Incident postmortem for Marketing & Advertising

Your prompt is ready 1 bracket to fill

You are an expert in this kind of work, and you know the Marketing & Advertising sector from the inside.

## Your task
Write a blameless postmortem for this incident at a marketing agency running campaigns for several clients: [TIMELINE AND FACTS]. Sections: summary, impact, timeline, root cause, what went well, what went wrong, action items with owners and due dates.

## About my situation
- Who this is for: brand managers and marketing directors
- What we must respect: client brand guidelines and advertising regulations
- How we measure success: cost per acquisition and return on ad spend

## What matters in Marketing & Advertising
- Numbers that matter: cost per acquisition; return on ad spend; click-through rate; CPM; cost per lead; conversion rate; client retention; margin per account.
- Common risks to plan for: scope creep and missed deadlines; client churn; ad account suspensions; claims that cannot be proved; overspending a budget.
- Documents people already work with: creative briefs; media plans; campaign reports; statements of work; brand guidelines; case studies.
- Tools commonly used: Google Ads; Meta Ads Manager; GA4; HubSpot; Canva or Figma; Semrush.

## How to work through it
1. Write the summary and impact.
2. Build the timeline.
3. Find the root cause.
4. List what went well and wrong.
5. Write action items.

## What to deliver
- Blameless postmortem

## Rules
- Make every point specific to my situation and my industry; replace generic advice with detail that fits.
- Use plain language, short sentences, and tables where they make the answer easier to scan.
- Use only the facts I give you. Do not invent figures, laws, sources or quotes. Mark anything you had to assume with "Assumption:".
- If something important is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions before you start.

## Before you answer
Check your draft against this list and fix anything that fails:
- Each step can be followed by the person doing the work without having to ask anyone.
- It is written for a marketing agency running campaigns for several clients; nothing in it would read the same for any other business.
- Nothing in it breaks client brand guidelines and advertising regulations.
- Every item under "What to deliver" is included.

Open in ChatGPT Claude Perplexity

How to use this prompt

Copy the prompt. Press Copy prompt and the full text goes to your clipboard.
Fill the brackets. Use the form above, or replace [TIMELINE AND FACTS] with your own details.
Paste and send. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and send. Ask follow-up questions to refine the answer.

Why this prompt works

The “Incident postmortem” prompt tells the assistant exactly what to hand back: blameless postmortem. It makes the assistant work through 5 steps in order, starting with "write the summary and impact", instead of jumping straight to an answer. Before replying, the assistant checks its draft against 4 tests and fixes anything that fails.

This version is written for a marketing agency running campaigns for several clients, so the assistant keeps client brand guidelines and advertising regulations in mind and judges the result by cost per acquisition and return on ad spend. If an important detail is missing, it asks you up to 3 short questions before it starts.

How to get the best answer

Fill every bracket with real detail: [TIMELINE AND FACTS] should hold real names, numbers and dates, not placeholders.
Paste real material: where the prompt asks for notes, data or text, paste the actual content rather than a summary.
Refine in the same chat: ask "make it shorter", "turn it into a table" or "add more detail on step 2".
Check the result: review it against what you know about cost per acquisition and return on ad spend before you share it.

Other industries

Same prompt for other industries

The same incident postmortem prompt, rewritten for each industry.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which AI assistant works best with the “Incident postmortem” prompt?

The “Incident postmortem” prompt works in any chat assistant and suits ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini best. Paste it in, send it, and ask follow-up questions in the same chat to refine the answer.

What do I fill in before sending the “Incident postmortem” prompt?

Replace the highlighted bracket – [TIMELINE AND FACTS] – with your own details. The more specific you are, the better the answer.

Is the “Incident postmortem” prompt only for Marketing & Advertising?

No. This version is written for a marketing agency running campaigns for several clients, and the same prompt is also written for 15 other industries, listed on this page.

Is the “Incident postmortem” prompt free to use?

Yes. First AI Prompt prompts are free to copy and use in personal and business work, with no sign-up, no account and no daily limit.

Can I trust the answer the “Incident postmortem” prompt gives?

Treat it as a strong first draft: the prompt tells the assistant not to invent facts and to mark its assumptions, but check figures yourself, especially anything with legal, financial or safety consequences.

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