Campaign Monitoring Playbook
Campaign monitoring isn’t just a post-campaign exercise.
It starts before launch, runs in the background while the campaign is live, and comes together when it’s time to report results.
This playbook walks you through how to set up campaign monitoring, stay on top of performance as it unfolds, and report results once it’s over.
Pre-Campaign Setup
Get everything in place before launch
Step 1: Prepare Your Campaign Inputs
Confirm Your Setup:
- Decide which media channels you need to track: news, social, broadcast, or a specific mix
- If the campaign includes social:
- Confirm your social accounts are connected in Account → Social Connections
- 🔗 Step By Step: How to Connect Your Social Accounts for Listening
- If you’re also reporting on owned social performance, ensure your Owned Connections are connected (NOTE: only for Engage/Social Analytics users)
- 🔗 Step By Step: How to Connect Your Owned Social Accounts
- Confirm your social accounts are connected in Account → Social Connections
Gather What You’ll Track:
- Core keywords, hashtags, and campaign-specific phrases
- Journalists, influencers, or partners involved
- A press release or announcement link (if available)
Optional Support
Need help determining what should be in your search? Use this Campaign Monitoring digital checklist to help you determine which key terms to include in your search or check out our customers’ most commonly used Boolean for campaign monitoring: Campaign Monitoring Boolean.
Step 2: Build Your Campaign Search
Create one search per campaign if running multiple campaigns simultaneously.
Use the AI Search Assistant (recommended)
If you already have a press release or announcement, prompt the AI Search Assistant with something like:
Create a Boolean search using the main keywords and hashtags of this campaign.
Follow the prompts, then save the search.
📺 Watch: How to Create a Campaign Monitoring Search Using the AI Search Assistant
🔗 Step by Step: How to Build a Search using the AI Search Assistant
Or build manually
- Use a keyword search for simple hashtag-led campaigns
- Use an advanced (Boolean) search for complex campaigns with multiple keywords, partners, or exclusions
- Use the Campaign Monitoring Boolean Search guide to help with your build
Once saved, this search becomes the foundation for alerts, Monitor streams, and your Campaign Monitoring dashboard.
📺 Watch: How to Save a Search in Explore
🔗 Step by Step: How to Save a Search
Step 3: Pre-Launch Noise Check
Before launch, do a quick scan to catch obvious noise (e.g., common slang, gift guide, unrelated product names)
If you find unrelated content, add exclusions or tighten the query.
For example, if your query looks like this:
(“Brand Name” AND (#justdoit OR “Just Do It”))
#justdoit is a common Nike hashtag, so you might adjust the query to look like this:
(“Brand Name” NEAR/8 (#justdoit OR “Just Do It”)) NOT (Nike)
Using the NEAR and/or the NOT operator will tighten your results, reducing irrelevant noise. Small fixes here prevent inaccurate reporting later.
Step 4: Create Your live Tools
This is your campaign command center. Complete this last setup step, and you’re ready for the launch!
- Set up Smart Alerts → spike detection, sentiment shift
- Create a Monitor Stream for quick scanning
Check out the Monitoring Daily Media Playbook:
- Create a Campaign Dashboard in Analyze
- Pro Tip: Set the campaign start and end dates in the dashboard settings
📺 Watch: How to Create a Campaign Dashboard
🔗 Step by Step: How to Create a Dashboard in Analyze
Need to customize the dashboard to your campaign KPIs? See the step-by-step guide here:
Analyze: Editing Your Unified Dashboard
Live Monitoring During the Campaign
Once the campaign is live, you’re monitoring performance and responding as needed.
Step 5: Monitor and Iterate
- Trust alerts to tell you when to investigate
- Open the Campaign Dashboard in Analyze to understand what’s driving changes
- E.g., Get an alert for a Spike? Use the dashboard to identify whether the spike is real (earned coverage) or noise (bot activity, unrelated keyword or hashtag pickup)
- Use the Monitor Stream to scan coverage as it comes in
When needed, make targeted edits in your Explore search:
- Too much noise? Add exclusions
- Missing coverage? Add keyword variants
Common alert triage:
- Mentions Spike Detected → Check top articles, sources, and authors → Determine if this is a campaign lift or emerging risk → Escalate if high-impact
- Influencer Pickup → Validate reach and engagement → Log in your campaign notes
- Sentiment Shift Detected → Identify sources or authors → Assess impact → Prepare response
Post-Campaign Reporting
Turn performance into a clear story.
Step 6: Finalize and Share Results
Capture Learnings
- What messages, themes, or assets drove the strongest pickup?
- Where did coverage and engagement peak?
- What noise or gaps did we catch mid-campaign?
- Which alerts and dashboard widgets were most useful?
- What should we reuse or adjust for the next launch?
Finalize the Dashboard
- Adjust the date range to the campaign start and end date
- Remove or add widgets that highlight outcomes tied to campaign goals
- Prepare context and narrative notes
Share results
- Share a live dashboard link, export PDF or PowerPoint, or Add to Google Slides
📺 Watch: How to Share a Dashboard from Analyze
🔗 Step by Step: How to Share a Dashboard from Analyze
Final Tip
Each campaign improves how you monitor the next one. Reuse your campaign search and dashboard as a starting point, apply any lessons learned, and build on it for future launches.