Business Campaigns

Create campaign alerts to promote your business and reach more local customers on Loclie.

Time to complete: 10 minutes

What Are Campaign Alerts?

Campaign Alerts are real-time promotional messages that appear in Loclie users' alert feeds. They help you share specials, promotions, events, and announcements with people browsing your town on Loclie.

Benefits:

• Increased visibility - Reach more local customers
• Prominent placement - Appear in users' alert feeds
• Local targeting - Reach people in your town or across your entire Local Government Area
• Completely free - No cost to create campaigns

Campaign Types

When creating a campaign, you choose a campaign type that determines how it appears to users and how it surfaces in search results:

The campaign type helps Loclie show the right content when people search. For example, "What's on this weekend?" will prioritise event-type campaigns, while "any deals in town?" will surface promotions and offers.

Campaign Metadata

Campaigns also support optional metadata fields that help users find the right content:

• Kid Friendly - Suitable for families with children
• Has Food - Food is available or included
• Live Entertainment - Features live music or performance
• Outdoor - Takes place outdoors
• Free - No cost to attend or participate
• Age Group - Target age group (e.g., all ages, adults, seniors)

These metadata fields appear as filters and are used by the Ask Bar to match search queries more accurately.

Who Can Create Campaigns

Campaigns support polymorphic ownership -- both businesses and clubs can own campaigns.

• Business owners create campaigns from the Business Dashboard
• Club owners can also create campaigns for their club (see Club Promotions)

Requirements

To create campaign alerts:

• You must have a claimed or created business (or club) linked to your account
• Your business must have a town assigned (either a fixed location or operating towns for mobile businesses)

Accessing Campaigns

From Business Dashboard

1. Go to your Business Dashboard on the Manage portal
2. Click "Campaigns" in the Quick Actions
3. View existing campaigns or click "Create Campaign" to start a new one

Prefill From a Public Link

Before filling in the form by hand, you can paste a URL from an existing post (Eventbrite, Facebook, Instagram, or most websites) and let Loclie extract the title, description, image, event date, and venue automatically.

Where to Find It

The campaign creation page at manage.loclie.com.au/business-dashboard/campaigns/new shows an "Import from link" card at the very top, above the manual form.

What's Supported

How to Use It

1. Find your event or promotion on Eventbrite, Facebook, Instagram, or your own website
2. Copy the public URL from the address bar
3. Paste it into the "Import from link" card on the campaign creation page
4. Click Import
5. Review the prefilled fields below — title, description, image, and (for events) the date and venue
6. Adjust anything that needs polish, then submit the campaign as normal

Privacy and Limits

• All link fetches happen server-side — your IP is not exposed to the target site
• 30 imports per hour per user (this is plenty for normal use; rate-limited to deter abuse)
• Imports time out after a few seconds — extremely large or slow pages will fail with a "try a different link" error
• Private Eventbrite events (requiring login) aren't supported — only public event pages
• The import is a prefill, not a publish — you still review and submit the campaign yourself

Creating a Campaign Alert From Scratch

Step 1: Start New Campaign

1. From the Campaigns page, click the "Create Campaign" button
2. The campaign creation form opens, showing your business name and primary town
3. To prefill from a public link instead, see Prefill From a Public Link above

Step 2: Campaign Details

Title (required)

• Short, attention-grabbing headline (max 100 characters)
• Example: "Happy Hour Tonight!"

Description (required)

• More details about your promotion
• What customers need to know
• Call to action

Category (optional)

• Select a category from the available campaign categories
• Helps users find relevant campaigns

Campaign Image (optional)

• Upload an image for your campaign
• Supports image cropping and positioning
• JPG or PNG format

Step 3: Display Window (required)

The display window controls when your campaign appears in users' alert feeds.

Start Date and Time (required)

• When the campaign begins appearing

End Date and Time (required)

• When the campaign stops appearing
• End time must be after start time

Step 4: Event Time (optional)

If your promotion runs at a different time than the display window, you can set a specific event time. This is useful when you want to advertise in advance -- for example, advertising all day for an evening event.

Check "Set Specific Event Time" to enable, then set:

Event Start Date and Time

• When the actual promotion or event begins

Event End Date and Time

• When the actual promotion or event ends

Step 5: Area-Wide Reach (optional)

If your business is in a Local Government Area with multiple towns, you can expand your campaign's reach:

• Check "Expand reach to entire [LGA Name]" to show your campaign across all towns in your Local Government Area
• You can preview the full list of towns that will see your campaign
• Without this option, your campaign only appears in your primary town

Step 6: Submit

1. Review your campaign content
2. Click "Create Campaign"
3. Your campaign is submitted for admin approval

Important: All campaigns require admin approval before they go live. You will receive a notification once your campaign has been reviewed.

Campaign Moderation

All campaigns are reviewed by the Loclie team before they appear to users.

Moderation Statuses

If your campaign is rejected, you will see the specific reason on the campaign detail page.

Campaign Statuses

Campaigns have the following statuses:

Managing Campaigns

Viewing Your Campaigns

1. Go to Business Dashboard on the Manage portal
2. Click "Campaigns"
3. See all your campaigns with their status, moderation status, display times, event times, towns, and categories

Campaign Detail Page

Click on any campaign to view its full details:

• Title and description
• Moderation status and campaign status
• Display window (start and end times)
• Event period (if set)
• Category
• Towns where the campaign appears
• Rejection reason (if rejected)

Editing Campaigns

For approved campaigns that have not yet finished:

• Click the "Edit" button on the campaign detail page to make changes

Re-approval behaviour: When editing an approved campaign, changing the title or dates will reset the moderation status to pending and trigger re-approval by the Loclie team. Editing the description or image does not trigger re-approval.

Note about edit page image: The campaign creation form includes full image upload with cropping, but the edit form only provides a raw URL input field for the campaign image.

Deleting a Campaign

You can permanently delete a campaign from its detail page:

1. Go to Business Dashboard → Campaigns → click the campaign you want to delete
2. Click the "Delete" button
3. Confirm the deletion when prompted

Important: Deleting a campaign is permanent and irreversible. The campaign and all associated data (views, clicks, town targeting) will be removed. If you just want to stop a campaign from showing, consider changing its status instead.

Campaign Visibility

Where Campaigns Appear

• Campaigns appear in the alert feeds for users browsing the targeted town(s)
• If area-wide reach is enabled, the campaign appears across all towns in the Local Government Area
• Campaigns only display during their set display window

Best Practices

DO:

• Be clear and concise - State the offer clearly, include important details
• Create urgency - Limited time offers, clear end dates
• Include a call to action - Visit us today, call to book, come see us
• Keep it relevant - Current promotions, timely offers, seasonal content
• Add an image - Campaigns with images are more eye-catching

DON'T:

• Be misleading - Honest offers only, clear terms
• Over-campaign - Quality over quantity, keep campaigns fresh
• Forget timing - Set accurate display and event windows
• Ignore rejections - Read rejection reasons and adjust your campaign accordingly

Campaign Examples

Sale/Discount

20% Off All Items This Weekend!

Visit us Saturday and Sunday for 20% off everything in store. Perfect time to treat yourself or find a gift!

Event Announcement

Live Music Friday Night

Join us this Friday from 7pm for live acoustic music, great food, and drinks. No cover charge!

New Product

New Summer Menu Now Available

We have refreshed our menu with fresh, seasonal dishes. Come in and try our new favourites!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is creating campaigns free?

Yes! Campaign alerts are completely free for business owners.

How long can campaigns run?

You set the duration via the display window. Campaigns can run for a day, week, month, or longer.

Who sees my campaigns?

Users browsing Loclie in your town will see your campaigns. If you enable area-wide reach, users across all towns in your Local Government Area will see them.

Do campaigns need approval?

Yes. All campaigns are reviewed by the Loclie team before they go live. You will be notified once your campaign is approved or if changes are needed.

Can I have multiple active campaigns?

Yes, you can run multiple campaigns simultaneously.

What happens if my campaign is rejected?

You will see the rejection reason on the campaign detail page. You can create a new campaign addressing the feedback.

Next Steps

Promote your business:

• Business Dashboard - Full dashboard guide
• Business Analytics - Track performance
• Editing Business Info - Update your listing

Need help?

• Troubleshooting
• FAQ
• Contact Support