Permanent Campaigns, also known as an evergreen campaign, is a continuous and ongoing marketing strategy that is not tied to specific seasons, events, or limited-time promotions. Unlike the scheduled main/side campaigns, a permanent marketing campaign is designed to be sustained over an extended period, providing consistent and continuous value to the company.
The aim of this campaign is to continuously attract new Leads, continue to reach out to existing Leads, using brand and product specific messaging. Permanent marketing campaigns are more about building a long-lasting connection with the audience and maintaining a consistent brand presence in the market. They contribute to the overall marketing and business objectives of the company over the long term.
Key characteristics of a permanent marketing campaign include:
Consistency: The campaign maintains a consistent presence over time, allowing it to become a long-term element of the overall marketing strategy.
Relevance: The content and messaging of the campaign remain relevant to the target audience regardless of changes in seasons, trends, or external events.
Value-Driven: Permanent campaigns often focus on delivering ongoing value to customers. This can be in the form of educational content, helpful resources, or continuous engagement.
Brand Building: These campaigns contribute to building and reinforcing the brand identity over the long term. They help establish a brand presence that remains in the minds of the audience.
Lifecycle Marketing: Permanent campaigns may be designed to address different stages of the customer lifecycle, from awareness and acquisition to retention and advocacy.
Adaptability: While the core theme or message of the campaign remains constant, there is room for adaptability to accommodate changes in market dynamics, consumer behavior, or business goals.
The different marketing channels used in Permanent Campaigns are as follows.
Types of Campaign Channels
MARKETING CHANNEL DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVE
SET FREQUENCY
ESTIMATED TIME FOR PREP & EXECUTION
BUDGET APPROVAL
G-Ads (Search Network)
Text ads that appear on Google's search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for specific keywords. Advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their business.
Drive new traffic from targeted audience that are searching for relevant keywords
Expand audience reach not limited to just the product of interest, but also to competitors
Brand credibility through higher search ranking
Permanent Campaign.
Prep: 2-3 weeks depending on scale
Execution: Indefinitely
Yes.
G-Ads (Display Network)
Visual ads, including banner ads, on a vast network of websites, blogs, and apps that partner with Google. Advertisers can use targeting options to display their ads to specific audiences based on demographics, interests, topics, and more.
Generate traffic to your website by encouraging new or existing users to click on display ads and visit your site.
Increase brand visibility and awareness by displaying visually engaging ads.
Permanent Campaign.
Prep: 3-5 weeks depending on scale
Execution: Indefinitely
Yes.
G-Ads (Videos)
Video ads are displayed on YouTube and across the Google Display Network. Advertisers can create engaging video content to reach users on YouTube, and they can use targeting options to reach specific audiences.
NOTE: This is a new channel that is yet fully utilized to its potential in the company.
Inherently more engaging than static text or image ads. Users are more likely to watch and interact with videos, leading to increased engagement with your brand.
Allow advertisers to tell a story visually, bringing their brand or products to life. This storytelling aspect can help create a deeper emotional connection with the audience.
Video ads enable businesses to showcase their products or services in action. This can be particularly beneficial for demonstrating features, benefits, and use cases.
Permanent Campaign.
Prep: 3-5 weeks depending on scale
Execution: Indefinitely
Yes.
Website Media Posts
Contents like articles, blog posts, news updates, or any form of media-related content that is to be published on the website. Media posts on a website can take various forms, such as: blog posts, news updates, press releases, video content, infographics, image galleries, and even user generated content (comments, testimonials, etc.).
Enhance SEO by providing new content for search engines to index.
Build authority and credibility as one of the industry leaders.
Support marketing campaigns by pre-reinforcing key messages and supporting overall marketing objectives.
Ongoing:
Min. 1x/month
Prep: 1-2 weeks
Not required.
Social Media Posts
Posts on the company’s LinkedIn and Facebook pages.
To maintain social media presence for audiences in the industry
To maintain visibility to social media Leads
Encouraging social sharing and engagement
Generating leads and driving website traffic
Showcasing products and services
Improving SEO and online presence
Ongoing:
2x/per week on each social media channel
Prep:
1 day
Not Required
Permanent Campaign Management:
Permanent Campaigns, like most other tasks and projects in the company, are managed through tasks. The tasks related to Permanent Campaigns are under the Marketing: Permanent Campaigns project.
In addition to tasks, these Campaigns are also managed under the Email Marketing - Campaigns module, where active campaigns and its UTMs are being tracked through what is called a Campaign Record, primarily for UTMs and initial conversion.
Introduction to Campaign Records
Before proceeding further into the process, it is important that the Campaign module is well understood, as many abbreviations related to existing campaigns may be confusing at first. The kanban view of the module shows every Campaign Record in the system, including Permanent, Main and Side Campaigns. This part of the SOP will cover relevant information related only to Permanent Campaign Records.
01 Stage: PCs will always be under the “Permanent” stage, unless newly created and to be scheduled for the first time ever for easier review.
02 Campaign Name: PCs follow this template in its naming.
PC - [XXX] - [ACQ/RMK] - [DESCRIPTION]
PC: refers to Permanent Campaign
XXX: a three letter abbreviation of the campaign channel. Some channels consist of different subtypes which can then be turned into XXX XXX, or equivalent. The current existing Permanent Campaigns refers to:
GAD SEA = Google Ad Search
GAD DIS = Google Ad Display
GAD DIS = Google Ad Display
WMP = Website Media Post
SMP = Social Media Post
ACQ/RMK: select one of the two.
ACQ = Acquisition (targeting new audience)
RMK = Remarketing (targeting audience that may be existing Customers, OPP, Lead or even just website visitors recorded in the system)
DESCRIPTION: a short description of the campaign topic/target/type, etc.
03 Date: Date in which the PC is scheduled for the first time, or after revision is done.
04 # Mailings: number of Email Marketings connected to the PC, it applies only to very limited PC Channels.
05 Range: range of product being marketed under said campaign, there are 5 different ranges based on the company’s 5 main product ranges.
06 # Delivered: number of Emails intended to be reached through Email Marketing vs. number of actually sent out emails. Only applies to very limited PC Channels.
07 Campaign Performance: dataset of campaign performance based on Email Marketing Channel (except for Conversions, which do not depend on EM).
Opened: % of EM opened
Clicks: % of clicks, the total number comes from number of Recipients x Links in the EM
Replied: % this field currently does NOT reflect anything due to technical challenges
Conversions: Leads/Opportunities tagged with the Campaign. This can be tracked from UTM only, and does not require an EM.
NOTE: Conversion number, while a great way to track actual conversions, will not be an accurate representation of Campaign performance. This is because the LR Process involves a lot of merging, which will result in a Lead/Opp having only 1 record (normally with the oldest Campaign record).
Campaign Records are primarily used to:
Track the performance different Channels used under one Campaign
Track the performance of the Email Marketing(s) sent out under one Campaign
Create UTMs that is automatically recorded in the ERP system when clicked
As a centralized record of all past and ongoing campaigns
The limitation in tracking on the Campaign Record is very obvious, especially for Campaign Channels that are not Email Marketing. Regardless, the information provided are much closer to the actual data to be reviewed at (conversion to Leads, quality of Leads), rather than the mass data that can normally be found on Analytics or Google Ads Report.
Campaign Life Cycle
As Permanent Campaigns are intended to be constantly ongoing, the life-cycle most Permanent Campaign related tasks do not go through the normal Sprint timelines. There are two general types of these Permanent Campaigns, based on its life-cycle:
Continuous
Repeating
Continuous
Repeating
Task
1 Main Task normally under Execution (Agile), until revisions are deemed required.
1 Main Task under Sprint Schedule OR
1 Main Task under Backlog and Sub-Tasks under Sprint Schedule
Examples
Google Ads
Website Media Post, Social Media Post
Assessment
Reporting done every 2 weeks to observe trends, to be discussed over in the BD-Marketing Meeting.
According to each Campaign Channel SOP (refer to the next part of the SOP)
Schedule
As it is ongoing, the schedule is not present in the marketing calendars. However, the start and revision dates for Continuous campaigns must be added in the task description.
Schedules depend on each Campaign Channel. Repeating Campaigns are added in the Yearly Campaign Roadmap - Monthly Calendar.
Note: Campaign Roadmaps are created every year and are saved in the server. They contain the yearly, monthly schedule of repeating Permanent Campaigns in coordination with the Scheduled Campaigns. Sheets to keep track of certain Permanent Campaign Topics are also saved under the Yearly Campaign Roadmap. Here:
Z:\Shared drives\AdvaCare Marketing Control\AdvaCare Marketing Campaigns\[YYYY]
Assessment and Revision of an Ongoing Permanent Campaign:
When:
After BD-Marketing Meeting or any other factors where it is determined that the ongoing Permanent Campaign must be reviewed, and potentially revised.
Examples:
Change of targeted country list.
New Google Ads policy disrupts ongoing campaigns that stops half of the display banners to be shown due to restricted keywords.
Bi-weekly assessment determines that cost per conversion is too high and does not provide equivalent return on the costs.
Process:
After the initial report is raised by a Marketing/BD/Management Team, Marketing Dept. Manager must ensure that the task is sent in the relevant Permanent Campaign task detailing the issue at hand. Then, Marketing Dept. will assign the task to a Marketing Person (mostly Campaign Specialist/SEO Specialist) to take over in resolving said issue, and add the task in the upcoming Sprint. This task must then be moved to Backlog or Sprint stage. The task can then go through the Sprint process following the SOP for each channel.
Note: Any new UTMs to be created in this stage MUST be made under the Permanent Campaign Record from the Email Marketing - Campaigns.
Repeating a Permanent Campaign Channel:
When:
Depending on each Campaign Channel, scheduled in the Campaign Roadmap. It is normally a part of Campaign Specialist’s weekly Sprint task.
Examples:
Social Media Posts that are done multiple times every week.
Website Media Posts that are posted at least once a month.
Process:
Every week, Marketing Dept. Manager will assign the task to Campaign Specialist under the Sprint stage. Depending on the scale of the task, a Sub-Task may be created instead. For example, Social Media Posts are done 4x weekly at the moment, although on a very small scale. In this case, the task is handled as 1 and the main Social Media Post task under this project is assigned to Campaign Specialist. For some tasks where it is topic per topic, and may stretch longer than even 1 Sprint Iteration, a Sub-Task will be created from the Main Task. This Sub-Task is then assigned to the Campaign Specialist and placed under Sprint.
Creating a New Permanent Campaign:
New Permanent Campaigns may be created on many occasions, whether it is adding new requirements to an existing channel, or a new channel that is identified as a potentially effective marketing tool. The details of things to consider when deciding to run a new Permanent Campaign will be specific to every channel, but in general, the following points must first be considered:
Audience Type: Acquisition or Remarketing
Target Markets: Country/Region or other ways to group a target audience
Marketing Goal: Brand Awareness or Engagement or Conversion
Campaign Life Cycle: Repeating or Ongoing
Campaign Duration: campaign duration per life cycle
Preparation Duration: time required to prepare before launch
Trial Duration: duration of trial and assessment before deciding to apply permanently
Budget Required: budget required to run the campaign under what timeline
Deliverables Required: Content or Images or Others
Estimated Reach and Conversion: Estimated expected Results
With the above information, proposer of the new Permanent Campaign strategy can provide sufficient but also compacted information to the approvers (Marketing Dept. Manager, BD Dept. Manager, Director). The process goes as follows:
Once reviewed and approved, Marketing Dept. Manager will create a Task/Sub-task under the Strategies project for the initial implementation and trial period. This task will then be assigned to Campaign Specialist to take over during their Sprint. Make sure that the information above is added in the Task Description.
Once assigned, Campaign Specialist will then need to create the Campaign Record under the Email Marketing - Campaign module, following these steps:
Click "CREATE".
On the new Record form, input the "Campaign Name" following the previously explained rule:
PC - [XXX] - [ACQ/RMK] - [DESCRIPTION]
Click on the empty "Type" field and click to select "Permanent Campaign" from the dropdown.
Locate the task of which the PC/Strategy Task is, copy the task’s full name, and paste into the "Task" field. From the dropdown, click to select the correct task related to said PC.
Note: Do NOT create a new Task from here.
Click on the empty "Scheduled For" field and select the Launch Date of the PC. Alternatively, input in text following this template:
[MM]/[DD]/[YYYY]
Click on the "Ranges" empty field and click to select product ranges that apply to the PC. Add more ranges as required.
Add a "Priority" to the Campaign, with 3 starts being of the highest priority. On the kanban view, Campaign Records are in the vertical order of LATEST to OLDEST launch date. For Campaigns that fall under the same launch date, the Records will be shown from HIGHEST to LOWEST priority.
Click "SAVE". The Campaign Record is now newly created.
Once done, Campaign Specialist can work on the Permanent Campaign task as planned from the Task Description, following the normal Sprint process and following the SOP for each channel (if it is an existing channel). When a UTM link is required, refer to the Reference SOP: UTM Link Generation Guideline
Executing the Campaign Channels:
The previous part of the SOP introduces briefly the various marketing channels that are currently utilized and yet utilized (planned for the future), as a part of the company's Permanent Campaign process. The next part SOP will provide further details on each established campaign channel description and the process to make changes to a running campaign (if required).
The detailed SOP for the preparation, applying changes, and analysis/assessment of each marketing channel performance can be found below: