You've evaluated your ALG readiness, mapped your completion moments, and designed your value exchange.
Now: plan the campaign that proves the loop works.
This tool walks you through the seven decisions every first ALG campaign needs - from choosing your
completion momentCompletion MomentThe point where a participant finishes something real - a certification earned, an event attended, a challenge completed. This is where the Belief Window opens and advocacy becomes natural.e.g., A developer passes your platform certification. That moment - not a random Tuesday - is when they want to share.
to projecting your first
AQLsAdvocacy Qualified Lead (AQL)A person whose voluntary advocacy generates measurable downstream activity. Three tiers: AQL-1 (share + click), AQL-2 (share + new participant), AQL-3 (share + pipeline entry).e.g., A certified partner posts their badge. Three connections click through. One books a demo. That's an AQL-3..
It also shows you the five mistakes that kill first campaigns before they start.
Your first ALG campaign should anchor to a single, high-intensity
completion momentWhy just one?First campaigns need a clear signal. If you activate across multiple moments simultaneously, you won't know what's working. Start with one, measure it, then expand.Most successful first campaigns pick their highest-energy event or their most established certification program..
Pick the one where participants are most likely to share without being asked.
Real pattern
MongoDB's first ALG activation anchored to certification completion. Not all their events. Not product onboarding.
One moment, one cohort, one value exchange. Activation rate: 23%. They expanded to events only after proving the loop.
What type of moment will you activate?
Event Completion
Conference, summit, workshop, or meetup that participants just attended
Window: 2-6 hrs | Typical activation: 12-18%
Certification Earned
Professional credential, course completion, or skill verification
Window: 12-48 hrs | Typical activation: 20-30%
Product Milestone
Go-live, successful deployment, key feature adoption, or usage threshold
Window: 24-72 hrs | Typical activation: 8-15%
Community Achievement
Challenge completed, contribution milestone, or recognition earned in community
Window: 4-24 hrs | Typical activation: 15-22%
Onboarding Complete
New user finishes setup, first project, or initial success milestone
Window: 2-12 hrs | Typical activation: 5-10%
Partner Milestone
Partner tier achieved, co-selling win, or ecosystem recognition
Window: 24-72 hrs | Typical activation: 18-28%
The moment type determines your entire campaign structure - activation timing, content format, recommended targets, and which team owns it. All downstream screens adapt to your choice here.
Campaign details
Name this campaign
Internal name - helps you track this campaign against future ones
Expected cohort size
How many people will hit this completion moment?
Campaign date
When does the completion moment happen?
Step 2 of 7
Design the Value Exchange
The
diagnostic questionThe ALG Diagnostic"If we removed our name from the share, would the participant still want to post it?" If yes - the value exchange works. If no - you're running employee advocacy, not ALG.:
"If we removed our name from the share, would the participant still want to post it?"
What will the participant receive at the completion moment?
Select all artifacts you'll create. Hover the good/bad examples to see what works vs. what gets ignored.
Share-ready credential badge or certificate
Personalized image with participant's name, achievement, and date. Sized for LinkedIn (1200x627).
Works
"Jane Chen - Certified Cloud Architect" with score, date, and skill breakdown. Her name is the headline. She shares because it's her credential.
Doesn't work
"Thanks for attending Acme Conference!" with company logo as the dominant element. Her name in 8pt at the bottom. Nobody shares a thank-you card.
Personal stats or achievement summary
Dashboard with their specific results - score, ranking, session count, contribution metrics.
Works
"Your event in numbers" - 14 sessions, 23 connections, top 8% engagement. Feels like a year-in-review from Spotify. Personal, data-driven, shareable as self-expression.
Doesn't work
"Event Highlights" - generic stats about total attendees, keynote views, and sponsor logos. It's the company's stats, not theirs. No motive to share.
Pre-drafted share text (editable, not locked)
2-3 post variants written in first person. They edit and own it. Never corporate voice.
Works
"Just earned my [credential]. Three takeaways from the process..." - first person, editable, positioned as their reflection. Sounds like something they would actually write.
Doesn't work
"Excited to share that @AcmeCorp is leading the future of cloud!" - third person, locked text, corporate slogans. Reads like a press release wearing a human mask.
Highlight reel or moment recap
Video clip, photo gallery, or visual summary of their specific experience. Not a generic event recap.
Profile or portfolio addition
LinkedIn-compatible credential, Credly/Accredible badge, or portfolio piece they can add permanently.
Leaderboard or peer comparison
Where they rank relative to their cohort. Competitive framing drives sharing in achievement-oriented populations.
The number and quality of artifacts directly affects your activation rate. One generic social tile: expect 5-8%. A personalized badge + stats + editable text: expect 18-25%. The good/bad examples above are the difference.
Primary motive
Which motive drives this population to share? This shapes which artifacts matter most.
Career Signaling
They share to show professional growth, new skills, or career progression
Professional Credibility
They share to establish or reinforce domain expertise
Peer Recognition
They share because being recognized by peers validates their contributions
Economic Access
Visibility drives their business - partners, consultants, agencies
Identity and Belonging
Being part of this community is part of their professional identity
Step 3 of 7
Map Your Activation Surfaces
Where will participants share? For your first campaign, focus on 1-2
signal surfacesSignal SurfacesNetwork signals (LinkedIn, X) give immediate reach but decay in days. Authority signals (G2, reviews) give persistent discoverability. Your first campaign should prioritize immediate reach - you need proof the loop works, not a long-term signal strategy.Developers share on Twitter and Reddit. Executives share on LinkedIn. Partners share wherever their clients are..
Don't spread thin.
First campaign pattern
Start where your participants already post. If your cohort is enterprise professionals, that's LinkedIn.
If developers, that's Twitter and Reddit. If partners, that's LinkedIn plus their own client-facing channels.
Adding review sites (G2, TrustRadius) as a secondary surface creates persistent authority signals - but don't make it the primary ask for a first campaign. Prove activation first.
Primary surface
LinkedIn
Highest B2B density. Professional identity signals. Strong cascade potential in industry clusters.
X / Twitter
Fast spread in tech and developer communities. Lower conversion but broader discovery.
Community Platform
Your own Slack, Discord, or forum. Highest intent, smallest reach.
Secondary surface (optional)
G2 / Review Sites
Reddit / Forums
Personal Blogs
Internal (Slack / Teams)
None - single surface
Every additional surface doubles your content production effort. For your first campaign, one primary + one secondary is the sweet spot.
Step 4 of 7
Plan the Activation Sequence
Your activation sequence starts inside the
Belief WindowBelief WindowThe period of peak emotional investment after a completion moment. Activate inside the window, not after it closes.Ask someone to share their certification 10 minutes after they pass? 23% say yes. Ask them a week later? 3% say yes. Same person - the window closed.
and uses the
Cohort CascadeCohort CascadeWhen one person in a cohort shares, it creates social permission for others. The first shares are hardest. Design your sequence to make early shares visible.At a 200-person event, 8 share in the first hour. 34 more over the next 4 hours - most saw a colleague's post and followed.
to multiply after the first shares.
Recommended sequence
Loading...
Check each step you can execute on launch day.
Every unchecked step is a gap. You don't need all five - but the first two (immediate delivery + cascade trigger) are non-negotiable.
Cascade amplifier
How will you make early shares visible to the rest of the cohort?
Live feed or wall
Show incoming shares on a screen, dashboard, or event page in real time
Peer notification
Email or in-app: "12 of your cohort already shared their experience"
Highlight + amplify
Feature early shares from your company account. Others see it and want the same visibility.
No cascade mechanism yet
Organic cascade only. Lower activation rate but simpler to execute.
Step 5 of 7
Avoid the Five Campaign Killers
These are the patterns that kill first ALG campaigns. Each one is common, predictable, and avoidable.
Review them now so you don't learn them the expensive way.
1. The Obligation Ask
Framing the share as a favor to the company: "Help us spread the word!" or "Share this to support the brand."
This turns advocacy into obligation. The participant feels used, not valued. Even people who would have
shared voluntarily now feel the ask is transactional.
Impact: Activation rate drops 60-70%. Repeat advocacy drops to near zero. You've trained people that sharing = doing your marketing team's job for free.
2. The Closed Window
Activating after the Belief Window closes. Sending the "share your experience" email a week after the event.
By then, the experience has normalized into a memory. The emotional peak that makes sharing feel natural is gone.
You're asking someone to revisit an emotion they've already moved past.
Impact: Every 24 hours of delay costs roughly 40-60% of potential activation. A campaign triggered at T+7 days gets 3-5% activation vs. 15-25% at T+0.
3. The Generic Tile
Creating one branded social tile for everyone: "I attended Acme Summit 2026!" with the company logo dominant
and the participant's name nowhere in sight. There is no personal stake in sharing a company ad.
It's the digital equivalent of a branded tote bag - they'll take it but never display it.
Impact: Generic tiles get 5-8% activation vs. 18-25% for personalized artifacts. The people who do share feel like billboards, not advocates. They won't share again.
4. The Locked Message
Pre-written share text that can't be edited, or worse, that reads like corporate communications.
"We're thrilled to announce..." in a participant's voice sounds like a hostage video.
People need to make the message their own, or it violates their personal brand.
Impact: Locked messages feel inauthentic. LinkedIn's algorithm deprioritizes copy-paste content. Peers in the advocate's network can tell it's not their voice - trust transfer fails.
5. The Measurement Afterthought
Launching the campaign and then scrambling to figure out how to measure it. No UTM parameters on links.
No tracking on share buttons. No landing page for downstream traffic. You end up with anecdotes
("I think people shared a lot!") instead of data ("47 shares generated 892 clicks and 3 demo requests").
Impact: Without data, you can't prove ROI. Without ROI, there's no budget for campaign two. The campaign might succeed but you'll never know - or be able to replicate it.
These five patterns account for 80% of first-campaign failures. If you can avoid all five, your campaign is already in the top quartile.
Step 6 of 7
Ownership, Approvals, and Production
ALG campaigns cross team boundaries. Unclear ownership is the number one reason first campaigns stall.
Three roles must be named. Approvals must be mapped. And everything must be ready before the completion moment fires.
Ownership pattern
Who owns the moment controls when the participant receives their artifact - they're the trigger.
Who owns content produces the artifacts (badges, stats, copy).
Who owns measurement sets up tracking before launch.
The common mistake: marketing assumes events will handle it. Events assumes marketing will handle it. Nobody handles it.
Who owns the completion moment?
The person or team who controls when this moment happens and has access to participants
Who produces the share-ready artifacts?
These must be ready BEFORE the completion moment - not scrambled together the morning of
Who owns measurement and tracking?
UTM parameters, share tracking, AQL attribution - this needs to be wired before launch
Approval chain
ALG campaigns use participant content and personal data. Check who needs to sign off.
Legal review
Participant data usage, photo/likeness rights, user-generated content terms
Privacy / Compliance
GDPR consent for personalization, data retention for tracking, opt-out mechanisms
Executive sponsor sign-off
VP/Director who can defend the budget and approach if questions arise
Not applicable - we have autonomy to launch
Small team or startup where approval chains don't apply
Production calendar
Working backward from your campaign date, here's when each piece needs to be ready.
If any production milestone lands in the past, you either need to move your campaign date or accept that item won't be ready. Launching without artifacts and tracking is worse than launching late.
Step 7 of 7
Set Your Targets
ALG measurement uses three variables. Based on your selected moment,
we've pre-set recommended starting targets. Adjust if you have reason to - but these are calibrated for first campaigns.
Recommended for your moment type
Select a moment type on Screen 1 to see recommendations.
Activation Rate (A)Activation RateWhat percentage of a cohort shares at the completion moment? This is the core ALG operating variable. It's equivalent to email open rates or PLG activation rates.200 people attend your event. 30 share on LinkedIn within 48 hours. Activation rate: 15%.
15%
3% (no artifacts)35% (optimized)
Average Reach per Share (R)Reach MultiplierHow many unique people does each share reach? This is your advocate's network, not your company's followers. That's the whole point of 1:1:N.A mid-career professional's LinkedIn post reaches ~1,200 unique views. A senior executive's reaches ~3,500.
1,200
200 (junior ICs)5,000 (executives)
Click-Through Rate (C)Conversion RateWhat percentage of reached people click? Trust-based distribution converts 2-3x higher than paid because the referral comes from a known contact.1,200 people see the share. 36 click (3% CTR). 4 fill a form (0.3%). That's the 1:1:N funnel.
2.5%
0.5% (cold)6% (high intent)
Your projection
Enter your cohort size on Screen 1 to see projections.
Success criteria
What makes this first campaign a success? The real win is data for campaign two.
Hit target activation rateThe core ALG metric. Did the cohort share at the rate you projected?
Generate AQL-1s (shares with downstream clicks)Proves the 1:1:N chain works - advocates' shares reach and engage new people.
Generate AQL-3s (shares that drive pipeline)Ambitious for campaign one. Track it even if numbers are small.
EMV exceeds campaign costTotal impressions x $50 CPM. Shows ALG's economic advantage vs. paid.
Identify repeat advocate candidatesThe 5-10% who shared most. These seed your cascade in campaign two.
Establish real A/R/C baselinesThe biggest win: real numbers to forecast from, not assumptions.