Booking your first campaign without an agency
Lead times, specs and the one diary entry that protects your money — a working checklist for a first-time direct buyer.
Agencies earn their keep on hundred-site campaigns. For one shop opening on one high street, you can do this yourself — the discipline is mostly a calendar, worked in the right direction.
Work backwards from the start date
Every format has a physical lead time. Large-format print wants five to ten working days from approved artwork; posting crews book up a week ahead; radio needs copy cleared before it can air; a magazine's booking deadline can sit six weeks before the issue date. Put your live date in the calendar and walk each deadline backwards from it before you book anything.
One format, one message
A first budget spread across four formats buys a whisper in each. Spent on one format it buys frequency — the same audience meeting the same message often enough to remember it. Pick the format your customers actually pass, and say one thing: a name, a reason, and how to find you. Six words beat sixteen everywhere except print.
Get the spec before the design
Every Admarket listing carries the owner's spec — dimensions, bleed, file format, resolution. Hand it to your designer before work starts, not after; rebuilding a layout for a different shape costs more than designing to it. No designer? Artwork is bookable as a service on the same order.
Put the proof window in your diary
Your payment is held until you approve the owner's proof of delivery, and silence approves it after seven days. That week is your protection — diary the campaign end date, open the evidence while the campaign is fresh, and approve or query it deliberately rather than by default.