A campaign can need several kinds of article. A branded editorial can connect your company with an important industry story. An unbranded informational guide can support a target page by answering a question its audience already asks. An Expanded feature can give several of your initiatives or examples a role across an article.
You may also want expert commentary, a first-person article or a competitive comparison. Setting the goal for each placement lets those articles work together in one campaign.
Order Setup lets you review and adjust the goal and article choices for each placement. This guide works through a campaign plan and shows which settings belong together.
If every placement inherits the same default, they can all end up doing the same job. Set the important differences for each article, then share the settings that really do belong across the order.
Start with one campaign identity
The branded placements in an order share one Subject identity. Choose the company, brand or individual the campaign should build around, then give its placements different roles.
Use separate Projects and orders when clients, brands or subject identities need to remain separate. A Project keeps reusable settings and placement history together, which also helps with planning repeat work.
If the main objective is an individual's first-person expertise, start with that Individual. If the campaign needs a branded Competitive Listicle, it needs a Company/Brand. Choosing the identity first prevents later article choices from pulling the order in incompatible directions.
A four-placement example
Consider one company that sells a project management tool. It wants to explain the product's practical use, contribute a useful viewpoint, reach comparison readers and support a relevant educational resource.
Here is how that campaign could work across four placements.
Placement 1: Brand Awareness through an Expanded editorial feature
Choose a branded Editorial article with Expanded coverage. The article could explore how agencies keep client projects moving, using the company's approach to task ownership, client comments and status reporting as examples throughout the story.
Expanded coverage gives the brand a recurring role across the article. A focused Standard feature works well when you want to develop one main example. In either case, the editorial connects the business with a wider subject that matters to potential customers.
Use a relevant product or use-case page as the destination. If a spokesperson's insight would strengthen the story, Generate Quotes can help develop it.
If the angle is a practical how-to, choose Informational style instead. A branded Informational guide can also use Standard or Expanded coverage.
Placement 2: Thought Leadership through attributed expertise
Choose a branded Editorial article with Standard coverage, exploring a point of view from a named company spokesperson. It might examine why project reviews need clearer decisions, rather than simply presenting a list of features.
Keep the Company/Brand subject and third-person writing. Supply Custom Quotes if there is exact approved wording, or choose Generate Quotes for researched commentary. Do not select both on the same placement.
If you want the article in the expert's own voice, start a separate order with that person as the Individual subject. The Thought Leadership guide explains the difference.
Placement 3: Category Authority through a branded comparison
Choose Competitive Listicle to feature the Company/Brand first in a researched comparison of relevant alternatives. Give the Background enough information to explain the product's capabilities and the buyer it suits.
Rank Engine researches the relevant alternatives, so you do not need to supply a competitor list. A product or comparison page can support the buying decision. See the Competitive Listicles guide.
Placement 4: Category Authority through an unbranded informational guide
Choose a non-branded Informational article that explains a useful category topic without featuring the company. For this campaign, a guide to planning agency projects could link to a relevant planning resource. The article earns the reader's attention through its explanation, while the contextual backlink supports the selected page.
This placement only needs concise context about the topic and target page. It does not need the company profile used for the branded comparison.
Decide what should be shared
Share a setting when the same choice is right for every placement using it. An audience or a piece of campaign context may belong across the whole order.
Use per-placement settings when the article needs its own target URL, anchor, topic, brief or supporting material. The comparison and non-branded guide above have different jobs; repeating the same Background and direction would blur them.
Only share a Background when it genuinely fits every placement using it. An Editorial story, an Informational feature and a Competitive Profile can need different kinds of material, so use separate Backgrounds when their needs differ.
Pools are useful when you have several reusable items and any of them could work for the placements in the pool. If a particular article must use a particular item, assign it to that placement instead. Every item in a pool should make sense wherever it may be used.
Give each field a clear job
Keep facts about the subject in the Background. Use an Article Topic or Article Brief only when a placement needs its own direction.
For the comparison placement, the Background might explain product capabilities. If you want to direct the comparison, the Brief can identify the buyer and criteria. For the non-branded guide, a short description of the linked resource may be enough to support natural link context.
You can leave Topic and Brief blank. Rank Engine can research the subject and market, then develop the angle and working brief from the complete order context. You do not need to fill every optional control. The topic and brief guide has worked examples.
Review the complete order before checkout
At checkout, read each placement as its own article. Can you tell what job it does, which page it supports and whether its Background and direction fit that purpose?
Rank Engine manages research, writing, editorial review, outreach and reporting across the order. A clear placement plan gives each article a purpose within the campaign.
Open Order Setup and choose the goal for each placement. Share settings where they fit, and tailor them where an article needs its own direction.
