Strategy
Part of What a written PPC agency plan means for UK advertisers
Seven sections every PPC agencies planning template needs
Seven sections for a PPC agencies planning template, from objective and budget to measurement and review, plus a numbered build order and the evidence to cite.
What to take away
- Most teams open a blank spreadsheet and list campaign types first. Objectives and constraints belong at the top, because they decide everything below.
- Seven sections carry the work, beginning with objectives and constraints and ending with review and decision points.
- Each section needs one named owner and one piece of evidence. A section with neither is a wish list.
- Build the sequence in order, then check it against the wider PPC agencies: strategy and planning guide for 2027 before you circulate it.
- Keep the template to two pages. Anything longer stops being read after the first month.
Why most templates start in the wrong place
Teams usually list campaign types first: search, shopping, video, retargeting. The list looks productive and hides the real problem, which is that nobody has agreed what the money is for.
A template that begins with channels forces a debate about tactics before the objective is settled, and that debate repeats every quarter.
Start with the constraint instead. A fixed budget, launch date or margin target removes half the channel options before you discuss any of them.
The seven sections to build
1. Objective and constraint
Write one sentence naming the outcome and the period, then the limit: budget, headcount, stock or lead-handling capacity. If the limit is capacity, more spend will not help.
Seven sections to build
- Objective and constraint
- Audience and demand
- Budget and pacing
- Channel mix
- Creative and message
- Measurement
- Review
2. Audience and demand
Describe who is searching and what they type. Note the difference between people who know your brand and people who do not, because the two groups need different messages and landing pages.
3. Budget and pacing
Split the budget by month, not by quarter. Show the assumed cost per acquisition and the point at which you would pause. For example, a team testing a channel on £400 a month should decide in advance what result justifies a second month.
4. Channel mix
Name the channels you will run and the ones you will not. Paid search rarely works alone. If you plan to support it with sponsored messages, the format guidance on LinkedIn Sponsored Messaging explains how that placement behaves.
5. Creative and message
The template holds the message, not the artwork. Record the claim, the proof and the call to action for each audience. The Introduction to creative best practices in digital advertising from IAB UK sets out what a compliant set of assets needs to include.
6. Measurement
List the events you will track, the source of each number and who checks it. A figure with no owner is unverified.
7. Review and decision points
Set dates when you will change something, not just look at it. A review with no decision attached is a meeting.
Build it in this order
- Write the objective sentence and the constraint.
- Agree the monthly budget split and the pause threshold.
- List audiences and the search terms that identify them.
- Choose channels and state which ones you are excluding.
- Draft the message for each audience.
- Define the tracked events and their owners.
- Set review dates and the decisions due at each.
- Circulate for sign-off before any campaign build starts.
Where the numbers come from
Pull historical cost, conversion and margin data from your own accounts before forecasting anything.
Where you have no history, use a labelled illustrative figure and say so in the document. A forecast built on an unlabelled guess is worse than none, because people plan around it.
For a fuller list of inputs and how to check them, the PPC agencies ninety day plan: data and sources sets out the sources worth pulling into a first-quarter plan.
Training the people who fill it in
A template fails when the person completing it does not understand the field. Budget an hour of training per section owner.
Free platform courses are a reasonable starting point. Facebook and Instagram free online courses from Meta for Business cover campaign setup and measurement basics at no cost.
Keep a short glossary in the template itself. Define cost per acquisition, conversion rate and margin the way your business uses them, then hold people to those definitions.
Common questions
How long should the template be?
Two pages of fields plus one page of notes. If it runs longer, split the detail into an appendix.
Who owns each section?
One named person per section, not a team. The owner supplies the evidence and answers questions at review.
How often should it be updated?
Monthly for budget and pacing, quarterly for objectives and channel mix. Changing the objective monthly suggests it was never a real objective.
What if we have no historical data?
Use labelled illustrative figures, mark them clearly as estimates and set an early review date. Replace each estimate as soon as the account produces it.
