Campaign Builder Step 1: Campaign Basics

Step 1: Campaign Basics of the Campaign Builder lets you configure the core details of your advertising campaign before moving on to more advanced targeting and creative setup.

Important:

• Once you publish a campaign, you cannot change the Ad Format, Account List, Intent Keywords, or Contacts you already know.
• To prevent unintended changes, use a naming convention to indicate lists that shouldn’t be modified. For example, the “AD_” prefix signals that a list is part of a campaign and should not be edited.

Campaign Name

The name that you want to use for the campaign. It is recommended that the name follows a naming convention inline with your long-term usage of Demandbase. 

Include the campaign’s purpose, business unit, product, dates, and location to ensure clarity across teams.

Campaign Flight Dates

The start and end dates of the campaign. You can configure creatives to run anytime during the lifetime of the campaign.

Watchers

The relevant stakeholders for the campaign. Watchers receive weekly Campaign Insights (emails) after the campaign launches. You can add and remove watchers at any time after you publish the campaign. See FAQs: Campaign Insights Emails.

Labels

The new or existing campaign labels to apply to the campaign. Campaign labels allow you to associate metadata to campaigns so you can group them for performance reporting. For example, you can create labels for different business units, product lines, or quarters of the year. See Manage Campaign Labels.

Account List

The accounts you want to target. Account Lists are a critical targeting component and cannot be changed after publishing. See Account Lists: Foundation of Your ABM Strategy.

Important: 

• All list visibility must be set to Public.
• Once a campaign is published, you cannot swap out the Account List itself. However, you can update the records within the existing list using the following options:
  • Dynamic List: Use selectors 
  • CSV List: Re-import data
  • Static List: Add or remove accounts
  • Combine a Static or CSV Import List with a Dynamic List. See Best Practices for Creating Efficient Dynamic Lists.

Intent Keywords

The Intent Keyword set improves targeting effectiveness. Because it is a critical targeting component, it cannot be modified after publishing. See Understanding Demandbase Intent.

You can select an existing keyword set or create a new keyword set using the Intent Agent.
 

Important: Once a campaign is published, you cannot swap out the Intent Keyword Set itself. However, you can update the keywords within the existing Intent Keyword Set. See Manage Demandbase Intent Keyword Sets.

Intent Agent (Keyword Set Generator)

The Intent Agent automatically recommends relevant keywords to simplify campaign setup in Demandbase. Recommendations are generated using a shared natural language context score based on the keywords and/or websites you enter.

Keywords

Demandbase identifies keywords related to the ones you enter and analyzes them to determine contextual relevance.

Website URL

Demandbase analyzes the website URLs you enter to identify relevant keywords. URLs can be from any page with crawlable content, but pages that describe offerings or initiatives in depth work best - the more text, the better. For example, services pages, blogs, product pages, and news articles.

Important:

• The Intent Agent is available for both new and existing campaigns and generates 25-500 keywords per set. 
• When you create a keyword set within a campaign, it is automatically created in Settings > Analytics > Intent Data. Keyword sets are created immediately, even if the campaign is not saved or published, and any changes made to a keyword set are applied to the campaign instantly.

Ad Format

The ad channel to be used for the campaign. See Understanding the Creative Library, Ad Groups, and Ungrouped Creatives.
Important: The format you select determines the type of creative you can use and upload in Step 3: Add Ad Groups.

You can select from the following ad formats: 

• Display
• Native
• Video
• CTV
  Important: If you select the CTV ad format, Clicks is not available as an optimization option in Step 2: Journey Targeting and Step 3: Add Ad Groups.

Location Targeting

The geographic location of your account Audience. You can select from the following locations: 

• Global
• One or more regions (see Directory of Geotargeting Regions and Countries)
• One or more countries
• One or more US states or CA Provinces (see Countries and Standardized States List)

People-based Optimization

Refine your Audience by targeting specific people within chosen accounts. Demandbase adjusts bidding based on your configuration. You can choose from the following persona options:

• Buying Groups: Target specific groups of decision-makers within accounts.
• Contacts You Already Know: Target known contacts for people-based advertising.
• Job Level and Job Function: Prioritize or exclude specific roles to maximize reach to relevant personas.

Contacts You Already Know

You can select a People List containing known contacts from your first-party data. People Lists are a critical targeting component and cannot be changed after publishing.

Important: Once a campaign is published, you cannot swap out the People List itself. However, you can update the records within the existing list using the following options: 

• Dynamic List: Use selectors 
• CSV List: Re-import data
• Combine a CSV Import List with a Dynamic List. See Best Practices for Creating Efficient Dynamic Lists.

Prerequisites

• You must have access to Demandbase Advertising.
• Review Best Practices for Budgeting an Advertising Campaign.
• (Optional) If targeting Buying Groups, define a buying group. See Define and Manage Buying Groups.
• (Optional) If targeting a list of known contacts (Contacts you already know), create a people list. See Best Practices for Creating Known Person Lists for Ad Targeting. 

Steps

1. Create a new campaign or choose a campaign you want to edit. See Building an Advertising Campaign for Campaign Builder or Edit and Manage Campaigns.
2. Go to Step 1: Campaign Basics of the Campaign Builder.
3. In the Campaign name field, enter a campaign name.
   Tip: To populate the field with a previously used campaign name, click the clock icon at the right of the field and select a name in the window that appears. This can save time if you’re setting up multiple campaigns with the same naming convention.
4. Under Select campaign flight dates, select the start and end dates for the campaign.
5. From the Select an ad plan drop-down list, select an entry to allocate funding for the campaign.
6. From the Ad watchers drop-down list, select the campaign stakeholders that should receive weekly Campaign Insights (emails).
   Tip: You can also enter the email address of the person you want to add as a watcher.
7. From the Add labels drop-down list, select the campaign labels to apply.
8. From the Select an account list drop-down list, do one of the following:
   • Select an existing account list from the drop-down list.
     Tip: Click the View icon to see the full account list.
   • To create an account list, click Or, create a new account list. See Create Account Lists for Advertising Campaigns.
9. From the Intent keywords drop-down list, do one of the following: 

   • Select an existing intent keyword set from the drop-down list.
     Tip: Click View to see all your keyword sets.

     To create a keyword set, click Or, create a new keyword set, and complete the following:

     1. Enter a name for the keyword set.
     2. Select one or both of the following options: 
        Important: You must provide at least one URL or a minimum of five keywords (or both).
        • Website URLs: Enter one or more URLs, separated by commas or line breaks.
          Tip: You don’t need to enter the full URL (such as https:// or www).
        • Keywords: Enter 5 or more keywords, separated by commas or line breaks.
          Tip: Adding more keywords improves the quality of the recommendations.
     3. Click Preview Keyword Set.
     4. Once keywords are generated, click the checkboxes next to desired keywords.
     5. Click Save Keyword Set.
10. Under Ad format, select the ad format for the campaign.
11. From the Location targeting drop-down list, select a region. If you selected an option besides Global, select the regions, countries, or states from the Select a region drop-down list. 
12. (Optional) From the Select buying group(s) drop-down list, select one or more buying groups to target. See View Advertising Campaign Results for Buying Groups.
    Tip: You can use buying groups with job level and job function targeting to maximize valuable impressions.
13. (Optional) From the Contacts you already know drop-down list, select a people list of known contacts to target. See Understanding People-Based Advertising and Analyze People-Based Advertising Campaign Results.
14. (Optional)  From the Job level / function drop-down list, do the following:
    • To prioritize targeting of people associated with specific job levels or functions, select Prioritize, and the job levels/functions.
    • To exclude targeting of people associated with specific job levels or functions, select Exclude, and the job levels/functions.
      Tip: Click Add more to add job level/function combinations to prioritize or exclude. You can have up to five total combinations.
15. Click Next to go to Step 2: Journey Targeting of the Campaign Builder.