Who should approve a campaign? Build a matrix without creating a committee

Separate four roles before choosing names

The person responsible for the deliverable prepares and uploads it. A reviewer comments on a defined area, such as copy or visual identity. A validator checks a requirement that needs specialist knowledge, such as a price, specification or legal information. A decision maker authorizes the work to proceed. One person can hold several roles, but the final decision needs an owner.

Invite someone to each stage for a specific reason. When ten people receive a file without a defined scope, the result is often a collection of incompatible preferences. A useful opinion does not have to be a mandatory vote.

Organize internal review before involving the client

A small matrix for a campaign with several formats

Hypothetical example: for a post and an ad, the creative team prepares the work, account management consolidates comments, client marketing validates the message and a person named by the client decides. For artwork with a price, sales also checks the number. For packaging, the people responsible for specifications and mandatory text join before the final decision. The matrix follows the risk in the deliverable, not the highest-ranking person available.

Copy this structure into a spreadsheet: Deliverable | Prepares | Reviews | Validates requirement | Decides | Deadline | Substitute. Give each column an identifiable person or role. If ‘everyone’ appears under Decides, the matrix is not ready.

The additional checks packaging review requires

Put stages in the order the work can move forward

Internal review should resolve errors the team already knows about. Specific validations follow. Finally, the decision maker receives a version ready to accept or return with clear outstanding issues. If everyone comments at once, name the person who consolidates conflicts before another version is sent.

Agree on a deadline and a substitute too. Silence should not become automatic approval out of habit. If the responsible person does not respond, the workflow needs to show whether the work waits, goes to someone else or returns to planning.

Organize campaign approval

Test the matrix with a real campaign

Choose a recent campaign and reconstruct who commented, who resolved each comment and who authorized publication. Two incompatible decisions suggest a missing final decision maker or tie-break rule. If the campaign waited for someone who did not need to participate, there were too many approvers.

Revise the matrix after the test. It should fit on one page and make sense to someone joining the project halfway through. When an exception becomes frequent, turn it into an explicit stage.

Apply it in Aproova

Aproova lets you organize participants and review stages while keeping comments and decisions connected to the material. Use those controls to represent a matrix the team has already discussed. The tool can show the next action, but it cannot decide who should have authority in the client’s business.