# LinkedIn ads budget brief

Use this brief to decide whether a LinkedIn campaign has enough budget, evidence and operating support to answer one useful question. Leave missing facts marked **Unknown**. Do not replace them with a generic benchmark.

## 1. Decision question

- Company:
- Decision owner:
- Review date:
- Campaign question:
- Decision window:
- Calculation direction: Start with a budget / Work backward from a target
- Currency: USD
- Period name: Month / Quarter / Other
- Number of periods:
- Media available per period: Amount / Unknown
- Total media ceiling: Amount / Unknown
- Pricing basis: CPC / CPM plus CTR
- Scenario used for the decision: Low outcome / Base / High outcome
- Decision event: Impressions / Clicks / Captured responses / CRM records / Bookings / Held meetings / Qualified meetings / Opportunities / Customers
- Required events per test cell:
- Total test cells: Enter one explicit total; do not expect the reviewer to infer it
- Disposition needed: Launch a learning test / Narrow / Instrument first / Hold

## 2. Campaign situation

- Situation: Warm retargeting / Named-account prospecting / Broader cold prospecting / Other
- Audience source:
- Submitted records or accounts:
- Usable matched audience: Unknown / Observed value
- Delivered reach: Unknown / Observed value
- Objective and optimization goal:
- Billable event:
- Destination or response path:
- Number of audience cells:
- Number of meaningfully different creative cells:

## 3. Low, base and high assumptions

For every value, record one status: **Observed**, **Sourced orientation**, **Owner estimate**, **Intentional zero**, or **Unknown**. Add the source and date window.

| Input | Low outcome | Base | High outcome | Status/source/date |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| Media budget |  |  |  |  |
| CPC |  |  |  |  |
| CPM |  |  |  |  |
| Click-through rate |  |  |  |  |
| Click-to-response rate |  |  |  |  |
| Identifiable CRM-record rate |  |  |  |  |
| Booking rate |  |  |  |  |
| Show rate |  |  |  |  |
| Qualification rate |  |  |  |  |
| Opportunity rate |  |  |  |  |
| Close rate |  |  |  |  |

## 4. Required evidence

- Target event:
- Required target-event count:
- Required observations per test cell:
- Why that count is sufficient for this decision:
- Earlier event that can be judged before the full sales cycle ends:

## 5. Cost stack

Keep unknown and intentional zero separate.

| Cost | One-time | Per period | Status | Owner/source |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| LinkedIn media |  |  |  |  |
| Management and reporting |  |  |  |  |
| Creative and source work |  |  |  |  |
| Destination or resource production |  |  |  |  |
| Measurement and integration |  |  |  |  |
| Software and data |  |  |  |  |

## 6. Measurement chain

Define every event you plan to use.

| Event | Plain definition | System of record | Owner | Current status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Impression |  | Campaign Manager |  |  |
| Click or chosen platform result |  | Campaign Manager |  |  |
| Response |  |  |  |  |
| Identified CRM record |  | CRM |  |  |
| Booking |  |  |  |  |
| Held meeting |  |  |  |  |
| Qualified meeting |  | CRM |  |  |
| Opportunity |  | CRM |  |  |
| Customer |  | CRM/billing |  |  |

## 7. Readiness gates

Enter **Ready**, **Not ready**, or **Unconfirmed**. Not ready and unconfirmed are different: one records a known gap; the other records a fact nobody has established. Audience, offer and operating readiness are checked before measurement readiness.

| Readiness question | Value | Evidence/owner |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Target audience can be built and used |  |  |
| Offer is ready |  |  |
| Proof is approved |  |  |
| Destination works |  |  |
| Follow-up owner is named |  |  |
| Follow-up capacity exists |  |  |
| Decision event is defined |  |  |
| System of record is ready |  |  |
| Measurement owner is named |  |  |
| Review window is set |  |  |

## 8. Decision

- Disposition:
- Exact rule that produced it:
- Largest sensitivity:
- First unknown that blocks later math:
- Next evidence to collect:
- Owner:
- System of record:
- Due date:

## Formula reference

- Planned media = media_per_period × periods
- Impressions = media spend ÷ CPM × 1,000
- CPC-basis clicks = media spend ÷ CPC; impressions stay unknown
- Clicks = impressions × CTR
- Responses = clicks × click-to-response rate
- CRM records = responses × identifiable-record rate
- Bookings = CRM records × booking rate
- Held meetings = bookings × show rate
- Qualified meetings = held meetings × qualification rate
- Opportunities = qualified meetings × opportunity rate
- Customers = opportunities × close rate
- Total program cost = media + every known non-media cost

For target-to-budget mode, required target events = required_events_per_cell × test_cells. Divide backward through each required rate to reach clicks. Then multiply clicks by CPC, or divide clicks by CTR and apply CPM. Run the solved budget forward again to verify the target before rounding.

Cost-layer total = one_time + per_period × periods. Report an all-in total only when every required cost component is known or explicitly zero.

Decision precedence: D1 Hold → D2 Instrument first → D3 Narrow → D4 Launch a learning test.

## Stable field map for the review prompt

Use these field names when you paste the brief into the standalone prompt:

| Reader-facing label | Stable field |
| --- | --- |
| Calculation direction | `mode`: `budget_to_outcomes` or `target_to_budget` |
| Period name | `period_label` |
| Number of periods | `periods` |
| Media available per period | `media_per_period` |
| Total media ceiling | `available_media_ceiling` |
| Pricing basis | `basis`: `cpc` or `cpm_ctr` |
| Scenario used for the decision | `decision_scenario` |
| Decision event | `decision_event` |
| Required events per test cell | `required_events_per_cell` |
| Total test cells | `test_cells` |

Readiness fields, in the same order as the table: `target_audience_ready`, `offer_ready`, `proof_ready`, `destination_ready`, `followup_owner_ready`, `followup_capacity_ready`, `decision_event_defined`, `system_of_record_ready`, `measurement_owner_ready`, `review_window_ready`. Convert Ready to `true`, Not ready to `false`, and Unconfirmed to `null`.

Use exact values for later arithmetic. Round only for display.