How do I ensure my campaign setup with an ad trafficking platform is compliant with access controls and audit requirements?

To make your campaign setup compliant with access controls and audit requirements in an ad trafficking platform, focus on who can do what, how changes are approved, and how everything is recorded.

1) Set up least-privilege access

Give each user only the permissions needed for their role.

• Admins: limited to a small group
• Traffickers / operators: can create or edit campaigns, but not manage users
• Approvers / managers: can review and approve changes
• View-only users: can inspect campaigns and reports without editing

Good controls to use:

• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Separate permissions for create / edit / approve / publish / delete
• Restrict access by client, brand, account, or campaign
• Remove access immediately when someone changes roles or leaves

2) Use approval workflows

For compliance-sensitive environments, avoid direct publishing by a single user.

• Require two-person review for campaign launches or major edits
• Define approval thresholds, e.g.:
  • budget changes
  • targeting changes
  • creative swaps
  • tracking/pixel changes
• Keep a record of who approved and when

3) Protect privileged actions

Make high-risk actions harder to perform casually.

• Require MFA for admins and approvers
• Use strong password and SSO policies
• Limit administrative access to approved devices or networks if possible
• Separate production vs. test accounts/environments

4) Maintain a complete audit trail

Your platform should log all important activity.

Track:

• user login/logout
• campaign creation, edits, publishing, pausing
• changes to budgets, targeting, creatives, tracking URLs, pixels
• permission changes
• approvals and rejections
• exports/downloads, if relevant

Each audit event should ideally include:

• who did it
• what changed
• when it happened
• before/after values
• which account/campaign was affected
• source IP or device, if available

5) Make audit logs tamper-resistant

Audit logs are only useful if they can be trusted.

• Restrict who can view or export logs
• Prevent users from editing or deleting logs
• Store logs centrally in immutable or append-only storage if possible
• Retain logs according to your policy and regulatory needs

6) Reconcile access regularly

Periodically review whether access still matches job responsibilities.

• Perform quarterly or monthly access reviews
• Remove stale accounts
• Check for orphaned users or unused admin roles
• Verify no one has excessive permissions
• Document review signoff

7) Standardize change management

Treat campaign changes like controlled changes.

• Use change tickets or requests for major updates
• Record business justification
• Link approvals to tickets
• Use versioning or change history where the platform supports it

8) Validate the platform’s native features

If the ad trafficking platform already offers compliance tools, verify they’re enabled and configured.

Look for:

• granular roles and permissions
• approval workflows
• audit logs with export capability
• SSO/MFA support
• field-level history/versioning
• account-level segregation
• API access restrictions and API audit logging

9) Document policies and train users

Technology alone isn’t enough.

• Publish access control and audit policies
• Train users on acceptable actions and escalation paths
• Define what counts as a material campaign change
• Make sure operators know how to request access or approvals

10) Test compliance

Regularly verify the setup works as intended.

• Try editing with a low-privilege account
• Confirm unauthorized actions are blocked
• Confirm audit entries are created for each important action
• Test log retention and export processes
• Run periodic internal audits

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a compliance checklist for campaign trafficking setups, or
2. a sample role-and-permission matrix you can use with your platform.