The very basic question comes to my mind is that what is a Campaign? Here is a very good blog post regarding how you want to define Campaign. Here – What is a Salesforce.com Campaign?

Who can access Campaigns?
Let’s understand this with the below use case
Use Case: Let’s say we have a custom profile named “Sales User” with below permissions on Campaign object –

Now I have two users with this profile –
User 1 – Kevin Bailey with Marketing User checkbox checked and
User 2 – Karen Adams with Marketing User checkbox unchecked.
So what will happen here is that both Kevin and Karen can view campaigns, run campaign reports, but only Kevin can create new campaigns or edit existing campaigns.
Note: So in order to create / edit Campaigns, Marketing User checkbox should be checked and Create/Edit permission should be there on the Campaign object.

Let’s summarise the permission information as –

  • To view Campaign – “Read” on Campaign.
  • To create Campaign – “Create” on Campaign + “Marketing User” checkbox checked.
  • To change Campaign – “Edit” on Campaign + “Marketing User” checkbox checked.
  • To use Import Lead wizard – “Edit” on Campaign + “Marketing User” checkbox checked + “Import Lead” checkbox checked on user details page.
  • To use Campaign Update wizard – “Edit” on Campaign + “Marketing User” checkbox checked + “Import Lead” checkbox checked on user details page + “Read” on Contacts.