Campaign
The top-level organizational unit in ad platforms that defines the advertising objective, budget, and overarching strategy.
What Campaign means
A campaign is the highest-level organizational structure in most ad platforms, containing ad sets/groups and individual ads. Campaign-level settings typically include the advertising objective (awareness, traffic, conversions, etc.), total budget or budget optimization settings, start/end dates, and Special Ad Category designation. Compliance begins at the campaign level — selecting the correct objective and applying appropriate category restrictions is foundational. For example, on Meta, designating a campaign as a Special Ad Category for housing, employment, or credit restricts targeting options to prevent discrimination. Campaign-level buying types (auction vs. reservation) also affect compliance requirements.
Related terms
Ad Set
A mid-level organizational unit within ad campaigns that defines targeting, budget, schedule, and placement settings.
Ad Account
The organizational unit within an ad platform that holds campaigns, billing information, and permissions for running advertisements.
Special Ad Categories
Platform-designated ad categories (housing, employment, credit, politics) with restricted targeting to prevent discrimination.
Ad Auction
The real-time bidding process where platforms determine which ad to show to a specific user based on bid, quality, and relevance.