· 5 min read · Protecxo Media Team
What a media plan should tell you before a campaign launches
A good media plan is a set of decisions you can hold a partner to. Seven things it should answer before any budget is spent.
A media plan is often treated as a formality: a spreadsheet that arrives just before launch and is rarely opened again. It should be the opposite — the clearest statement of what a campaign is trying to do and how everyone will know whether it worked.
Seven questions a plan should answer
1. What is the objective, in one sentence?
Awareness, consideration and conversion campaigns are planned and judged differently. If the plan tries to optimise for all three equally, it will probably do none of them well.
2. Which KPIs will be reported, and which one decides?
A plan can track many metrics, but one should be named as the primary measure of success, with a target or a benchmark to compare against.
3. Who is the audience, and who is excluded?
Inclusions get most of the attention. Exclusions — existing customers, irrelevant regions, unsuitable content — protect budget just as effectively.
4. How is the budget split, and why?
Each channel and buying method should have a role and an allocation, with the reasoning stated. That makes later reallocation a decision rather than a drift.
5. What does the flighting look like?
Start and end dates, bursts and pauses should be visible at a glance. A flowchart view is still the fastest way for everyone to see the shape of a campaign.
6. What safeguards are in place?
Brand-safety settings, verification, frequency caps and supply rules belong in the plan, not in a follow-up email after something goes wrong.
7. How and when will results be reported?
Agree the reporting format, cadence and the meetings where changes will be discussed. Reporting that arrives without a decision attached is just data.
The plan as a working document
Plans change once real data arrives, and they should. The value of writing them down properly is that every change can be traced back to a reason. That is what makes a media partner accountable.