Marketing templates · 15-minute exercise

Campaign brief template for recruitment agencies

Use this campaign brief worksheet to align audience, offer, creative and measurement before launching a campaign. It is written for recruitment agencies and starts with an illustrative offer: a specialist recruitment assignment. Replace the assumptions with evidence from your own business before using the result.

LONED EditorialPublished Example + editable working sheet
What you will work towards

Leave with a complete campaign brief with operational responsibilities.

Start with a real buying situation

For the worked example, the audience is a hiring manager with a hard-to-fill role. Their problem is that interviewers assess different criteria and suitable candidates disengage. The desired practical outcome is a shared scorecard and a timely, clearly owned hiring process.

The example is deliberately bounded: compensation and interview availability need approval before outreach. That condition should influence the promise, scope and next step rather than disappear from the marketing copy.

Illustrative offera specialist recruitment assignment
Buyer questionWhich capability must the person demonstrate in the first three months?
Possible evidencean anonymised candidate brief mapped to the agreed role criteria
Useful asseta hiring intake and interview feedback template

How to complete your campaign brief

  1. Define the audience and buying situation.
  2. Choose one offer and the action it invites.
  3. Specify the claim and the evidence supporting it.
  4. Agree the channel, landing experience and follow-up owner.
  5. Set an approved budget, review date and decision criteria.

Worked example

These entries are illustrative planning material, not research findings or customer results. Keep the structure and replace the content with verified details.

Audience and buying triggera hiring manager with a hard-to-fill role; investigate a recent example of the problem: interviewers assess different criteria and suitable candidates disengage.
Offer and call to actiona specialist recruitment assignment. Intended practical result: a shared scorecard and a timely, clearly owned hiring process. Next action: calibrate the role using an agreed scorecard and sample candidate profiles.
Claim and evidenceUse the practical claim a shared scorecard and a timely, clearly owned hiring process only as an intended outcome. Evidence: an anonymised candidate brief mapped to the agreed role criteria.
Channel, destination and follow-upa hiring-manager briefing; send readers to a page that explains the offer and lets them request the relevant next step. Assign follow-up ownership.
Budget owner and review decisionRecord an approved cap, currency, period and owner. Review the fit of enquiries and time between candidate submission and a useful hiring decision; do not assume ad-platform attribution proves causality.

Review before using it

A useful operational measure in this example is time between candidate submission and a useful hiring decision. That does not automatically make it a marketing attribution metric. Define the source, period and owner before drawing conclusions.

  • Can the campaign owner trace the path from first contact to a qualified next step?
  • Check the delivery assumptions: Clarify exclusivity, fee triggers, replacement terms and candidate consent.
  • Use evidence rather than promises. Do not guarantee a hire or invent candidate availability.
  • Discuss the draft with someone who understands the buying situation. Start with: “Which capability must the person demonstrate in the first three months?”
  • If the next step is a trial, define its purpose. One possible starting point is to calibrate the role using an agreed scorecard and sample candidate profiles.

Common mistakes and a better review

Do not fill a missing fact with an impressive-sounding number. Mark it as an assumption, explain how you will check it and give that check an owner. A short, honest document is easier to use than an elaborate plan built on unknowns.

Watch forCreative approval alone does not confirm that tracking, destination and follow-up work.
A real buyer concernAnother recruiter charges a lower percentage.
Useful response directionLet us compare the search scope, screening evidence and replacement terms before comparing fees alone.
Evidence to collectThe buyer’s own account, an anonymised candidate brief mapped to the agreed role criteria, and records relevant to time between candidate submission and a useful hiring decision.

Your working sheet

Write your own version below. Notes are saved on this browser when local storage is available. Use Download to keep a separate copy; avoid adding confidential information on a shared device.

Example: a hiring manager with a hard-to-fill role; investigate a recent example of the problem: interviewers assess different criteria and suitable candidates disengage.

Example: a specialist recruitment assignment. Intended practical result: a shared scorecard and a timely, clearly owned hiring process. Next action: calibrate the role using an agreed scorecard and sample candidate profiles.

Example: Use the practical claim a shared scorecard and a timely, clearly owned hiring process only as an intended outcome. Evidence: an anonymised candidate brief mapped to the agreed role criteria.

Example: a hiring-manager briefing; send readers to a page that explains the offer and lets them request the relevant next step. Assign follow-up ownership.

Example: Record an approved cap, currency, period and owner. Review the fit of enquiries and time between candidate submission and a useful hiring decision; do not assume ad-platform attribution proves causality.

Review your work

Tick only what you can support with your answer or practice. This is a reflection checklist, not an automated assessment.

Questions about this resource

How do I adapt this for my recruitment agencies business?

Replace the audience, offer and evidence with your actual information. Begin with a recent buyer conversation about why interviewers assess different criteria and suitable candidates disengage, then check which assumptions match your business.

Is the filled example ready to publish?

No. It is a working example. Verify claims, permissions, prices, current capabilities and any customer information before using it externally. Do not guarantee a hire or invent candidate availability.

What should I do after completing the worksheet?

Use it to make one decision or have one focused conversation. The intended output is a complete campaign brief with operational responsibilities. Set a review date and update it when the evidence changes.

Illustrative business worksheet. No customer results, market rates, traffic volumes or performance benchmarks are implied. About these resources.