---
title: "Quick start: launch a campaign as an advertiser"
description: "Advertiser-role walkthrough — create a campaign and a creative, set pricing, flight dates and targeting, get the creative linked, and read your spend and results."
type: "tutorial"
audience: [advertiser]
keywords: [advertiser, quick start, campaign, banner, creative, pricing, flight dates, targeting, diagnostics, spend, charges, reports]
ui_path: "Account → Advertisers"
---

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version.

# Quick start: launch a campaign as an advertiser

As an advertiser you own the demand side: campaigns and creatives under your advertiser
account. This tutorial creates a campaign, sets its price, flight dates and targeting, uploads a
creative, checks it with diagnostics and shows where to read the results. Where your ads actually
run is decided by the network, which links your creatives to its placements.

## Who this is for

Anyone running campaigns on the stock **Advertiser** role. It opens six tabs: **Dashboard**,
**Advertisers**, **Analytics**, **Conversion Actions**, **Templates** and **Preferences**. Your
network can add or remove cards and options; what the stock role includes, and what it leaves to
your network manager, is listed in
[What your network controls](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/roles/advertiser.md#what-your-network-controls).

## Prerequisites

- An advertiser account on the network.
- An image creative in the size of the slots you are buying (for example 300×250).
- The price and flight dates agreed with your network.

## Steps

1. Go to **Account → Advertisers**. Open your advertiser, or create one with **New advertiser** on
   the rail beside the tree. Click **Add new campaign**.
2. Fill in **Name** and keep the campaign **Active**. **Weight** is shown greyed out: the stock role
   cannot change it. Click **Save**. Success: "Campaign saved", and the campaign page opens with
   all its cards.
   ![Create new campaign](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/quick-start-advertiser/campaign-basic-info.webp)
3. Set the commercial terms in the **Pricing** card: switch the card on, pick the **Pricing type**
   (**CPM** or **CPC**) and enter the rate agreed with the network in the **Price** column — the
   **Global** row, or a row per **Country** with **Add**. See [Pricing](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/delivery/pricing.md).
4. Set the flight in the **Limits** card: **Start date** and **End date**. The **Budget** rows on
   the same card are read-only for you; your network manager sets them.
   ![Pricing, Limits and Frequency capping in the Features rail](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/quick-start-advertiser/campaign-cards.webp)
5. Narrow the audience in the **Targeting** card — country, browser, operating system, time of day
   and the other types your role offers. Leave it empty to reach everyone. See
   [Add targeting](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/targeting/add-targeting.md).
6. Add the creative: click **Add new banner** in the campaign header and pick **Add banner for Site
   Placement**. The **Banner type** is **Local File**: upload the image, fill in **Name**, **Ad
   unit** and **URL** — the click-through landing page, required — then **Save**. Success: "Banner saved".
7. Ask your network manager to link the creative to placements. The stock role has no linking card,
   so a creative serves only once the network has linked it, by hand or through its matching rules.
   If you need conversion tracking, ask them in the same message to attach your conversion action to
   the campaign and send you its tracking code. What to do with the code once you have it:
   [Got a code from your network manager?](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/roles/advertiser.md#got-a-code-from-your-network-manager)
8. Sanity-check the setup: on the campaign page open the **Actions** menu and choose **Run
   diagnostics**. It checks the campaign's limits, pricing, targeting and capping, and each
   creative's size and links, and lists anything that blocks delivery.
9. Read the results:
   - **Account → Dashboard** — the advertiser dashboard. One **period** control in the page header
     sets the window for the **Charges**, **Impressions**, [**eCPM**](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/reference/glossary.md),
     **Clicks** and **CTR** tiles, the trend chart and the **Advertiser/Campaign/Banner** tree.
     **Charges** is your spend. It starts on Today; **Compare with previous period** adds the
     preceding window of the same length.
   - **Account → Analytics** — run a General report grouped by **Campaign** or **Banner** and click
     **Run report**. Save the set-up, and schedule it if you want it by e-mail
     ([Saved and scheduled reports](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/analytics/saved-and-scheduled.md)).

## Options and fields

| Field | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing type | campaign → Pricing | CPM or CPC on the stock role; what you pay for. |
| Start date / End date | campaign → Limits | The flight. Outside it the campaign does not serve. |
| Budget | campaign → Limits | Daily and total spend caps; read-only on the stock role. |
| Targeting | advertiser, campaign, banner | Who may see the ads; the three levels stack. |
| Ad unit | banner | The creative's dimensions; required for Local File banners. |

Full detail: [Pricing](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/delivery/pricing.md), [Limits](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/delivery/limits.md),
[Add targeting](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/targeting/add-targeting.md).

## Corner cases and gotchas

> **Corner case:** no linked inventory, no delivery. If **Run diagnostics** reports no linked
> placements, your creative has nowhere to run yet — contact your network manager rather than
> re-editing the creative.

> **Corner case:** a total budget ends delivery until the campaign is switched back on. When a
> total cap fills, the campaign's own switch turns **Off**, and it stays off after the cap is
> raised. Daily caps only pause. If a running campaign went quiet, check the **Limits** card and
> the campaign's **Active** switch before anything else.

> **Corner case:** your network may review creatives before they run. If yours does, a new or
> edited creative carries a **Pending** badge, and depending on the setting it either keeps serving
> or stays off until approved. If a campaign delivers nothing on day one, check the creative's
> switch and ask the network whether it is in review.

> **Corner case:** an advertiser shared with you as **Can view** opens fully and reports fully,
> but it carries a **Read-only** marker and no Save button. Ask your network manager to raise it to
> **Can edit** if you need to run campaigns on it yourself.

> **Corner case:** on a demo account every step here works the same way, against demo data.
> The charges shown are not real billing.

## Per-role notes

- **Advertiser (stock role):** frequency capping, budget and volume limits, other creative kinds,
  linking, conversion tracking code and sharing are not included; see
  [What your network controls](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/roles/advertiser.md#what-your-network-controls).
- **Read-only (Can view) and demo accounts:** see the corner cases above.
- **Sending numbers to a client:** schedule a saved report to e-mail them
  ([Schedule recurring emails](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/analytics/saved-and-scheduled.md#schedule-recurring-emails)).

## Related

- [Advertiser playbook](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/roles/advertiser.md)
- [Campaigns](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/advertising/campaigns.md)
- [Banner types overview](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/advertising/banners-overview.md)
- [Run a report](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/analytics/run-report.md)
- [Glossary](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/reference/glossary.md)
- [My ad is not serving](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/troubleshooting/ad-not-serving.md#if-you-are-an-advertiser)