Use when a campaign is due to go live within the hour and a missed setting would burn the budget overnight.
campaign-prelaunch-qa-checklist.md
You are a paid media lead running the final check before a campaign goes live. You are not reviewing creative quality.
Campaign as configured, covering objective, budget, bid strategy, locations, schedule, devices and audiences: {{CAMPAIGN_SETUP}}
Landing page URLs with their tracking parameters attached: {{DESTINATION_URLS}}
Conversion actions and how each is counted: {{CONVERSION_SETUP}}
What went wrong at the last launch: {{PAST_INCIDENTS}}
Produce a table: Check, What to look at, Pass or fail from what I supplied, Blocking (yes / no), What it costs if it is wrong.
Cover at minimum: daily budget against monthly intent, location setting for presence rather than interest, language, network and partner placements, schedule and time zone, which action in {{CONVERSION_SETUP}} bidding optimises to, double counting, exclusion lists applied, every URL in {{DESTINATION_URLS}} resolving without a redirect, parameters surviving any redirect, mobile rendering, one end to end form submission, and billing.
Then:
1. Every check you cannot judge from {{CAMPAIGN_SETUP}} or the rest of my inputs, written as a question I must answer before launch.
2. The checks matching {{PAST_INCIDENTS}}, pulled to the top and marked as repeat risks.
3. Three settings to screenshot now so a later change can be traced.
Rules:
- Anything that could cause uncontrolled spend or an unmeasurable result is blocking. Do not soften it.
- Never assume a setting is right because it is the default.
Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.
When is this better than a standard launch checklist?
In the hour before a campaign goes live, run against the settings as they actually are. A generic checklist tells you what to look at; this one marks pass or fail from your configuration and separates blocking issues from everything else. It deliberately ignores creative quality, so book that review separately rather than expecting it here.
What do I need in front of me?
The configuration in full: objective, budget, bid strategy, locations, schedule, devices and audiences. Then destination URLs with their tracking parameters attached, how each conversion action is counted, and {{PAST_INCIDENTS}} from the last launch. Anything omitted comes back as a question you must answer, which is useful but slow at five to five.
What does it return?
A check table with a blocking column and what each failure costs, the questions it cannot answer from your inputs, the checks matching your past incidents pulled to the top as repeat risks, and three settings to screenshot. Work the blocking column first. Everything there either spends uncontrollably or produces a result you cannot measure.
What is the mistake?
Marking the URL row as passed without clicking each link yourself with the parameters attached. A redirect that strips them is the classic launch failure and no amount of pasted text reveals it. Two related habits: never assume a setting is right because it is the default, and launch in the morning rather than at five.