procedure

Set a budget across seven channels

Two channels funded properly beats a token line on all seven.

The single most common mistake in a multi-channel plan is spreading the budget so thin that no line can pace, and the floors exist to prevent it: search and DOOH at £100, CTV at £140 a week, audio and social at £250, cinema at £500 a week, addressable TV at £1,000. A line that cannot clear its floor is dropped from the plan and its budget redistributed across the lines that can. That is not a limitation to work around — it is the planner refusing to build something that cannot work.
steps
6
roughly
Thirty minutes
things needed first
3
before you start

What you need first

  • A total monthly media budget
  • An objective, because it changes which channels are worth funding at all
  • A compiled persona, so the fidelity scores can inform the split
the procedure

6 steps

Every step carries the thing that goes wrong at it, in its own block. That is the part worth reading.

  1. step 01

    Check the budget clears the practical floor first

    Below about £10,000 a month in total media this is the wrong product. A 10% fee on £2,000 is £200 against the buyer needing the most support from us, and a multi-channel plan at that level is too thin on every line.

    what goes wrong here

    This is the step where the honest answer is sometimes to buy search and social directly and come back later.

  2. step 02

    Read the fidelity scores before splitting

    Fund the channels that can express your audience well. A 40 on cinema and an 85 on CTV are not equally good uses of the same pound for an audience-precision objective.

    what goes wrong here

    For a launch this reverses: cinema's attention profile may justify funding a channel with a low fidelity score, because reach and attention matter more than precision.

  3. step 03

    Concentrate rather than spread

    Pick two or three channels and fund them to a weight that can pace and be measured, rather than putting a token line on all seven.

    what goes wrong here

    A seven-channel plan at £15,000 a month is usually worse than a three-channel one at the same budget, because none of the seven lines accumulates enough delivery to prove anything.

  4. step 04

    Let under-floor lines drop

    The planner drops lines below their floor and redistributes, with an explicit note. Read the note rather than trying to force the line back in.

    what goes wrong here

    Vendor-side minimums are separate and bite later. Sky AdSmart's roughly £3,000 entry campaign is the one most likely to surprise a plan that cleared the £1,000 planner floor.

  5. step 05

    Account for the costs that are not media

    Data segment uplift of roughly £2.50 to £3.00 per thousand on targeted business audiences, creative production, and the platform fee.

    what goes wrong here

    All of it appears on the plan before approval rather than in the reconciliation afterwards, which is the point of looking at it now.

  6. step 06

    Check whether the split can support the claim you want

    If you intend to prove incrementality, the geography and spend have to support a powered test. That is worth establishing before funding rather than after.

    what goes wrong here

    A plan that cannot power a causal test can still produce reach and response evidence, and saying so in advance is a much better conversation than discovering it at reporting.

what you end up with

A plan whose funded lines can each pace, be measured, and support the claim you intend to make.

other procedures

What else you might need to do

45 minutes. Bring a real brief and we compile it live.

Talk it through

Questions

Should I always buy all seven channels?

No, and at most budgets you should not. A broad seven-channel plan is operationally and statistically weak below a substantial budget: spreading money across every channel is the fastest way to make none of them measurable. Two or three channels with enough weight to prove something is the shape that works, and the planner funds what the budget can actually carry rather than putting a token line everywhere.