Onboarding a New Client Account in Three Weeks

The first three weeks of an engagement set the tone for the rest of it. An onboarding that produces a documented plan and a live campaign by the end of week three gives both sides something concrete to review, rather than a sequence of meetings.

Week one: access and evidence

Collect access to the advertising accounts, analytics, product feed and any order data the client can share. In parallel, review the historical account and the site, and write down what the data does and does not support. Week one should end with a written audit, even if it is short.

Week two: the plan

Produce the media plan: channel mix, budget splits, creative requirements and the measurement plan, including which conversion action governs the decision and how often results will be published. The client should be able to read it without a meeting to interpret it.

Week three: build and launch

Build campaigns, audiences, creatives and tracking, then launch with a deliberately conservative budget so that the first days produce a clean read rather than a noisy one. Test the tracking before spending, not after.

Confirm the working rhythm before the first review

Book the weekly and monthly reviews, name the people who will attend, and agree what counts as an escalation. Rhythm established early survives the first difficult month.

Write the closing note at the end of week three

Summarise what was delivered against what was planned, and list what is still outstanding. That short document becomes the reference point for the first monthly review and removes the temptation to renegotiate the baseline.