| Criterion | Check |
|---|---|
| Canvas and decision-record traceability | Every targeting and format decision is justified by the hierarchy stage, audience mechanism, and bid strategy from the Week 2 canvas and Week 5 tutorial decision record |
| Placement scan completeness | Topic and keyword list is specified, and five to ten specific placements are listed with a contextual-fit justification for each |
| Storyboard completeness | Six-to-eight-frame storyboard covers hook, claim, evidence, and CTA within the chosen YouTube format’s skip point; each frame has a visual description and audio/text |
| Static mock quality | Static mock is built at the correct dimensions (1:1 or 1200 x 628) with brand mark, primary visual, headline, and CTA in place |
| Metrics plan and theory rationale | Primary metric and two diagnostic metrics are named; the one-page rationale explicitly references habituation and personalisation theory to justify the frequency cap and audience choice |
| Creative rotation | Creative rotation plan specifies variant count, trigger metric for refresh, and refresh schedule |
| Evidence labelling | All placement decisions without documented benchmark data are labelled [ASSUMPTION] with testing methods |
| AI prompt log | At least three prompts with AI outputs, evidence links, and student decisions are documented |
| Reflection and presentation | The 200-word reflection identifies the highest-risk placement assumption; the PDF is readable and correctly named |
Week 5 Independent Study and Submission
Self-learning Creative and Placement Pack Development
Investigation
1 Placement Scan
⏱ 60 min
List topics and keywords, and identify five to ten likely placements with a contextual-fit justification for each.
Production
2 Storyboard
⏱ 60 min
Sketch a six-to-eight-frame storyboard for your fifteen-second video, matched to your format’s skip point.
Production
3 Static Mock
⏱ 90 min
Build one finished 1:1 or 1200 x 628 static asset with brand mark, visual, and call to action in place.
Investigation
4 Metrics Plan and Rationale
⏱ 90 min
Write a one-page rationale referencing habituation and personalisation theory to justify frequency and audience choices.
Assessment
5 Build and Submit
⏱ 60 min
Complete evidence labels, the AI prompt log, and submit the final placement pack PDF by 23:59 MVT.
Your six hours of self-directed study happen outside class across the week. Use the time to scan real placements, storyboard and mock up your primary assets, write a metrics rationale grounded in this week’s theory, and submit your final PDF. The sections below give you the submission requirements, the formative checklist, review questions to consolidate your learning, and the key takeaways that connect this week to the rest of the module.
Independent Study
Your six hours turn your tutorial decision record into a complete creative and placement pack another reader can evaluate. Use the time deliberately:
- 60 minutes for a placement scan, listing your topics and keywords and finding five to ten placements where your ad is likely to appear
- 60 minutes to sketch a six-to-eight-frame storyboard for your fifteen-second video
- 90 minutes to build one static mock at 1:1 or 1200 x 628 pixels with your brand mark and call to action in place
- 90 minutes to write a one-page metrics plan and rationale, naming your primary metric and two supporting diagnostic metrics, and explaining your frequency and audience choices with explicit reference to habituation (the mere exposure and creative fatigue curve) and personalisation theory
- 60 minutes to complete evidence labels, the AI prompt log, and submit by 23:59 MVT
NoteWorking from the chapter’s worked example
The Villa College Certificate placement brief in this week’s chapter models exactly what a completed entry looks like: an audience mechanism and bid strategy traced to the hierarchy stage at each of three transitions, a viewability threshold with an exclusion rule, and a creative rotation plan tied to a mid-campaign fatigue check. Hold your draft next to that example and check that your audience rationale, bid rationale, and evidence labelling reach the same level of specificity.
Your Week 5 submission should include:
- Campaign topic and scope, with a one-sentence explanation of which placement challenge the hierarchy stage, audience mechanism, and bid strategy from your tutorial decision record imply.
- Placement scan: your topic and keyword list, and five to ten specific placements (sites, apps, or channels) where you would expect your ad to appear, with a one-sentence justification for each based on contextual fit.
- Video storyboard: six to eight frames for your fifteen-second video, each with a timing, a visual description, and audio or on-screen text, matched to the YouTube format’s skip point from the tutorial.
- Static mock: one finished 1:1 or 1200 x 628 pixel static asset with the brand mark, primary visual, headline, and call to action in place, built in Canva or an equivalent free tool.
- Metrics plan and rationale: primary metric, two diagnostic metrics, reach and frequency targets, frequency cap, and viewability threshold, each labelled as evidence-based (with a benchmark citation) or [ASSUMPTION]. The one-page rationale must explicitly reference habituation and personalisation theory to justify the frequency cap and audience choice.
- Creative rotation plan: number of variants, trigger metric, and refresh schedule.
- AI prompt log with at least three prompts, AI outputs used, evidence links, and student decisions.
- A 200-word reflection identifying the one placement assumption that carries the highest strategic risk and explaining what evidence would resolve it.
- A reference list in a consistent citation style.
Formative Checklist
Use Table 1 before submission.
Review Questions
- The mere exposure effect predicts that repeated exposure increases liking. At what point does this relationship break down, and what practical decision does it imply for frequency cap setting?
- A campaign team chooses a thirty-second video ad for an Awareness-stage campaign because “video performs better.” Using media richness theory, explain what is wrong with this reasoning.
- What is the difference between reach and frequency, and why does maximising one typically reduce the other within a fixed budget?
- A display ad has a viewability rate of 48 per cent over the first week. Does this settle the question of whether the ad is performing? What additional information would you need before drawing a conclusion?
- A fifteen-second video ad receives a view-through rate of 35 per cent in its first week but drops to 12 per cent in week three. What is the most likely explanation, and what should the campaign team do?
- A student designs a display ad that communicates the following five things: the brand name, the programme name, the tuition fee, a testimonial quote, and the application deadline. Using the one-sentence-per-ad principle from the lecture, what is the problem with this approach, and what should the student do?
- Creative rotation produces three variants of the same display ad, each with a different hook. The team measures which variant has the highest click-through rate after 500 impressions per variant. Is this a message test? Justify your answer by reference to the message testing criteria from Week 4.
- Your campaign’s primary placement network reports a weekly average viewability rate of 55 per cent. The IAB standard for a viewable display impression is 50 per cent of pixels visible for one second. Does your placement meet the IAB standard? What would you do differently to improve it?
- A campaign team sets a CPA bid strategy for a brand-new campaign with no prior conversion data. Explain why this bid strategy is likely to underperform, and recommend a more appropriate bid strategy for the launch phase.
- Using personalisation theory, explain why a remarketing audience can typically sustain a higher frequency cap than a cold affinity audience before creative fatigue sets in.
TipWeek 5 at a glance
The central theoretical contribution of this week is the connection between targeting mechanics and strategic planning: audience mechanism, bid strategy, format, and frequency are pre-campaign decisions that follow directly from the hierarchy stage and the evidence base built across Weeks 1 to 4, rather than post-campaign diagnostics. A placement brief that specifies an audience mechanism, a bid strategy, a frequency cap, and a viewability threshold before launch is a plan; one that leaves all four open is a hope. In Week 6 you will shift from paid placement to organic acquisition, where the same audience signals and hierarchy-stage logic underpin a very different execution channel: search engine optimisation.
Key Takeaways
Targeting, bidding, and placement decisions are strategic decisions that interact with every element of the campaign built in the preceding weeks, rather than distribution tasks. The audience mechanism and bid strategy must match the hierarchy stage: a recency-weighted in-market audience and a CPC bid fit a Knowledge-stage campaign in a way a broad affinity audience and a CPM bid fail to match. The format must match the richness required by the communication objective, and its skip behaviour must shape the creative rather than being an afterthought. The frequency must be high enough to produce the mere exposure benefit without triggering creative fatigue, and personalisation theory explains why a remarketing audience can sustain a higher frequency than a cold one. The viewability threshold must be set at a level that ensures the impression data in the campaign report reflects actual exposure, rather than technical delivery alone. The exclusion list and negative keywords ensure the placement spend never reaches a context the campaign has already ruled out.
The creative and placement pack you built this week is the media-level layer of the campaign plan. Combined with the canvas from Week 2, the visual asset specification from Week 3, and the copybook from Week 4, it constitutes a first-draft brief that a media agency or an in-house team could use to execute a campaign. The decisions remain documented first-drafts with clearly labelled assumptions and testing plans, rather than final calls.
In Week 6, you will shift from paid media placements to the organic acquisition channel that generates the highest long-term return for most organisations: search engine optimisation. The evidence base you have been building across Weeks 1 to 5, including your audience signals, your keyword patterns, and your hierarchy stage analysis, directly informs the SEO strategy you will develop next week.