Manage Fluid Budgets

Here's How to Manage Fluid Budgets in Bionic for Agencies.

Bionic enables you to automatically flow your media budgets from month-to-month by comparing your planned against actual net media cost by month in your media plan.

To have your actual net media cost automatically flow into your media plan you first need to Configure Your Performance Integration. Otherwise, you can manually input actuals per month.

In this article, we'll cover:

1. Track Planned vs. Actual Net Media Cost by Month
2. Manually Add Media Spend
3. Monitor Overall Media Spend

Track Planned vs. Actual Net Media Cost by Month

In your media plan, the Net Media Cost by Month section displays fields for planned, actual spend, variance and pacing. Bionic automatically calculates your variance and pace across your entire media plan. Here is where you'll be able to track your planned vs actual net media cost by month. 

Here is how to read and analyze the Net Media Cost by Month section in your media plan:

Calculate variance and pace for a Prior Month

For prior months, Variance [4] is calculated by subtracting the Planned Amount [1] from the Actual Amount [2]. And Pace [3] is calculated by dividing the variance by the planned amount.

Calculate variance and pace for Current Month

For the current month, in order to calculate Pace [4], we use only the days of the month passed segment of the planned amount and we assume the actuals reported are only for the days passed as well. 

The current month of your Net Media Cost by Month section displays your Adjusted Planned Amount [2]. The goal of the Adjusted Planned Amount tool is to show you the amount you need to spend this month in order to get your spending “back on track.”

Adjusted Pace [5] compares your actuals to your Adjusted Plan To-Date. Amount Left to Spend [6] tells you how much you have left to spend this month to be “on track.” The Amount Left to Spend is calculated as Adjusted Plan Amount [2] minus the actual amount spent to-date [3].

Manually Add Media Spend

There will be situations where media spend data is not available through a performance integration. Bionic gives you the capability to manually add your monthly media spend directly in your media plan.

Here's how:

1. In a Media Plan, go to the Net Media Cost by Month section.
2. Enter your actual media spend in the actuals field.
3. Bionic will break down and analyze your spending against your plan. It will show you both pacing and variance against your plan.

Monitor Overall Media Spend

Bionic also monitors your overall spending in your media plan. For every line item in your media plan, in the total column you will find:

1. Total Planned Amount. This is the planned Net Media Cost for this line item.
2. Extrapolated Spend. This is the amount you will spend if you continue at the rate you’ve been spending to-date.
3. Amount Spent To-Date. This is the Net Media Cost incurred to-date.
4. Pace. This is your overall pace to-date. This compares the amount spent to-date to your overall plan to date. Remember that this automatically excludes any planned amounts in the future.
5. Extrapolated Variance. This tells you the surplus or shortfall you will experience if you continue at the rate you’ve been spending to-date. This is the difference between your extrapolated spend and your total planned amount.
6. Amount Left to Spend. This tells you how much you have left to spend for each line item. It’s calculated as total planned amount minus the amount spent to date.