Online marketing campaign: choose channels, track results and stay within the consent rules

How to set up an online marketing campaign you can measure

An online marketing campaign rarely fails on creativity. It fails on fit: the ad promises one thing and the page shows another, the tracking counts page views as leads, and the budget is judged on clicks. Start from the objective and the audience, pick two or three channels that match the buying moment, make the landing page keep the ad's promise, measure the action that earns money, and compare what a new customer costs with the margin they bring.

This page builds on create a marketing campaign and adds what is specific to online. The worked example is in euros; the method works in any currency.

Step 1: objective and audience by buying moment

Write one objective with a number and a date, such as first orders, qualified leads or booked calls. Then describe the audience by intent. Avinash Kaushik's See-Think-Do-Care framework helps: See is the widest group with no commercial intent yet, Think shows weak intent, Do is close to buying, and Care are your existing loyal customers. Each stage needs its own channel and its own measure.

Step 2: choose your online marketing channels

A web shop often starts with search ads and email, a local service with search and map listings, a product nobody searches for yet with paid social. Ad formats and targeting change often, so check the platform's own help pages before you build.

Step 3: tracking and measurement

• Tag every link: campaign tags (UTM parameters, small labels in the web address) on links in ads, emails and posts show source, medium and campaign in your analytics.
• Track conversions: set up the action that earns money, such as a purchase, a qualified form or a call, in each ad platform, for example through Google Ads conversion measurement.
• Feed back what happened next: mark which leads became customers, so you judge quality rather than volume.
• Respect consent in your tags: with Google's consent mode, tags do not store cookies after a refusal. It works with your consent banner; it does not replace it.
• Trust your own books: every platform claims the sale, so compare platform totals with your order system.

Consent rules for cookies and email marketing

In Europe, cookies the service does not strictly need require prior consent, and so does marketing email to individuals, with a narrow exception for existing customers. The US works mainly on opt-out. This summarises principles; it is not legal advice.

• Cookies: does the law in your target countries require consent or an opt-out?
• Email: is consent needed for individuals, is there an existing-customer exception, and are company addresses treated differently?
• Every message: what must it contain, and how fast must an unsubscribe take effect?
• Your tools: do your banner and email tool record when and how consent was given?

Rules change, as the UK's Data (Use and Access) Act showed for cookies, so check the regulator's site before each major campaign.

Step 4: judge results by cost per acquisition against margin

Contribution is revenue minus product cost and other variable costs such as shipping and payment fees. ROAS works with revenue, so a healthy-looking ROAS can still lose money on a low-margin product.

Example: an online tea shop after six weeks

Callum Wren runs Tidewater Tea Company, a web shop for loose-leaf tea. A first order averages €40 excluding VAT and leaves €16 contribution. New customers order 2.5 times in their first year on average, so a customer brings €40 contribution in twelve months. Callum accepts spending half of that on acquisition: his maximum CPA is €20.

Fictitious Firmfocus example. Amounts exclude VAT. Contribution is revenue minus tea, packaging, shipping and payment fees. New customers are first orders from people not yet in the customer database; the email cost includes the discount codes used.

On average the campaign stays under the €20 ceiling, but the average hides a channel at €30 per customer. Paid social looks fine on ROAS: 70 first orders of €40 bring €2,800 on €2,100 spend. Those orders leave only €1,120 contribution, so the channel pays back only if customers reorder as expected. Callum shifts budget to search until its CPA starts to rise, as it will when he buys pricier clicks.

Step 5: test, improve and scale

1. 01

   Launch small

   Spend part of the budget first and check that every conversion is recorded.

2. 02

   Compare variants

   One variable at a time: headline, offer, audience or page.

3. 03

   Steer on quality

   Count customers and contribution, not form fills.

4. 04

   Scale what works

   Raise budgets in steps; extra reach usually costs more per customer.

Small campaign vs larger campaign

Pitfalls in online campaigns

• Judging on clicks or ROAS: both ignore margin and customer quality.
• Buying an email list: in the EU and the UK the existing-customer exception does not cover bought-in addresses.
• Tracking before consent: tags that fire before the visitor chooses, or a hidden refuse option.
• Scaling too early: raising spend before audience, message and page have proved themselves.

The full campaign method is in create a marketing campaign. Paying partners per sale is covered in affiliate marketing, and setting up a shop in start an online store. All topics are on the Marketing page.