Table of contents
The Media Planning Tool
The Media Planning Tool is designed to help you assess the impact of Onsite Display campaigns by providing an estimate of the available inventory on a retailer’s site during a selected timeframe (up to 120 days ahead). The tool uses booked inventory and seasonal data to generate an estimated budget, impression volume, and average CPM for the selected inventory allowing you to plan upcoming Onsite Display campaigns more accurately.
Forecasts are generated based on the current available inventory and are subject to change, as an advertiser may book a campaign on that page. We advise you to ensure that the inventory is still available prior to submitting your campaign proposal to the retailer.
The following parameters are considered by the Media Planning Tool when generating a forecast:
Budget
Duration
Pace (standard or accelerated)
Retailer CPMs (more than one may exist for the selected categories)
Historical impression data (how much traffic has historically occurred during the selected timeframe)
The following settings are not considered by the Media Planning Tool:
Frequency capping
Advanced targeting:
Store ID
Add to Cart
Custom Audiences
Creating a Forecast
To begin a forecast, select Plan from the dropdown under the Campaigns tab at the top of the dashboard.
Click on the Create Plan button to launch a pane on the right side of the dashboard where you’ll input the parameters for your forecast.
Select the retailer you’d like to create a forecast for. Forecasts are retailer-specific, just like Line Items, so you can only choose one retailer at a time. You’ll be able to choose from all the retailers we are able to generate a forecast for in your geographic area who have Onsite Display capabilities.
Select the Start and End dates for the period you’d like to forecast for. Remember, you can generate forecasts up to 120 days ahead.
Page Types
Select a Page Type. You can only forecast one page type at a time – if you’re planning a campaign that spans multiple page types, you’ll need to generate multiple forecasts. Available Page Types differ by retailer, so you can only forecast page types that are available on the retailer you’ve selected.
Some page types require additional details:
On Search pages, you’ll need to enter the search terms you’d like to generate a forecast for. The tool will display pages for stemmed versions of the terms you input, so it will include plurals.
On Category and Product Detail pages (where available), select pages from the retailer’s site. Remember that selecting a Category includes all the child categories it contains, so ensure you’re choosing the most granular level that applies.
Forecast Page
Once you’ve input your desired parameters, Click Create Forecast to generate your forecast.
You’ll be redirected to the Forecast page. Find the Estimated Total Budget, Estimated Average CPM, and Estimated Total Available Impressions along with a day-over-day visualization of available impressions broken out by the pages included in your forecast. Any fees appended to the account will be applied to Estimated Budget and Estimated Average CPM.
Navigating the Forecast Page
Once you’ve generated your forecast, there are several ways to adjust your view for additional details:
Use the Edit Plan button in the top right of the page to adjust the retailer, start and end dates, and inventory you’d like to generate a forecast for.
The dropdown in the Pages over Time graph allows you to toggle between Estimated Impressions and Estimated Budget
The data table below the graph displays a more granular view, breaking out the available inventory by page, placement, date, and available formats. You can click the name of the Page to show available formats for that page and click the name of each format to display data by day.
Use the dropdown above the data table to filter the information by a specific format
Download in excel or CSV the report using the icon in the top right corner of the dashboard.