Using the Budget Manager (1)
The Budget Manager enables the planning of campaign budgets across layers, channels & media allocations.
Activity Types
Budgets can be planned across two separate activity types.
If campaigns are being run by the Bench managed services team, allocations should be created under “Bench Activity.”
Campaigns run by non-Bench teams should be created under “In-House” activity.
Campaigns which include both activity types will be shown under separate activity tabs.
The activity types displayed can be adjusted for a campaign by navigating to the campaign’s settings and adjusting the ‘Budget Activity’ setting. If only one activity type is selected, no tabs will be displayed.
Campaign Totals
Totals displayed at the top of the screen will vary depending on who is running the campaign.
For Bench Activity, the following totals will be displayed:
- Contract: The total value of live and upcoming contracts for the campaign.
- Budget: The amount that has been allocated and spent on the campaign to date.
- Allocated: The amount that has been allocated to the campaign but not yet spent.
- Spend: The amount that has been spent so far.
- Unplanned: The amount remaining on the contract which has not been allocated.
- Underspend: The total amount of allocated budget which was not spent in previous flights.
For In-House activity, the same totals will be displayed as above with the exception of the Contract. Instead a “Budget Created” value will display which is the total budget available to allocate to the campaign.
“Overspend” will also display for campaigns which have flights that have exceeded their budgeted amounts. This does not necessarily represent an overspend for the entire campaign rather a sum of flight overspends.
Using the Budget Manager (2)
Adding Budgets
The first step to adding budgets for Bench Activity is to add a Contract. This can be done by clicking on the ‘+ Contract’ button and filling out the form.
For In-House Activity to allocate budgets to flights, click the ‘+ Budget’ button and enter an overall campaign budget.
Budgets for flights can only be allocated to the maximum amount set by the either Contract or overall campaign budget.
In order to add the channels and media types that are being run in the campaign, click the ‘+ Allocation’ button next to each layer. Here you can create an allocation, consisting of the following:
- Layer
- Channel
- Partner
- Source
- Platform
A System Factor can also be applied to the allocation here, which sets the client mark-up for it.
Click ‘Create’ to add an allocation to the campaign.
Flight dates can be added by clicking on the ‘+ Flight button’ next to each allocation. A start and end date must be entered for each flight.
Flight dates cannot overlap with each other within an allocation. Click the ‘Create’ button to create new flights.
Once flights are created, the ‘Status’ indicator will display if a flight has completed, is live or scheduled to start in the future.
Reallocation
Flight budgets are able to be reallocated depending on whether there has been overspend or underspend. These options can be accessed from the overflow menu.
Underspend:
If a flight has completed and has spent less than the budgeted amount, two options are available:
- Quick Allocate to Next Flight: If a future flight is available, the underspend amount will be transferred to it.
- Clear Underspend: The underspend amount will be reset to an unplanned amount for the campaign.
Overspend:
If a live or completed flight has spent more than the budgeted amount, three options are available:
- Take Budget from Next Flight: If a future flight is available, the overspend will be equalised using budget from it.
- Create Credit: A credit note will be created for the overspend amount (Bench Activity only).
- Use Unplanned Budget: If there is unplanned budget for the campaign, it will be used to equalise the overspend amount.
Save the campaign to save any reallocations made.
Graphs
Graphs display at the top of the page showing spends & budgets for each month of activity. These graphs can be viewed and hidden by collapsing the totals panels. They are displayed for each activity type as well as combined activity if both Bench Activity and In-House Activity are planned for a campaign.
Layer graphs also display amounts which have been allocated, spent and underspent. The exact amounts will display upon hovering over each section.
Completed Flights & Media Budget
By default flights which have completed are hidden. These can be shown by checking the box at the top of the page ‘Show Completed’.
Spends & budgets shown by default are the client cost, inclusive of the factor applied to allocations. To display the raw media spends & budget, check the ‘Show Media Budget’ box at the top of the page.
Note: Toggling ‘Show Media Budget’ will switch the Budget Manager to read-only mode.