Marketing campaign Gantt chart template
A multi-channel campaign needs about four weeks from brief to launch, then time live and time to report. This template runs seven weeks: brief approved by day 10, production and tracking through week four, Campaign live early in week five, then twelve days of optimising and a results report.
- Strategy
- Campaign brief & goals
- Audience & channel plan
- Budget sign-off
- Brief approved
- Production
- Creative concepts
- Copywriting
- Design & asset production
- Landing pages & tracking
- Launch & optimise
- Channel setup & QA
- Campaign live
- Monitor & optimise
- Results report
This is the actual template. Durations count working days; weekends are skipped. Drag any bar to reshape it once it’s open.
When to use it
- A sale, season or event fixes the live date and everything else has to fit in front of it.
- You’re an agency and the client keeps asking when they’ll see concepts and when they sign off budget.
- Copy, design, paid media and the web team all touch the campaign, and each one is waiting on another.
- Last time nobody could say which channel worked, because the tracking links went on the day before launch.
What’s in it
- 01
Strategy
Brief and goals, the audience and channel plan, then budget sign-off, ending at Brief approved around day 10. Budget comes after the channel plan because a number can’t be approved until you know what it buys. Write the success measure into the brief (cost per lead, sign-ups, revenue) so the report in week seven has something to be judged against.
- 02
Production
Creative concepts, copywriting, design and asset production, then landing pages and tracking, overlapping over about two and a half weeks. Design gets the longest bar because one approved concept turns into a dozen ad sizes, email headers and social crops. Tracking has its own bar so UTM conventions, conversion events and pixels are set up and tested before anything goes live.
- 03
Launch & optimise
A few days of channel setup and QA, Campaign live, then twelve days of monitoring while budget moves towards whatever is converting. Paid channels usually need a few days to settle, so resist judging one on its first weekend. The results report follows once monitoring ends.
Adapting it to your project
Leave room for ad review
Drop a channel before you shorten QA
Flag the client’s approvals
Stretch the live window for longer campaigns
Questions
What should a marketing campaign timeline include?
The brief and goals, audience and channel choices, budget approval, creative and copy production, landing pages and tracking, channel setup, the live date, a period of monitoring, and a results report. This template has a bar for each, with milestones at brief approval and go-live.
How long does it take to plan a marketing campaign?
This template allows about four weeks from brief to go-live. A simple email or social campaign can be ready in two. Campaigns with video, new brand creative or several paid channels often need two to three months of lead time, mostly for production and approvals.
Can the Gantt chart show how the campaign is performing?
It tracks the work, not the results. Switch on progress tracking to set a percentage on each task and let groups roll up; clicks, spend and conversions stay in your ad platforms and analytics.
Related
Start your marketing campaign plan
Open it, drag the bars onto your real dates and rename anything that doesn’t fit. Sign up when you want to keep it.