Windows, Weeks & Cadence

One to four weeks, an end date you cannot type, and a content mix that means per week — the three facts that decide how much content a campaign actually produces.

Jump to module

Lesson 1: The Window Is Finite by Construction

A campaign says two things about time: when it starts and how many weeks it runs. The end date is derived from that pair — start date, plus weeks, minus a day — and it is kept in sync automatically.

You cannot type the end date. Writing to it is a no-op; the next save recalculates it from the two fields that actually state the window. To change when a campaign ends, change its duration.

A campaign with no start date is still legal. A campaign may be named before it is dated, and a dateless draft sits quietly until you give it a start. But a campaign that has a start date no longer has an open end, and that is what makes "runs for three weeks" a claim the system can keep. An open-ended campaign has no next week to generate and no date to promise one on, so the cadence could only ever have lied about it.

Two consequences you will meet:

  • A campaign with no start date owes no generation. It is not broken; it has nothing to count weeks from.
  • When the window closes, nothing new attaches. The campaign moves to a finished state, reporting still reads it, and no further content is generated under it.

Lesson 2: The Mix Is a Weekly Rate

This is the fact worth reading twice.

A content mix of "3 image posts, 1 carousel" means three images and one carousel every week the campaign runs. The campaign total is that rate multiplied by its length.

So:

MixDurationTotal pieces
3 images, 1 carousel1 week4
3 images, 1 carousel2 weeks8
3 images, 1 carousel4 weeks16
5 images, 2 carousels4 weeks28

Every one of those pieces is a draft somebody has to review. A four-week campaign with a busy mix is a commitment to reading twenty-eight drafts, and that review load is the most common reason campaigns quietly stop delivering — not generation, not publishing.

The two fields answer different questions, and it is worth keeping them separate in your head. Length is a decision you make about your calendar; density is what a content plan expresses. If you want more content, make the mix busier — not the campaign longer.

Lesson 3: Why Four Weeks Is the Ceiling

The duration is bounded at one to four weeks, both in the interface and in the database. There is no legal zero and no legal five.

Two reasons, and both are about honesty rather than capacity:

  1. A campaign is a themed push, not a standing schedule. A standing schedule already exists — it is a Routine, and it already has a cadence. Anything you want to run indefinitely should be a Routine.
  2. Every week costs a generation somebody has to review. An unbounded duration would promise review work you never asked for. Four weeks of a moderate mix is already a real amount of reading.

If you want a twelve-week arc, that is three or four sequential campaigns — which is better anyway, because each one gives you a readable result before you commit to the next. A twelve-week campaign gives you one verdict at the end, too late to change anything.

Lesson 4: Doing the Arithmetic Before You Commit

A short sequence that avoids the two failure modes (too much to review, or too little to matter):

1. Start from review capacity, not ambition. Decide how many drafts you will genuinely read per week. For most single operators that is between three and six. That number is your weekly mix size.

2. Pick the duration from the subject, not the mix. A one-week promotion is one week. A product launch that needs to build is three or four. The subject decides the length; the mix decides the density.

3. Multiply, then look at the number. Weekly mix × weeks = total drafts. If the total makes you wince, cut the mix, not the weeks — a shorter campaign with the same density tells you less about whether the angle worked.

4. Check the days. Plan rows can name specific days. A row with no days is spread across weekdays only — Monday to Friday — because "any day" quietly putting half your content on Sunday would be a decision nobody made.

5. Remember the first week may already be written. Changing the plan changes the weeks that have not been laid out yet. Week one, if it has already been expanded into post prompts, stays as it is. This is covered in Module 9, and it is the second most common surprise after the weekly-rate one.

Lesson 5: Sizing, in a Table

Pick your row and start there. Adjust after one campaign, not before.

Your situationWeeksWeekly mixTotal drafts
First campaign ever23 image posts6
Single operator, steady33 images, 1 carousel12
Promotion with a deadline1–23 images, 1 text4–8
Product launch33 images, 1 carousel12
Thought leadership push42 images, 1 carousel12
Small team with a reviewer44 images, 1 carousel, 1 blog24

Notice that most rows land between six and twelve. That is not a coincidence — it is roughly what one person can review properly alongside a job. The twenty-four-draft row assumes somebody whose actual role is reviewing content.

If you are already over-committed

Cut the mix, not the weeks. A three-week campaign with three pieces a week still tells you whether the angle worked. A one-week campaign with nine pieces tells you almost nothing, and buries you.

What to take away

  • Start date plus duration; the end date is derived and cannot be typed.
  • The mix is per week. Multiply before you commit.
  • One to four weeks, because a campaign is a push and every week is review work.
  • Size the mix from how many drafts you will actually read, and let the subject decide the length.