# Media plan — ecommerce

The media plan with five columns a store needs and a general plan does not:
what part of the catalogue the line sells, what the margin on it is, what
promotion it sits inside, what the creative is doing, and where the click
lands.

One row per line of spend. A line is a channel, a campaign, an objective, an
audience and a slice of the catalogue. If two of those change, it is two lines.

## 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, and write the catalogue segment before you
   write the budget. What you are selling decides what the line can afford.
3. Fill `Gross margin` from your own product data, per segment, after returns
   and after shipping if you carry it. Leave it blank rather than guessing.
4. Leave `Target` blank until margin and baseline are both in.
5. Re-read the plan weekly against the account, and again the week a promotion
   window opens or closes.

## The columns

**Channel** (Text). The platform carrying this line, one to a row. A channel carrying two catalogue segments carries two rows, because the two will not share a margin or a target.

**Campaign** (Text). The campaign name spelled as the ad account will show it, so a week's spend can be matched to a row by reading rather than by lookup.

**Objective** (Text). Prospecting, retargeting, retention or a launch. One per row, and never blended: a row that mixes acquisition with retention produces a cost per order that flatters both.

**Audience** (Text). Who the line is aimed at, in terms the platform will accept — a saved audience, a customer list, a lookalike seed, a keyword theme.

**Catalogue segment** (Text). The slice of the range this line sells: best sellers, new arrivals, a hero product, the long tail, clearance. The column that makes a store's plan different from anyone else's, because it sets margin, creative and target at once.

**Creative theme** (Text). What the ad is doing: product in use, founder to camera, offer card, review, unboxing. Naming it here is what lets you say afterwards whether the theme or the audience moved the number.

**Landing page** (URL). The exact destination: a collection, a product page, a page built for the offer. Not the home page. A line whose landing page is not named tends to inherit whichever one was handy.

**Promotion window** (Text). The sale, drop or seasonal peak this line sits inside, or Full price. A line that crosses the edge of a promotion is two lines, because the offer changed underneath it.

**Flight start** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The day this line starts spending. In a retail calendar this is usually set by the promotion window rather than by the month.

**Flight end** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The last day, inclusive, and in a store it is rarely the end of the month. Delivery cut-offs, stock cover and the end of a promotion all end lines early.

**Budget (minor units)** (Integer). The budget for this line in minor units, where 1,500.00 is written 150000. Whole numbers only: a column of decimals loses a cent a row and the season total ends up wrong for a reason nobody can trace.

**Currency** (ISO 4217 code). The code the ad account charges in, which a store reporting in one currency and selling in three will not share. A store selling into several markets will have several, and a column of bare numbers cannot be summed across them.

**Gross margin** (Percent). The margin on this catalogue segment, after discount and after expected returns. Blank rather than guessed. It is the number that decides what an order can cost to win, and the one most plans leave out.

**Primary metric** (Text). The number this line answers to at the end of the flight. For a store this is usually cost per first order, or return on ad spend on a segment whose margin you actually know.

**Target** (Number). What that number has to reach here. Blank in the file on purpose: it needs the margin and a baseline from your own account before it means anything.

**Owner** (Text). The person who answers for the line. In a store this is often split between the buyer who owns the stock and the media buyer who owns the spend; name one of them.

**Notes** (Text). Stock cover, the delivery cut-off, the creative still being shot, the dependency on a product page that does not exist yet. Also the place to record plainly that a figure is a guess.

## The plan

| Channel | Campaign | Objective | Audience | Catalogue segment | Creative theme | Landing page | Promotion window | Flight start | Flight end | Budget (minor units) | Currency | Gross margin | Primary metric | Target | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Totals

Per currency, and per promotion window. A store's spend is lumpy by design, and
a single monthly total hides the week that mattered.

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

## Before you commit the plan

- Every row names a catalogue segment, and every segment has a margin or a
  blank cell — never a guess.
- Every promotion window has a line that ends when it ends.
- Stock cover is checked for every segment with a budget against it.
- The delivery cut-off is in `Notes` on every line that runs into it.
- The retention lines are separate rows from the acquisition lines, so the two
  can be read apart at the end.