Media and run settings

This page lists the settings of the last two steps of the New plan wizard in Media Forecaster: Media and Review & run. For the Timeline, Goal, and Budget steps, see Plan settings.

Media step

Media table columns

The names of the two MMM columns depend on the goal of the plan. In the table, a word in braces is a value that depends on the plan.

Column	What it shows
Media	The channel, tactic, or campaign. Rows nest as channel, then tactic, then campaign.
Confidence	The signal quality of the row. Hover to see the confidence for each model.
Allocation	The allocation type of the row and any limit. This column is not sortable.
Spend	The spend of the row in the reference period, prorated to the length of the plan. Reference information only.
MMM `{outcome}`	The modeled outcome of the row in the reference period, prorated the same way as Spend.
MMM `{metric}`	The modeled efficiency ratio of the row in the reference period.

A word in braces stands for a value from your account or your plan.

Allocation types

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.

A limit that is a percentage follows the baseline of the row. When the budget or the included media changes, the limit changes with the baseline.

Media limits

Setting	Limit
Campaigns	At least one channel, tactic, or campaign.
Minimum reference spend	A campaign needs spend of at least 100 in the display currency of the organization during the reference period.
Limit entry	A currency amount or a percentage of the baseline of the row.
Limit slider	0% to 200% of the baseline by default.
Fixed allocations	The total of the Fixed rows cannot exceed the plan budget.

Exclude inactive

Setting	Limit
Inactive rule	A campaign is inactive when the campaign had no spend in the last 7 days of the reference period.
Default	Off.
Availability	The switch appears only when activity data exists. The switch does not appear in the read-only configuration view.

Review & run step

Setting	Limit
Plan name	Required. 255 characters or fewer.
Description	Optional. 1,000 characters or fewer.
Default visibility	Only me (private).

Visibility	Who can see the plan
Only me	The plan is private. This option is the default.
My team	The plan is public. Everyone on your team can see the plan.

Run duration estimates

Media Forecaster shows these default estimates when the account has fewer than three similar past plans. With three or more similar past plans, the estimate comes from the durations of those plans and can differ. A similar plan has the same plan type and from half to double the number of campaigns. The product rounds an estimate below 10 minutes to whole minutes, and a longer estimate to steps of 5 minutes. A range below one minute shows as “under a minute”. A range that starts at 90 minutes or more shows in hours.

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.

Media Forecaster: the guides and the concepts of the product area.
Create and run a plan: the steps to select media, set limits, and run a plan.
How plans are built: how the reference period makes media eligible and sets the baseline.