# Media plan — Real estate

The media plan with five columns an agency or developer needs: which listing or development the row sells, the market it sits in, where the campaign has got to, what price bracket it is in, and which kind of enquiry the row is bought to produce.

Everything else is the general plan, unchanged. One row per line of spend, budgets as integers in minor units, one currency named per row, and a target column that ships blank because the number is yours.

## 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 give every row a listing or development reference.
3. Work backwards from the fixed end date — the auction, the settlement, the close of the launch period — rather than forwards from today.
4. Split the campaign into rows by stage, so the pre-launch, launch and pre-auction weights can be read apart.
5. Write the enquiry type in the row, and use the words the agency's system uses.
6. Leave Target blank until you have your own enquiry-to-inspection rate for this market and bracket.
7. Record the vendor-paid portion of every row in Notes, because somebody will ask.

## The columns

**Channel** (Text). The platform the row runs on, one per row. A channel carrying two listings carries two rows, because a vendor is paying for one of them and not the other.

**Campaign** (Text). The campaign name exactly as it will read inside the ad account. Include the listing reference, so a line of spend can be traced to a property without a lookup table.

**Objective** (Text). What the row is bought for: awareness of the listing, enquiry, inspection attendance, buyer registration. One per row, because the four are judged on different events.

**Audience** (Text). Who the row is aimed at, in terms the platform will accept. In property this is mostly geography plus a life stage, and the creative does the rest of the narrowing.

**Listing or development** (Text). The property or project this row sells, by its reference. The column that makes a vendor-funded row traceable, which matters when the spend is being reported back to an owner.

**Market** (Text). The suburb, corridor or region the row targets. Geography does most of the work in property, so the market column is closer to an audience definition than a note.

**Stage** (Text). Where the campaign has got to: pre-launch, launch weekend, open inspections, pre-auction, post-auction, settlement. Stage sets the weight, the creative and the enquiry being asked for.

**Price bracket** (Text). The band the property sits in, in the words your market uses. It decides how many buyers exist at all, and therefore whether the row is short of reach or short of interest.

**Enquiry type** (Text). What this row counts: an enquiry, an inspection booking, an inspection attended, a buyer registration, an offer. Written here because a plan that counts enquiries will buy enquiries.

**Flight start** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The first day the row is meant to spend, which in property is set by the photography and copy being ready rather than by the calendar.

**Flight end** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The last day, inclusive, and it is usually a fixed date: the auction, the settlement, the end of the launch period. Work backwards from it rather than forwards from today.

**Budget (minor units)** (Integer). The row's budget in the smallest unit of its currency: 150000 is 1,500.00. Whole numbers, because decimals drift a cent a row and a vendor report that does not reconcile is a conversation nobody wants.

**Currency** (ISO 4217 code). The code the ad account bills in, which is also the code the vendor's agreement is written in. An agency running accounts across markets will have more than one, and bare numbers cannot be summed across them.

**Primary metric** (Text). The one number the row is judged on. For a listing this is usually a cost per inspection attended or per registered buyer, and rarely a cost per click.

**Target** (Number). The value you are holding the row to. Blank in the file on purpose: it needs your own enquiry-to-inspection rate in this market and this bracket before it means anything.

**Owner** (Text). The person who answers for the row. In an agency this is usually the listing agent for the outcome and the marketing coordinator for the spend; name one of them.

**Notes** (Text). What the next person needs: the vendor-paid portion, the photography date, the price guide that has not been agreed. Also the place to say plainly that a figure is a guess.

## The media plan

| Channel | Campaign | Objective | Audience | Listing or development | Market | Stage | Price bracket | Enquiry type | Flight start | Flight end | Budget (minor units) | Currency | Primary metric | Target | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- Every row names a listing or development reference and a market.
- Every row names its stage, and the stages run in order to the fixed end date.
- Every row states which enquiry type it counts.
- Every budget is an integer in minor units and every row names its currency.
- Every target traces to your own rates in this market and bracket, or is blank.
- The vendor-paid portion of each row is written down.
- Anything that is a guess says so, in Notes, in words.