# Media plan

One row per line of spend. A line is a channel, a campaign, an objective and
an audience with a budget and a date range around it. If two of those four
change, it is two lines.

Fill this in before the accounts are touched. The plan is the thing a draft is
checked against later: a change that does not trace to a line here is a change
nobody planned.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet.
2. Write one row per line of spend. Keep the columns; add your own at the end
   rather than renaming the ones here, so two plans still compare.
3. Leave `Target` blank until you have a baseline from your own account. A
   target invented at planning time is the number everyone argues about for the
   rest of the flight.
4. Sum `Budget (minor units)` per currency, never across currencies.
5. Re-read the plan at the end of each week against what the accounts actually
   spent. The gap is the conversation; the plan is what makes the gap visible.

## The columns

**Channel.** The platform the line runs on, one per row. A channel that carries
two objectives carries two rows.

**Campaign.** The campaign name as it will read inside the ad account. Write it
here the way you will write it there, so the plan and the account reconcile by
eye instead of by lookup table.

**Objective.** What the line is bought for: prospecting, retargeting,
retention, a launch. One objective per row.

**Audience.** Who the line is aimed at, in terms the platform will accept — a
saved audience, a customer list, a keyword theme, a placement.

**Flight start / Flight end.** `YYYY-MM-DD`, inclusive. A line with no end date
is a line nobody reviews.

**Budget (minor units).** The whole budget for the line, in the smallest unit
of its currency: `150000` is 1,500.00. Integers because a sheet full of
decimals drifts by a cent per row and then the total is wrong for a reason
nobody can find.

**Currency.** The ISO 4217 code the ad account bills in, not the one you report
in. Two currencies in one column with no code beside them cannot be summed.

**Primary metric.** The one number this line is judged on: CPA, ROAS, CPM,
qualified leads. One metric. A line with two has none.

**Target.** The value of the primary metric you are holding the line to. Blank
in this template on purpose — see step 3.

**Owner.** The person who answers for the line. A plan with no owner per row is
a plan that gets edited by everyone and read by no one.

**Notes.** Anything the next person needs: the creative that is coming, the
dependency, the thing you already tried.

## The plan

| Channel | Campaign | Objective | Audience | Flight start | Flight end | Budget (minor units) | Currency | Primary metric | Target | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

## Totals

One line per currency. Do not add a grand total across currencies without
saying which rate you used and when you read it.

| Currency | Budget (minor units) | Lines |
|---|---|---|
|  |  |  |

## Before you commit the plan

- Every row has an owner and an end date.
- Every budget is an integer in minor units, and every row names its currency.
- Every target is either a number you can trace to your own account, or blank.
- The sum per currency matches what has actually been approved.
- Anything that is a guess is written down as a guess in `Notes`.