> ## Documentation index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.prescientai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Add `.md` to any page URL to get that page as Markdown.

# Media Forecaster

> What Media Forecaster does, what a plan contains, and which guide to read for each task.

Media Forecaster recommends how to split a marketing budget across your channels, tactics, and campaigns for a period that you choose. You set one goal, a budget, and the media that the plan can use. Media Forecaster then forecasts the period with your marketing mix models and returns a plan that you can compare with your current spend mix.

To open Media Forecaster, select **Media Forecaster** in the **Marketing** group of the sidebar.

## What can you do with Media Forecaster?

Media Forecaster answers three kinds of budget question. Each kind is a goal family in the product.

| Goal family                | What the plan does                                                                               |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Grow on a fixed budget** | The plan spends the whole budget and maximizes the outcome.                                      |
| **Hit a target**           | The plan reaches the target that you set for the least spend.                                    |
| **Hold efficiency**        | The plan spends as much as possible while the efficiency ratio stays at the target that you set. |

The goals that you see depend on the active models of your account. Each goal carries the name of a modeled metric.

> **Modeled numbers, not reported numbers:** The forecasts and the outcomes in a plan come from your marketing mix models. A plan does not use the outcome that an ad platform reports. The spend in **Actual to date** is your recorded spend.

## What does the Media Forecaster page show?

The Media Forecaster page shows a daily recommendation and the list of plans that people on your team created. The recommendation card shows the estimated lift and the channels with the largest lift.

![The Estimated lift box and the Top channels to grow box of the Default Plan Recommendations card](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/default-plan-recommendation.DLMdmR6C_23DxuD.webp)

- **Default Plan Recommendations** is a card at the top of the page. Media Forecaster generates the recommendation automatically each day from your default settings. Select **Create plan** to open the New plan wizard with the same default settings.
- The plans list shows the name, status, mode, goal, date range, owner, and last update of each plan. You can search, filter, and sort the list.
- **New plan** starts a plan from the beginning.

## How does a plan get its numbers?

A plan compares three sets of numbers over the same planning period: the baseline, the optimized plan, and your actual results to date.

1. **Reference period** (You select): Past dates that set which media is eligible and the current spend of each row.
2. **Baseline** (Media Forecaster builds): The reference spend mix, scaled to your budget and forecast over the planning period.
3. **Optimized** (Media Forecaster recommends): The budget moved between rows, inside your spend flexibility and limits, to reach your goal.
4. **Actual to date** (So far): Reported spend and modeled outcome so far in the planning period, paced against Optimized or Baseline.

How Media Forecaster builds the numbers in a plan. Baseline, Optimized, and Actual to date use the same models and the same planning period.

Read [How Media Forecaster builds a plan](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/how-plans-are-built) for the full explanation.

## What are the plan statuses?

A plan has one of four statuses. A plan runs in the background, so you can leave the page while the plan runs.

| Status         | Meaning                                                                            |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Queued**     | The plan is waiting to start.                                                      |
| **Processing** | The plan is running in the background.                                             |
| **Ready**      | The plan finished and the results are available.                                   |
| **Failed**     | The plan did not finish. The plan page says what happened and how to fix the plan. |

## Next steps

[Build your first plan](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/your-first-plan): A lesson with one fixed path, from New plan to a plan that runs.

[Create and run a plan](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/create-a-plan): Follow the five steps of the New plan wizard.

[Read plan results](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/read-plan-results): Check the goal, the budget moves, and the pacing of a plan.

[Manage plans](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/manage-plans): Find, duplicate, rename, share, and delete plans.

[Fix a failed plan](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/fix-a-failed-plan): Find the cause of a failed plan and run the plan again.

[Plan settings](https://docs.prescientai.com/reference/media-forecaster/plan-settings): The options and limits of the Timeline, Goal, and Budget steps.

[Media and run settings](https://docs.prescientai.com/reference/media-forecaster/media-and-run-settings): The options and limits of the Media step and the Review & run step.

[Plans list and plan results](https://docs.prescientai.com/reference/media-forecaster/results): Every status, card, column, and menu of the plans list and the plan page.