Manage Media Plans

Here is what media plans are and how to build them in Bionic for Agencies.

Your media plan will live within the advertising campaign, and represents the tactical details of the advertising you have planned out for your client (or your company).

A screenshot of a Media Plan in Bionic.


Instead of multiple spreadsheets or worksheet tab, everything will be in one place! Your media plan can store all of the moving pieces for each placement, across all media channels, including where you are advertising, what the ad space is, when it is running, how you are buying, and what your goals are. These details can then be used to share with your clients, create flowcharts and dashboards, generate orders, automate naming conventions and tracking URLs, track your pacing, and more.

Media plans are also very flexible, enabling you to represent data based on what your needs are.

They can be built manually, or by using RFPs to gather specifics from vendors, which can then be added to your media plan with a click.

Here is how you can build out and manage your media plans:

  1. Research Advertising Opportunities
  2. Build Out Placements
  3. Use RFPs to Build Plan
  4. Manage Placement Costs
  5. Calculate Reach & Frequency
  6. Establish Placement KPI Goals
  7. Batch Edit Placements
  8. Filter Media Plan
  9. Color Code Media Plan
  10. Customize Media Plan Column View
  11. Utilize Excel To Manage Your Media Plan
  12. Present Your Media Plans
  13. Audit Media Plan Change History

Research Advertising Opportunities

While many of your plans may start with programs you know, there are those times you need some new ideas. Bionic can provide AI and search capabilities to help you discover new advertising opportunities to explore.

Learn how to Research Advertising Opportunities.

Build Out Placements

The first step to building out your media plans is to develop the placement details. Placements will represent who you are advertising through, information about the ad space and targeting, when the placement is running and how the placement is being charged.

There are a variety of ways to start building out placements without RFPs.

Learn how to Build Out Placements.

Use RFPs to Build Plans

When buying direct with vendors, you can utilize RFPs to gather proposals from ad sales teams. And with 1 click, those proposals can be added to your media plan. This will centralize and structure your communications, making it easier to manage, and eliminate reentry of the placement.

Learn how to Use RFP to Build Plans.

Manage Placement Costs

Bionic will automatically calculate your rates and associated quantities make it easy to know what you are paying. Other costs around Production, Commission, and Delivery can also be incorporated into your plans to give the full picture, helping you track where money needs to go and make sure your clients budgets stay on track.

Learn how to Manage Placement Costs.

Calculate Reach & Frequency

Calculating reach & frequency is no easy task, so Bionic will do it for you.

Learn how to Calculate Reach & Frequency.

Establish Placement KPI Goals

Goals are an important part of any buy. Bionic will help you track nearly 100 KPIs from cost and impressions, to return on ad spend and marketing investment. These goals can then be used to monitor pacing and performance to ensure your campaigns stay on track.

Learn how to Establish Placement KPI Goals.

Batch Edit Placements

When it comes to making updates your plan, Bionic makes it easy to update multiple placements and fields in one swipe.

Learn how to Batch Edit Placements.

Filter Media Plan

When you have a big plan, finding what you want is made easy with filtering so you only see what you want to see.

Learn how to Filter Your Media Plan.

Color Code Media Plan

For some, adding color coding can make visualizing your plan much easier.

Learn how to Color Code Your Media Plan.

Customize Media Plan Column View

Tracking so many moving pieces of a media plan in a central space makes accessing your data much easier. However, when performing certain tasks, or working on plans that don't require all of the data fields, you can easily restrict your view of the plan to meet your personal preferences.

Learn how to Customize the Media Plan Column View.

Utilize Excel To Manage Your Media Plan

Bionic provides an interface to make building and managing your media plan easily. However, you may find certain tasks you simply prefer to work in Excel. Bionic offers an worksheet that will support working in Excel that can be uploaded to your plan.

Learn to Utilize Excel To Manage Your Media Plan.

Present Your Media Plan

Once you have completed building your media plan, there are a number of options available to present the plan, whether to your client or internally.

Learn how to Present Your Media Plan.

Audit Media Plan Change History

Bionic logs all of the changes you make in your media plan to make audits easy. Details of changes, user, and date/time are all logged and can be filtered and downloaded for easy of use.

Learn how to Audit Media Plan Change History.