Get ready to create your first campaign

Before creating your first campaign, make sure you have completed Your First Campaign Checklist.

If you plan to optimize toward app installs, in-app events, or website conversions, complete the required tracking integration first. See Campaign Goal Prerequisites.

When you're ready, log in to AI DASH and click + New campaign.

① Name your campaign

Enter the name for your campaign. It will help you identify it in your reports. The name you set for this campaign will also show up in your MMP reports to help better analyse campaign performance.

Enter a descriptive name for your campaign. A clear campaign name makes it easier to identify and analyze your campaign later in AI DASH and in your attribution reports.

Note: Your AI DASH campaign name is passed to supported MMPs as follows:

AppsFlyer: AI DASH campaign = campaign
Adjust : AI DASH campaign = campaign
Singular : AI DASH campaign = pub campaign name

💡 Choose a naming convention that will remain easy to identify as you create more campaigns over time

② Select your brand

Select the Brand you want to promote.

Each campaign can be associated with one Brand only.

If your Brand contains both a website and mobile app store links, you'll need to select the target platform for your campaign. The platform you choose determines which Campaign Goals are available.

③ Choose your Campaign Goal

Select a Campaign Goal based on the business outcome you want the campaign to achieve, rather than simply the metric you want to see in reporting. Your Campaign Goal determines what AI DASH will optimize toward during delivery.

For performance Goals, you'll also enter a Target cost per result. This value guides campaign optimization, but it does not limit spend or guarantee the actual cost per result.

⚠️ Before selecting App Engagement or Website Conversions

Make sure reliable event postbacks have been established first. Complete and validate your MMP or website tracking integration before using a deep-conversion Goal. See Campaign Goal Prerequisites.

Awareness

Reach and coverage for brand-building objectives.

Optimization Focus
Optimize for impressions, expand qualified reach across the selected market and eligible media.

How the system optimizes
AI DASH allocates delivery across eligible inventory based on your market, media, budget, and campaign settings.

Best suited for
Brand awareness, product launches, retail, automotive, finance, travel, streaming content, and other campaigns where broad exposure is the primary objective.

App Installs / Website Traffic

User acquisition for app growth or qualified website traffic.

Optimization Focus
Delivery progressively shifts from broad reach toward users and inventory more likely to generate the desired first action. Enter a Target cost per result to guide optimization.

How the system optimizes
AI DASH evaluates campaign, media, inventory, and household-level signals to identify delivery opportunities more likely to generate the desired result.

Best suited for
Apps focused on user acquisition, ecommerce, travel, SaaS, education, content, campaign landing pages, and other businesses looking to drive an initial user action.

App Engagement / Website Conversions

Deep-conversion optimization using reliable event signals.

Optimization Focus
Optimize toward a specific conversion Event, such as registration, activation, add-to-cart, purchase, subscription, form submission, payment, or booking. Select the Target event and enter a Target cost per result for the Event you want AI DASH to optimize toward.

How the system optimizes
AI DASH combines the selected Event with campaign, media, inventory, and user-behavior signals to optimize delivery toward deeper conversion outcomes.

Best suited for
For mobile campaigns, app Events must be returned through a supported MMP.
For website campaigns, website Events must be properly configured and validated before they can be used for optimization.

See Campaign Goal Prerequisites for setup requirements.

Note: The Target cost per result you set is an optimization target, not a guaranteed outcome. Your actual cost per result may fluctuate based on campaign performance, traffic conditions, and bidding dynamics.

④ Set your Strategy & Creative

Once your Campaign Goal is confirmed, configure the delivery strategy and creatives for your campaign.

Budget and schedule

Daily budget

Set the Daily budget available for campaign delivery.

The minimum daily budget is $100.

Actual delivery may vary based on traffic availability, auction conditions, and campaign performance.

Bidding

AI DASH provides two bidding strategies: Automatic bidding and Maximum CPM.

Automatic bidding dynamically adjusts bids based on campaign performance and auction conditions. It is recommended for most campaigns unless you have a strict media-buying price ceiling.
Maximum CPM allows you to define the highest CPM AI DASH may bid. Setting this ceiling too low can reduce access to competitive inventory and may prevent the campaign from fully delivering its budget.

Bid strategy	System behavior	Best suited for	Consideration
Automatic bidding	Dynamically evaluates media and inventory against the Campaign Goal. Higher-value opportunities may receive higher bids.	Advertisers prioritizing scale and more target outcomes.	Actual CPM may vary as bids adjust dynamically, and optimization requires a learning period.
Maximum CPM	Optimizes toward the Campaign Goal without bidding above the CPM ceiling you set.	Advertisers with a strict media-buying price cap.	A low ceiling may restrict premium or competitive inventory, reducing scale and learning.

⚠️ The minimum daily budget is $100. We recommend starting your campaign with a budget of $500–$1,500 to support sufficient data collection and campaign optimization.

Starti TrustLayer

Enable Starti TrustLayer to automatically identify and filter suspicious traffic before bidding and exclude suspicious delivered impressions from billing.

Signals may include automated traffic, VPN or data-center traffic, unusually high repeated exposure within the same household, and low-viewability signals.

See Understand Starti TrustLayer for more information.

Start and End Dates

Set the dates during which you want the campaign to run.

For meaningful performance evaluation and sufficient optimization time, we recommend running a campaign for a minimum of 20 days.

A longer campaign duration gives AI DASH more time to collect data, learn from delivery, and make informed optimization decisions.

Region and channels

Select the Country or region, apps, and channels where you want your campaign to deliver.

Under Apps and channels, you can choose from three options:

All channels — Deliver across all eligible media apps and channels available for your campaign.
Selected channels — Deliver only on the media apps you select. Use the search box or browse the available media apps, then add the ones you want to include.
Exclude selected channels — Deliver across eligible media apps and channels except the ones you select to exclude.

Note: The available media apps may vary depending on the selected country or region and campaign settings.

For most campaigns, we recommend using All channels unless you have specific inventory requirements. This gives AI DASH access to a broader range of eligible inventory, allowing SmartReach™ and the Starti Adaptive Performance Engine to evaluate opportunities and adjust bidding based on real-time campaign performance and bidding signals.

See Understand SmartReach™ and Understand Starti Adaptive Performance Engine to learn more.

Creatives

Choose one or more video creatives from your Creative Library, or upload a new video directly during campaign setup. When uploading a new creative, enter a Creative name so it can be easily identified later in AI DASH.

Household Resonance

Enable Household Resonance to extend your CTV campaign beyond the television screen by reaching households previously exposed to your CTV ads through display placements.

When Household Resonance is enabled, you can either upload your own display creatives or let Starti AI generate them automatically.

See Understand Starti Household Resonance for details.

Once you've completed your Strategy and Creative setup, click Continue.

⚠️ Why Budget Planning Matters
A sufficient starting budget helps your campaign move through the initial learning period and gives AI DASH more opportunities to evaluate and optimize delivery.

Sufficient Data Collection: A higher starting budget helps campaigns collect enough data more quickly, supporting the initial learning period and enabling meaningful analysis and optimization.
Improved Campaign Performance: Adequate budget gives the campaign access to more delivery opportunities while optimization progresses toward your Campaign Goal.
Consistent Campaign Delivery: Meeting the recommended daily budget helps maintain stable campaign delivery throughout the learning period and reduces the risk of limited spend.

See Understanding the Campaign Learning Phase to learn what happens as your campaign begins collecting delivery data.

⑤ Review and submit

The Review page summarizes the campaign information and settings you've selected.

Before submitting your campaign for review, verify that your Brand, Campaign Goal, budget, bidding strategy, dates, region and channels, Creatives, and any optional features are configured correctly.

When everything is ready, submit your campaign.

Note: Once the campaign is submitted for review, its setup information can no longer be changed.

Check and manage your campaign

After submission, go to:

AI DASH → AD DELIVERY → Campaigns

Your newly submitted campaign will appear with an In Review status while it goes through the review process. Review usually takes around 6 hours, but no more than 24 hours. Campaign delivery will begin only after the required review is complete and according to the campaign's configured start date and status.

From the Campaigns page, you can also access available campaign management actions such as duplicating or pausing a campaign.

See Understanding Your Campaign Status for details about campaign statuses and what each one means.

Next Steps

Once your first campaign has been submitted, these articles will help you understand what happens next:

Understanding Your Campaign Status — Learn what each campaign status means and how to manage an existing campaign.
Understanding the Campaign Learning Phase — Understand what to expect while AI DASH collects data and begins optimizing your campaign.
Understanding Your Campaign Reports — Learn where to review campaign results and understand your key performance metrics once delivery begins.

Creating Your First Campaign