Building an effective creative approval workflow is where true agency momentum lives. The more complex your campaigns get—with multiple ad sizes, platforms, stakeholders, and timelines—the more you realize that creativity isn’t enough. You need a workflow that can flex with your volume, keep everyone aligned, and safeguard both speed and brand quality. At SizeIM, we’ve worked closely with agencies of all sizes who want to maximize output without introducing bottlenecks, errors, or endless revision loops.
Why Agencies Need a Real Creative Approval Workflow
Without structure, feedback and approvals can easily become an agency’s biggest source of stress. You hit roadblocks when information gets lost in email threads, feedback is unclear, or multiple versions are floating around. We’ve seen how these issues can snowball—missing a launch or breaking brand guidelines because someone didn’t have access to the final asset or misunderstood a comment.
- Centralization: Approvals tracked in one system mean fewer missed steps and less confusion.
- Visibility: Stakeholders instantly see what’s awaiting their input and who needs to sign off.
- Accountability: Clear versions, timestamps, and roles prevent second-guessing and finger-pointing.
- Faster Delivery: A workflow that automates reminders and handoffs ensures projects keep moving forward.
A Step-by-Step Agency Creative Approval Workflow
Step 1: Kickoff With a Thorough Brief
We always urge teams to insist on a strong creative brief before a pixel is pushed or a headline is drafted. This lays the foundation: Project objectives, audience, deliverables, launch dates, desired ad sizes (especially with SizeIM’s multi-size output), and brand guidelines should all be included. Use a robust template—never start from scratch each time. Having this single source of truth keeps everyone aligned and reduces the number of unnecessary revision rounds later on.
- Clarify which ad formats and sizes are needed upfront. With SizeIM, you can save time by selecting all your required outputs from the start.
- Include an approval timeline.
Step 2: Assign Clear Roles and Responsibilities
Chaos often occurs when it’s not clear who is on the hook for copy, design, initial internal review, account management, or client sign-off. We recommend defining each role at the outset for every project. Typical agency roles include:
- Designers: Directly create ad assets in all sizes.
- Copywriters: Draft and refine messaging.
- Internal reviewers: Ensure work aligns with the brief and brand kit.
- Account managers: Liaise directly with the client.
- Client approvers: The final decision-makers before launch.
Specify responsibility at every step, including who will collect, deliver, and log feedback.
Step 3: Map an Approval Pathway (and Visualize It)
Our experience shows that agencies run best with a clearly visualized workflow. Use a flowchart (even a basic one) or a table mapping out who reviews what, in which order. Decide on approval triggers: Does a design need sign-off from both the account lead and creative director? Must legal review all new campaign copy? Document how a file moves from draft to final, who is responsible for passing it on, and when a project can advance to the client. This clarity prevents costly mistakes and ensures everyone knows their part in the process.
- Customize the approval path for each client or campaign. Some clients are more hands-on, while others trust the agency until the end.
Step 4: Internal Review and Rigorous Feedback Loops
Before sharing anything with a client, we find immense value in running a structured internal review. Assemble your team, check against the brief, the brand kit, and technical standards (are you delivering 15+ required ad formats by leveraging SizeIM’s instant resizing?). Use checklists to avoid missing small but mission-critical details—like logo placement consistency, CTAs, and platform color specs. Limit your review rounds: three cycles are usually plenty, and too many only create confusion.
- Use tools that allow on-image markup for direct, actionable feedback, especially when fine-tuning responsive ad sets.
Step 5: Client Review and Managed Revision Cycles
Always provide clients with guidance for reviews. Set boundaries on revision cycles (for example, two rounds over four business days) and require consolidated feedback to avoid overlapping or contradictory notes. Document everything. We have seen that when feedback is centralized in your workflow tool, nobody is left guessing about what changes are final.
- Build a transparent feedback log, capturing every comment and marked-as-complete revision. This also helps with internal knowledge transfer if team members change mid-project.
Step 6: Final Approval and Delivery
After all feedback is addressed, and the client has signed off, it’s production time. With platforms like SizeIM, agencies can instantly generate all final creative files in required resolutions (large rectangles, leaderboards, mobile, etc.), ready to deliver or schedule. Before launch, run a last QA against technical specs and branding requirements. Only distribute files after you have written sign-off documented (this protects both you and the client).
- Centralize the delivery location so team members and clients always know where to find the approved assets.
Step 7: Launch and Review Performance
Go live! After launch, do not let things end. Run a performance, process, and client satisfaction post-mortem. This is your chance to identify process improvements, bottlenecks, or redundant steps, so the workflow gets stronger with every campaign. It’s this willingness to refine that sets great agencies apart—and it’s also how automation unlocks its full ROI.
For deeper insights into campaign performance analysis, see our post on Boosting Conversion Rates with Responsive Banner Ads.
Downloadable Templates and Checklists
Templates are the silent glue behind every agile agency. Rather than rewrite your creative brief for every project, or try to recall legal review steps from memory, use ready-to-duplicate templates:
- Creative Brief Template: Captures objectives, assets, channels, and deadlines.
- Approval Pathway Template: Charts the step-by-step sequence, including all stakeholder roles.
- Internal Review Checklist: Covers branding, technical specs, copy accuracy, and platform requirements.
- Revision Log Template: Tracks cycles, feedback, completion status, and client sign-off.
- Final Approval Form: Documents project completion and closes the feedback loop.
Consider storing templates in your agency knowledge base, integrated with your workflow. This speeds up onboarding for new hires and supports consistency with every project.
A Creative Approval Checklist for Every Launch
- Brief completed and shared with stakeholders
- Roles and responsibilities assigned and communicated
- Approval workflow mapped and visualized
- Internal review checklist completed and feedback logged
- Team feedback incorporated in working drafts
- Client prepared with review guidance and feedback templates
- Revision cycle deadlines and limits clearly stated
- Final assets created in all required ad sizes using automated design tools for consistency
- Final approval (written or digital) documented and stored securely
- Post-launch review scheduled, with any lessons logged for continuous process improvement
Empowering Workflow With Automation—SizeIM in Practice
One challenge agencies often mention is the repetitive grunt work of creating 10, 15, or 20+ ad sizes by hand. This is where automation shines. With SizeIM, we help agencies produce as many ad variants as needed instantly from a single master design, eliminating manual resizing work and ensuring every brand guideline is adhered to every time. That means internal reviews can focus on creative quality, instead of checking if the logo fell off the leaderboard or the copy was truncated on mobile.
- Produce all your formats from one source, making rapid review and mass client delivery feasible with zero trade-offs in consistency.
- Anchor brand kits, templates, feedback, and approval histories together, so everyone works off the latest assets and information.
- Pair with your agency workflow for even greater productivity and transparency.
Explore more about accelerating your ad production with automation in our article on how agencies can accelerate holiday campaigns with AI automation.
Final Thoughts
The most successful agencies aren’t just creative—they’re systematic. By developing a documented, template-driven creative approval workflow and supercharging it with automation, you’ll keep projects on track, clients delighted, and your team focused on delivering their very best work, campaign after campaign.
If you’re ready to see how much time and clarity you can win back for your agency, try SizeIM for free or book a workflow demo to watch the process in action. Smart process and automation together are the new agency advantage.
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