Backlink Marketplace Buyer's Guide: Campaign Intake
The first buyer step: capture goal, target pages, budget, audience, and constraints into a brief.
Campaign intake is the first step of the buyer path and the foundation every later step is measured against. A marketplace campaign without a documented intake tends to drift: target pages shift, budgets blur, and reporting becomes guesswork. This article defines what to capture and why. It is the first article in the buyer sequence; continue with Defining Target Pages for a Backlink Campaign.
What to capture at intake
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Business goal | Defines what success looks like (e.g., promote a service page) — not a ranking promise |
| Target pages | The pages placements should point to |
| Audience | Who the placement should reach |
| Budget | Publisher fees, commission, content, and a revision reserve |
| Constraints | Industry, geography, brand-safety, prohibited categories |
Turn intake into a brief
The intake becomes a written brief that travels with the campaign. Every later decision — publisher choice, content direction, approval, verification — is checked against this brief. Use the Backlink Campaign Intake SOP and Template to standardize it.
Limitations
Intake cannot predict placement outcomes. It defines scope and constraints so the campaign stays accountable. See The Backlink Marketplace Buyer's Guide for the full end-to-end process.
Primary sources
- Link schemes — Google Search Central (accessed 2025-01-15)