> ## 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.

# Create and run a plan

> Use the New plan wizard to build a Media Forecaster plan, check the plan for problems, and run the plan.

To create a plan, select **New plan** on the Media Forecaster page and complete the five steps of the wizard: **Timeline**, **Goal**, **Budget**, **Media**, and **Review & run**. The plan then runs in the background and appears in your plans list.

## Before you begin

Check these two conditions before you start a plan.

- Your account has one or more active models. Without an active model, the **Goal** step has no goals to select.
- The campaigns that you want to plan had spend in the reference period. A campaign needs spend of 100 or more, in the display currency of your workspace, to appear in the plan.

## Start a plan

1. Select **Media Forecaster** in the **Marketing** group of the sidebar.

2. Select **New plan**.

   The wizard opens on the **Timeline** step. The rail shows the five steps and a summary of each completed step.

> **Tip:** **Create plan** on the **Default Plan Recommendations** card also opens the New plan wizard. The wizard opens with its default settings. The daily recommendation uses the same default settings, so the wizard does not copy the recommended plan. You can change each setting before you run the plan.

## Step 1: Set the timeline

The **Timeline** step sets the models, the reference period, and the planning period. The capture shows the step with the **Models** menu open.

![The Timeline step with the Models menu open. The menu lists two models and the last modeled day of each model](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/new-plan-timeline.APaXfBqP_2dCr8h.webp)

1. In **Models**, keep the selected models or choose different models.

   Media Forecaster selects the default model for each channel. A plan needs one or more models.

2. In **Reference period**, select **Most recent**, **Same time last year**, or **Custom**.

   The reference period sets which media is eligible and the current spend of each row.

3. In **Planning period**, select a length or a quarter. To choose exact dates, select **Custom…**, set **Start** and **End**, and select **Apply**.

   The planning period is the period that the plan allocates budget across. The start date can be as many as 14 days before today, and the end date must be today or later. The length options start today. On a plan in weeks, they start at the next week boundary.

4. Select **Continue**.

On the **Timeline**, **Goal**, and **Budget** steps, you can select **Skip to review** to go to **Review & run** without the steps between. The steps that you skip keep their default settings.

> **A start date before today:** If the planning period starts before today, a note below the period gives the days that are past. For those days, the plan uses your recorded spend, and the optimizer plans the days that remain. The **Goal** and **Budget** steps show what the past days delivered and how much budget is left. See [Plan settings](https://docs.prescientai.com/reference/media-forecaster/plan-settings#planning-period-that-starts-before-today).

> **Days or weeks:** The models set the cadence of the plan. If every selected model is daily, the plan uses days. If one or more selected models are weekly, the plan uses weeks and the dates move to week boundaries.

## Step 2: Choose the goal

The **Goal** step sets the one goal of the plan and the plan type.

![The Goal step, with three goal families, their goal options, and the Plan type control set to Optimization](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/new-plan-goal.Cx97ETs5_1rM7z8.webp)

1. Select a goal card.

   The goal cards are grouped into families: **Grow on a fixed budget**, **Hit a target**, and **Hold efficiency**. The goals in each family depend on the active models of your account.

2. If the goal needs a target, enter the target.

   Media Forecaster suggests a target that is 10% better than the forecast with no changes. The target is the total modeled figure for the planning period. The target is not growth on top of the current figure.

3. In **Plan type**, select **Optimization** or **Forecast**.

   Until you open the **Goal** step, Media Forecaster sets the plan type from the length of the planning period: **Forecast** for 42 days or more, and **Optimization** for a shorter period.

4. Select **Continue**.

| Plan type        | When to use it                                                              |
| ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Optimization** | Reallocates budget across your live campaigns. Best for the next few weeks. |
| **Forecast**     | Plans on your channels and tactics. Best for longer horizons.               |

If the planning period is short or long for the plan type, Media Forecaster shows a message with a **Switch** button. Select **Switch** to change the plan type, or keep your selection. After **Switch**, a confirmation shows with **Undo**. **Undo** restores the earlier plan type and the settings that the switch changed. **Undo** goes away when you change a setting.

## Step 3: Set the budget

The **Budget** step sets how much the plan can spend and how far the optimizer can move each row.

![The Budget step, with the Marketing budget field, the Adjust control at 0%, and Spend flexibility set to Medium](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/new-plan-budget.BAS9dx-V_tcN2U.webp)

1. Check the budget amount.

   The budget starts at your reference-period spend, scaled to the length of the planning period.

2. To change the budget, type an amount, or use **Adjust** to move the budget up or down by a percentage.

   Select **Reset** to return to the baseline amount.

3. If the goal is in the **Hit a target** family, select **Set a ceiling** or **Solve for it**.

   With **Set a ceiling**, you enter the maximum budget. With **Solve for it**, your models find the spend that the target needs. A goal in the **Hold efficiency** family has a target and does not have this choice. **Solve for it** is available on the two plan types. On a **Forecast** plan, the models solve for the spend over the dates that you select.

4. In **Spend flexibility**, select how far the optimizer can move each row from its baseline.

5. Select **Continue**.

| Spend flexibility | Band                                | Effect                                                                                                      |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Fixed**         | 1× to 1×                            | Each row keeps its share of the current mix. Only the total changes with the budget.                        |
| **Low**           | 0.8× to 1.2×                        | Each row stays within 20% of its baseline.                                                                  |
| **Medium**        | 0.5× to 1.5×                        | Each row can go from half of its baseline to one and a half times its baseline. This option is the default. |
| **High**          | 0× to 2×                            | Each row can be cut to zero or doubled.                                                                     |
| **Unconstrained** | 0× to 5×                            | Each row can go from zero to five times its baseline. Above 2×, the plan relies on extrapolated curves.     |
| **Custom**        | You set the minimum and the maximum | You set the band. The scale runs from 0× to 5×.                                                             |

A band is a multiple of the baseline of each row. For example, 0.5× to 1.5× lets a row go from half of its baseline to one and a half times its baseline. Spend flexibility does not change the total budget.

## Step 4: Select the media

The **Media** step sets which channels, tactics, and campaigns the plan can use. On an **Optimization** plan, the table nests rows as channel, then tactic, then campaign. On a **Forecast** plan, the table has no campaign rows. The table lists channels, with their tactics when your account has tactics for the channel.

![The Media step, with the Exclude inactive switch, a table of seven channels, and the Review button](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/new-plan-media.B9Jp2_dJ_Z1E29YT.webp)

1. Select the rows to include in the plan. Clear a row to leave the row out of the plan.

   A plan needs one or more rows.

2. Optional: in the **Allocation** column, set an allocation type for a row.

   Enter the limit as a currency amount or as a percentage of the baseline of the row.

3. Optional: turn on **Exclude inactive** to leave out each campaign that had no spend in the last 7 days of the reference period.

   **Exclude inactive** is off by default. The switch appears only when activity data exists.

4. Select **Review**.

The **Allocation** menu of a row has four allocation types.

![The Allocation menu open on the Google Ads row, with the options Optimize, Max spend, Min spend, and Fixed](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/allocation-control.D9rLBTDJ_1ovrph.webp)

| Allocation type | Effect                                                                               |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Optimize**    | The optimizer allocates the row freely.                                              |
| **Max spend**   | The optimizer allocates the row but stays at or below the ceiling that you set.      |
| **Min spend**   | The optimizer allocates the row but stays at or above the floor that you set.        |
| **Fixed**       | The row gets exactly the amount that you set. The optimizer does not change the row. |

> **The Media table shows reference numbers:** The **Spend** column and the two **MMM** columns show your reference period, prorated to the length of the plan. These columns are not the baseline plan and not the optimized plan.

> **Limits that do not fit the budget:** If the limits on your rows do not fit the budget, the step lists each limit that blocks the run. Select **Show** next to a limit to go to the row. Then change the limit or the budget.

## Step 5: Review and run the plan

The **Review & run** step shows what the plan will do and lets you name and share the plan. The status of the plan is at the top of the step. Below the status, the step lists the three stages of a run and has the fields for the name and the visibility. The **Run plan** button is at the bottom of the step.

![The Review & run step, with the status at the top, the three stages of a run, the plan name, Visibility, and the Run plan button](https://docs.prescientai.com/_astro/new-plan-review.Zb63EOd2_Z2qIASe.webp)

1. Check the status at the top of the step.

   **Ready to forecast** means that the plan can run. If the status shows steps to finish, select **Fix** next to the step that has an issue.

2. Check the three stages under **What happens when you run**. To change a setting, select the link next to the stage, for example **Edit budget** or **Edit media**.

   The first stage counts the campaigns in the plan, on a **Forecast** plan also.

3. In **Name your plan**, keep the automatic name or type a name.

   Media Forecaster names the plan from the goal and the dates until you type a name.

4. Optional: add a description.

5. In **Visibility**, select **Only me** or **My team**.

   **Only me** is the default. With **My team**, everyone on your team can see the plan.

6. Select **Run plan**.

The plan is queued and runs in the background. The plan page shows the elapsed time and an estimate of the duration. You can leave the page. The plan appears in your plans list with the status **Ready** when the plan finishes.

## How long does a plan take?

The **Review & run** step and the plan page show an estimate of the duration. On the **Review & run** step, the estimate for a **Forecast** plan with the default estimate reads **Usually takes about 1–2 min**.

When your account has three or more similar past plans, the estimate comes from the durations of those plans. A similar plan has the same plan type and from half to double the number of campaigns. With fewer similar plans, Media Forecaster shows a default estimate. The default estimate for an **Optimization** plan grows with the number of campaigns.

| Plan                                  | Estimated duration | What it does                                                                                                             |
| ------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Optimization, up to 50 campaigns      | about 1–3 min      |                                                                                                                          |
| Optimization, 51 to 150 campaigns     | about 2–8 min      |                                                                                                                          |
| Optimization, 151 to 300 campaigns    | about 5–15 min     |                                                                                                                          |
| Optimization, more than 300 campaigns | about 10–30 min    |                                                                                                                          |
| Forecast, any size                    | about 1–2 min      | The default range is 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The product rounds the range to whole minutes, with a minimum of 1 minute. |

## Next steps

- [Read plan results](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/read-plan-results) when the status of the plan is **Ready**.
- [Fix a failed plan](https://docs.prescientai.com/media-forecaster/fix-a-failed-plan) if the status of the plan is **Failed**.
- See [Plan settings](https://docs.prescientai.com/reference/media-forecaster/plan-settings) and [Media and run settings](https://docs.prescientai.com/reference/media-forecaster/media-and-run-settings) for every option and limit.