Why a checklist and not expertise
Experienced operators make fewer mistakes per campaign and more mistakes per week, because they run more campaigns. Checklists exist for exactly this: high-volume, high-consequence, low-variation work. Aviation figured this out; media has been slower.
The list below takes twelve minutes and prevents most of what goes wrong.
Before the build (1–3)
One: the brief is complete — offer, audience, geography, budget, dates, and the definition of a conversion, all written in one place. Two: the destination page exists, loads fast on a phone, and matches the offer word for word. Three: tracking is live on that page and has recorded a test event.
If any of the three is missing, the build does not start. This is the discipline that saves the most money.
During the build (4–7)
Four: naming convention applied from template. Five: geography verified on the delivery map, not the setting. Six: audience exclusions in place — existing customers, past converters, employees. Seven: budget and pacing set to standard delivery with the daily cap that matches the flight length.
Creative and placement (8–9)
Eight: every required aspect ratio and size present, with text safe zones respected on vertical formats. Nine: placements reviewed individually, with anything irrelevant to the objective turned off rather than left on defaults.
Final gate (10–11)
Ten: a second person reviews the campaign against the brief. Not the builder. This single step catches more errors than any other item on the list. Eleven: a launch-day check three hours after activation confirming delivery has begun, spend is pacing, and at least one tracked event has fired.
Then, and only then, tell the client it is live.
Making it stick
The checklist has to be a gate, not a document. If a campaign can go live without it, it will. Attach it to the build ticket, require sign-off, and audit a random sample monthly.