan, follow these steps:

  1. 1. Define overall goals. As you begin crafting your advertising plan, identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) or key performance objectives, which will determine the direction and shape of your advertising plan. Your KPIs are the business goals you aim to achieve, from improvements in customer retention to expanding your customer base. Setting metrics makes your marketing objectives clear for all team members.
  2. 2. Establish a budget. Your budgets should account for paid advertising dollars and the staff cost for hiring full- and part-time employees, copywriters, and freelance contributors to help execute the plan.
  3. 3. Detail content initiatives. This section details the content initiatives in the advertising plan, including how frequently your company will release content (daily, weekly, or monthly), the platforms where you’ll promote it, and the KPIs for each type. You should also have a firm idea of the digital marketing strategies to employ for each channel and a set time frame to measure the advertising plan’s efficacy. You should use information from your company’s marketing plan (like target market, data on competition, and other market research) to further inform your content strategy.
  4. 4. Outline responsibilities. After outlining the essential details, assign specific duties to team members. Make team leaders and team members aware of their group and individual responsibilities. Empower team leaders to assign day-to-day responsibilities.

Learn More

Learn more about advertising and creativity from Jeff Goodby & Rich Silverstein. Break rules, change minds, and create the best work of your life with the MasterClass Annual Membership.