A client brief should let the next person understand the task without guessing what the client meant. Start with the problem, then make the decisions needed to act on it.
Below is a reusable format and a worked agency example. The example is fictional, including its figures and approvals. It demonstrates a method, not a client result.
What is a client brief used for?
A client brief gives the client and agency a shared description of the problem, the intended audience and the result being sought. Use it to discuss priorities before work starts, then as a reference when reviewing ideas. It should guide a solution without prescribing every creative decision.
For example, “make six social posts” describes an output. It does not explain which people those posts should reach, what they should understand or why they would act.
The IPA and BetterBriefs guide places strategic decisions before the brief and treats objectives, audience and budget as connected. Use that as a check: does your requested work make sense given all three?
Record the client's evidence, too. A claim such as “buyers find us expensive” needs a source, perhaps an interview note or a sales objection log. If it is only a hunch, label it as one.
What should you include in a client brief?
Include enough information to explain the business problem, define the audience, set the objective and bound the work. Add the budget, timing, available evidence and people who can make decisions. Keep supporting documents linked separately, so the brief stays readable while the team can inspect the detail.
A reusable client brief format
Use this table as a starting point, not a compulsory industry standard. Copy it into your existing document or project system and adapt the fields to the assignment.
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Context and problem | Why this work is needed now; the product or service; relevant alternatives and competitors |
| Audience and desired change | Who matters for this assignment, their situation, and what they should think or do differently |
| Objective and measurement | The intended result, measure, baseline if available, timeframe and person who will report it |
| Message and evidence | The main point to communicate, the supporting facts and where those facts can be checked |
| Scope and exclusions | Agreed outputs, formats, languages and revision allowance; work that is not included |
| Budget and resources | The available amount and what it covers; separate fees, production and media where relevant |
| Timing and dependencies | Draft, feedback and delivery dates; inputs needed first and who supplies them |
| People and acceptance | Client decision-maker, agency owner, reviewers, unresolved questions and the version being accepted |
Treat “unknown” as useful information. A blank budget field leaves the team guessing whether no budget exists or nobody has asked. “Client finance lead to confirm by Friday” names the missing decision.
Separate delivery checks from campaign results
A deliverable can meet its brief without achieving the hoped-for business result. Keep both visible.
“Three approved ad concepts supplied in the agreed formats” is a delivery check. “Twenty qualified enquiries during October” is a campaign target, not a promise that the agency will produce twenty customers.
Define “qualified” before reporting it. In a hypothetical training campaign, it might mean an enquiry from an employer considering a team booking. A form submission from a job seeker would not meet that definition.
How do you write a client brief from a conversation?
Turn the conversation into a draft by separating what the client said from what you inferred. Attach a source to each important requirement, test the objective against the available budget, and ask focused questions about gaps. Discuss the draft with the client before treating its contents as agreed instructions.
1. Keep the source beside the requirement
Start from the client's notes, existing brief or an authorised meeting record. Preserve the original wording where it affects a decision, rather than polishing away uncertainty.
Use three labels in your working notes: confirmed statement, proposed interpretation and open question. These labels describe your evidence; they do not need a new application.
Here is an original, fictional example of the mapping:
| Source note | Proposed brief entry | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| S1: “We want more team bookings for the workshop.” | Aim to generate enquiries from employers considering team bookings | How many enquiries, by when, and what counts as qualified? |
| S2: “We can spend six thousand altogether.” | Total available budget: £6,000 | Does that include agency fees, media and other costs? |
| S3: “The campaign should be ready in October.” | Campaign timing: October | Does ready mean approved, supplied or live? |
| S4: “Our founder wants to see the copy.” | Founder is a requested reviewer | Is the founder also the final decision-maker? |
Notice what the table does not do. It does not invent a launch date, allocate the budget or promote a reviewer to approver. Those decisions remain open.
2. Ask questions that change the work
Ask “what is the primary action?” before debating a headline. Ask “which audience takes priority?” before writing for everyone. Ask “what evidence supports that claim?” before including it in copy.
If an answer changes the audience, deadline or scope, update the brief itself. Leaving the answer buried in a message gives the next person two competing instructions.
For broader intake responsibilities, use the agency's client onboarding process. The brief should explain the assignment, while onboarding handles the access and setup needed to start it.
3. Keep the client's choices and your suggestions separate
An agency may propose a channel, concept or revised target. Label the proposal until the client has considered it.
If the client has fixed a channel, record the constraint and its reason. If not, describe the intended result and leave room for the agency's recommendation. A brief is not improved by adding unexplained tactical detail.
4. Brief the people, not just the document
The IPA guidance on briefing distinguishes the written brief from the conversation that helps the agency understand it.
Use that conversation to challenge assumptions and check understanding. Ask the person doing the work to describe the objective, audience and constraints back to you. Amend the document when the discussion changes a decision.
What does a complete client brief example look like?
A complete client brief connects the business problem to a defined assignment, then records the decisions needed to deliver it. The example below shows a small campaign after clarification. Its numbers, dates and decisions are illustrative; copy the structure, but replace every assumption with information agreed for your own project.
Example: a leadership-training campaign
Fictional client: a company selling practical workshops for first-time managers. It wants employer enquiries about team bookings. This is a proposed campaign brief, not evidence that any campaign ran.
| Field | Filled example after clarification |
|---|---|
| Brief identity | Team-booking campaign, version 1.0; prepared 3 September; client and agency acceptance recorded for this example |
| Business problem | The client wants more employer enquiries for its October workshops; previous enquiry quality has not been measured consistently |
| Audience | HR leads at UK employers considering training for newly promoted managers |
| Alternatives | In this example, employers may choose internal mentoring or another training provider; no comparative superiority claim is authorised |
| Desired change | Move from viewing the workshop as an individual course to considering a team booking |
| Objective | Target 20 qualified employer enquiries during October; no reliable comparable baseline is available |
| Measurement | Sales lead records enquiries and qualification reasons in the existing CRM; duplicates and job enquiries are excluded |
| Message and proof | Practical training for first-time managers; use the approved course outline and exercise descriptions to explain the offer |
| Tone and brand | Direct and encouraging; use the client's current terminology and visual guidance, with no unsupported “best” or outcome claims |
| Scope | One landing-page copy draft and three static ad concepts, with two consolidated revision rounds; English only |
| Exclusions | Website development, media buying, translation and video production; no additional formats without a separate scope discussion |
| Budget | £6,000 total: £4,000 allocated to creative work and £2,000 held for client-managed media; illustrative figures, not Krylli pricing |
| Inputs | Client supplies the course outline and current brand guidance by 8 September; sales lead confirms the enquiry definition |
| Timeline | First copy and concepts 15 September; consolidated feedback 18 September; final files 25 September; client-managed launch 1 October |
| Owners | Client marketing lead accepts the brief and final work; founder reviews copy; agency account lead collects feedback |
| Acceptance checks | Correct offer and audience, supported claims, agreed outputs supplied, current brand guidance followed and feedback resolved |
The scope specifies static concepts for this fictional assignment. That is an agreed production boundary, not a recommendation to choose advertising formats before understanding the problem.
The media allowance also stays separate from the agency's deliverables. Supplying copy and concepts is not the same task as building a landing page, buying media or owning the client's sales follow-up.
Show how the first draft changed
Suppose the first draft turned S3 into “all work delivered by 1 October”. The follow-up clarifies that 1 October is the launch date, with final files needed on 25 September. Replace the delivery date and retain the clarification beside it.
S2 also needs a correction: £6,000 is the total allowance, not the creative fee. The client confirms the illustrative £4,000/£2,000 split. Keep that answer attached to the budget row.
For S4, the client confirms that the founder reviews copy but the marketing lead makes the final decision. Name both roles. Do not leave “founder approval” in a task generated from the earlier note.
These corrections are the point of the example. A polished draft can still contain the wrong instruction. A source, a question and a recorded answer make the change inspectable.
How is a client brief different from a creative brief?
A client brief explains the business need and the boundaries of the assignment. A creative brief translates that direction into a focus for the people developing ideas. A scope document records the work being commissioned. The labels can overlap, so agree the purpose of each document rather than relying on its name.
| Document | Main question | Keep clear |
|---|---|---|
| Client brief | What problem should the agency address, for whom and within which limits? | Client context, objective, audience, evidence and constraints |
| Creative brief | What should guide the creative response? | Audience understanding, message, supporting proof and creative direction |
| Scope or statement of work | What work are we agreeing to supply? | Deliverables, responsibilities, commercial arrangements and exclusions |
These are working distinctions, not legal classifications. Do not use this guide to decide whether a particular document is contractually binding.
Asana's creative brief guide also includes scope, deadlines and deliverables. APM's scope guidance addresses the work needed to produce agreed outputs. Expect overlap; make each document's purpose explicit.
Briefing specialist Howard Ibach's client-versus-creative-brief discussion argues for clear, inspiring direction and collaboration across the two. The useful distinction is not that one document contains thought and the other contains administration.
For an agency, keep this brief within the wider agency processes that move work from intake to delivery. Avoid copying the full process manual into every assignment.
When is a client brief ready to approve?
A client brief is ready for operational acceptance when both sides understand the task, the important decisions are explicit and unresolved issues have named owners. Review the actual version that will guide production. Do not mark the brief ready while an unanswered question could materially change its scope, cost or timing.
Use a short acceptance check:
- Can the person doing the work explain the business problem and intended audience?
- Is the objective distinct from the list of deliverables?
- Can the team find the evidence behind the proposed message?
- Are scope, budget responsibilities and key dates explicit?
- Are reviewer and decision-maker roles clear?
- Are remaining questions either resolved or safely outside the work being started?
Record the accepted version and the person's decision in the system you already use. If a later message changes the assignment, revise the brief and ask the responsible person to confirm the affected decision.
If you automate brief capture, preserve these distinctions in the output: supplied facts, proposed interpretations and unanswered questions. Keep human acceptance separate from document generation. The agency workflow automation guide covers the wider capture mechanism.
If turning client conversations into usable briefs is recurring work in your agency, book a free workflow mapping call to identify the inputs, handoffs and review points to examine first.
