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Political Planner overview
Political Planner is a specialized, AI-driven tool designed to streamline the complex process of political media planning and forecasting.
By integrating Custom Voter audience data with conversational AI, you can use Political Planner to generate tailored strategies and unique reach estimates even when initial campaign details are limited. You’ll have the opportunity to experiment and compare multiple budget and input scenarios to activate the strategies that align with your political campaign goals.
With Political Planner, you can pre-optimize your audience and targeting details to help ensure each campaign spends in full—all without allocating resources to test-and-learn budgets. This includes segmenting the plan’s campaigns by elements such as Location, Audience, Device Type, Inventory Groups, and Creative Types; and determining budgets and targeting criteria for each campaign.
The plans you create will automatically sync with campaign management tools. This means you can easily transition from planning to execution. Simply activate the plan, add your creatives, and launch your pre-optimized political campaigns.
Political Planner eligibility requirements and pricing
All political advertisers are eligible to generate Political Planner plans at no additional cost.
Note that there’s a cost associated with the third-party data segments that you select while building the plan. However, their CPMs only apply when you convert the plan into an insertion order (IO) and campaigns, and those campaigns begin serving impressions against those segments.
You can locate a data segment’s CPM in the plan’s 3rd Party Data Segments section. Refer to Create or manage a Political Planner plan to get started, or continue reading for more information about Political Planner.
Plan inputs
You’ll define the name, dates, and creative type(s) for each plan. You can also apply targeting parameters, if desired, across five optional categories.
Define a set of required items for each plan, and apply targeting parameters across three optional categories, if desired.
Section | Type | Description |
Plan Information | Required | Specify the plan’s name and time zone, share what information you’re bringing to the plan and what information you’d like to explore, and choose up to three Audience Methods for adding your target audience to the plan. |
Basic Details | Required | Define the plan’s dates, budget, and daily frequency cap. |
Creatives | Required | Confirm whether the plan’s campaigns will target image, HTML, video, and/or audio creatives. At least one creative format selection is required per plan. |
Audience | Required | The plan automatically populates this section based on the audience selections you applied in step two of plan creation. |
Location | Optional | Choose one or more states, Designated Market Areas (DMA), counties, cities, or ZIP codes; or congressional districts, state senates, or state houses. |
Demographics | Optional | Select the plan’s target age group(s), gender(s), income range(s), and/or ethnicities. |
Devices | Optional | Select one or more device types (TV, tablet, desktop, mobile) and/or one or more channels (app, web, connected TV [CTV], over-the-top [OTT]). |
Inventory | Optional | Choose Open Exchange inventory, or choose or an existing Open Exchange inventory group or Connected TV (CTV) inventory group that you previously created in the Inventory app.
If you select the Open Exchange option, you can add Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) categories and/or specific exchanges. |
Pre-bid Audience | Optional | Add individual DoubleVerify (DV) pre-bid segments to the plan’s targeting rules. |
Advanced | Optional | Either manually segment the plan’s campaigns by the targeting dimensions of your choice (Location, Audience, Device Types, Inventory) or let AI automatically segment the plan’s campaigns by these dimensions. |
Plan outputs
Strategies
After you enter the plan’s inputs and choose to generate the plan, you’ll be presented with up to five strategies. These strategies are segmented by their overall goals: maximum reach, maximum spend and impressions, or a balanced approach.
You also have the option to create custom strategies from scratch or based on a system-generated strategy.
Strategy element | Description |
Duration | The date range during which the proposal’s campaigns can serve ad impressions. |
Campaigns | The number of campaigns included in the strategy. |
Budget | The estimated total dollar amount or impression amount the strategy’s campaigns can spend. |
Reach | The estimated number of individual users who can be exposed to an ad while the strategy’s campaigns are active and have remaining available budget. |
Impressions | The estimated number of times the ad will be served to the strategy’s target audience. |
CPM | The blended media and data cost associated with serving ad impressions. |
Frequency | The maximum number of times the same user should be served an ad per day. |
Creatives | The creative format(s) that the strategy’s campaigns will target. |
Devices | The device(s) that the strategy’s campaigns will target. |
Channel | The channel(s) that the strategy’s campaigns will target. |
Forecasts
Forecasting notice: Provided forecasts represent estimates and are based on the last seven days of data across the IQM bid landscape. The bid landscape is variable based on changes in available impressions, market seasonality, and other dynamic factors. |
After you choose a strategy and select Generate Proposal, the plan returns forecasting metrics to help you evaluate the potential performance of your campaigns before activating them. These estimates are available for the generated proposal at the proposal level and at the individual campaign level.
Forecast metric or graph | Level | Description |
Total Reach | Proposal level | The estimated number of individual users who can be exposed to an ad while the proposals’ campaigns are active and have remaining available budget. |
Total Impressions | Proposal level | The estimated number of times the ad will be served to the target audience. |
Total Budget | Proposal level | The estimated total dollar amount or impression amount the proposal’s campaigns can spend. |
Linear TV Reach* | Proposal level | The estimated number of users who can be exposed to an ad via linear TV based on the plan’s inputs, which may overlap with CTV Reach.** |
Linear TV Impressions* | Proposal level | The estimated number of times the ad can be served to the target audience via linear TV based on the plan’s inputs.** |
Linear TV Budget* | Proposal level | The estimated total dollar amount or impression amount that can be spent via linear TV based on the plan’s inputs.** |
CTV Reach* | Proposal level | The estimated number of users who can be exposed to an ad via CTV based on the plan’s inputs, which may overlap with Linear TV Reach. |
CTV Impressions* | Proposal level | The estimated number of times the ad can be served to the target audience via CTV based on the plan’s inputs. |
CTV Budget* | Proposal level | The estimated total dollar amount or impression amount the proposal’s campaigns can spend via CTV based on the plan’s inputs. |
Proposal Start Date | Proposal level | The date and time when the proposal’s campaigns can begin serving ad impressions. |
Proposal End Date | Proposal level | The date and time when the proposal’s campaigns must stop serving ad impressions. |
Bid Landscape | Proposal level | A visualization of how different bid prices (CPM) might impact the potential number of impressions that you can win. This data is segmented based on the creative formats that you select for the proposal. |
Device | Proposal level | The estimated percentage of impressions that will come from each device that the proposal’s campaigns will target. |
Channel | Proposal level | The estimated percentage of impressions that will come from each channel that the proposal’s campaigns will target. |
Campaign Name | Campaign level | The individual campaign’s name. |
Start Date | Campaign level | The date and time when the campaign can begin serving ad impressions. |
End Date | Campaign level | The date and time when the campaign must stop serving ad impressions. |
Reach | Campaign level | The estimated number of individual users who can be exposed to an ad while the campaign is active and has remaining available budget. |
Impressions | Campaign level | The estimated number of times the campaign will serve an ad to the target audience. |
Frequency | Campaign level | The maximum number of times the same user should be served an ad per day. |
Budget | Campaign level | The maximum amount the campaign can spend. Note that the campaign will stop serving ad impressions if the proposal’s Total Budget is reached before the campaign’s individual budget is exhausted. |
* Metric availability: This forecast metric is available for applicable plans with a Voter TV+ objective.
** Linear TV metrics: Linear TV data is a reference baseline that’s included to model incremental CTV reach. No Linear TV campaigns are created or activated during the media-planning process in Political Planner.
Plan statuses
You can review a plan’s current status from the Proposals tab of the Planner app. Refer to Create or manage a Political Planner plan for more information on how to access this page.
Status | Definition |
Draft | The plan creation process is underway. You started building a Political Planner plan, but you haven’t selected the Generate Proposal option. |
Ready | You selected the Generate Proposal option, and now the proposal is ready to be converted into campaigns. |
Processing | You selected Generate Campaigns from a plan that featured a Ready status. Now we’re creating your plan’s audiences, campaigns, insertion order (IO) and other details. |
Converted | The plan’s insertion order (IO) and campaigns were successfully created. Now you can manage and launch them. |
Failed | You attempted to convert the plan, but we were unable to successfully create the plan’s campaigns. Refer to Troubleshoot a Political Planner plan or campaign for support. |
Expired | The plan’s date range passed before you were able to activate the plan. Refer to Restore an expired proposal to select a new date range. Note that this action may change related forecasts. |
Key terms and concepts
IQM Universe
The IQM universe refers to the total targetable audience that you can reach when you use the IQM platform to buy digital ad inventory. This universe changes based on your campaign’s targeting criteria, and narrows each time you layer on additional targets and blocks. The addressable audience you’re left with after you apply this criteria is represented by your Political Planner plan’s targeted reach and impressions.
Forecasting metrics provide a sense of scale to help you determine whether you have the right strategies in place to spend your budget in full and achieve your political campaign objectives. If a plan’s scale isn’t what you were anticipating, or if potential spend is less than your actual budget, then you have the opportunity to make adjustments to your plan and its strategies before you launch a live campaign.
Adjust your targeting criteria, as needed, to reach more of the IQM universe and achieve scale for your political campaigns. If the targets you applied are nonnegotiable, consider thinking about the strategies you may need to add to your campaigns to fulfill your budget. Refer to Review or add strategies and generate a proposal for more information.
Audience Methods
When you create a new Political Planner plan, you’ll choose up to three methods for adding target users to the plan’s campaigns: Explore Custom Voter Data, Select Existing Audience, and Select 3rd Party Data Segments.
The Explore Custom Voter Data method includes using in-plan features to create a new Custom Voter audience. Custom Voter audiences are built using voter segments, which you can customize based on locations, districts, demographics, party registration, and more.
The Select Existing Audience method includes choosing one or more audience types (Matched, Segmented, Retargeted, Geofarmed, Contextual, Lookalike, Campaign, Custom Voter) and selecting one or more existing audiences. These audiences are ones that you previously created in the Audiences app. Refer to the “Audience targeting and data management” collection for more information on each audience type and step-by-step instructions on how to create them.
Finally, the Select 3rd Party Data Segments method includes creating a political campaign audience by selecting individual data segments, grouping them, and defining the relationships between those data segments and segment groups.
You can choose one, two, or a combination of all three of these methods for adding audiences as you build your plan in the Political Planner tool.
Audience Methods - Audience relationships
Every Political Planner plan applies an “OR” relationship to each audience type and individual audience. This means that your campaign will target a user if they’re included in any of the targeted audiences, as long as all other campaign targeting criteria are met.
You can still choose between an “AND” and “OR” relationship for individual audience segments when you create each audience. Refer to the “Audience targeting and data management” collection for more information on each audience type and step-by-step instructions on how to create them.
Cross-screen Planning with Voter TV+
Voter TV+ is an objective in Political Planner that enables media planners to model the incremental reach that CTV can deliver alongside existing or projected Linear TV spend. By bringing Linear TV and CTV planning into a single workflow, planners can quantify cross-screen reach, build a data-driven case for adding CTV to their media mix, and seamlessly convert plans into activated CTV campaigns—eliminating the need for separate planning tools and manual data re-entry.
Voter TV+: Reach Distribution Settings
When you create a plan with a Voter TV+ objective, you’ll choose how you’d like to model the plan’s Audience Overlap data. Review the table below for more details.
Data modeling approach | Description |
100% Linear TV | Model projected reach using Linear TV as a reference baseline to understand the expected audience coverage from a traditional TV investment. This provides the benchmark for evaluating incremental reach opportunities with CTV. |
Linear TV & CTV | Model the combined reach of a Linear TV baseline and CTV to quantify the incremental audience CTV can add beyond Linear TV alone. Use these insights to build a data-driven cross-screen plan and activate the CTV portion directly. |
100% CTV | Model reach delivered entirely through CTV to evaluate a digital-first strategy or compare it against Linear TV and cross-screen scenarios. This helps planners understand the standalone impact of CTV before activation. |
Voter TV+: Audience Overlap
When you create a plan with a Voter TV+ objective, you’ll have an opportunity to review reach forecasting metrics based on the plan’s Reach Distribution Settings. Note that Audience Overlap metrics pertain to the IQM Universe. Refer to the table below for more details.
Audience Overlap metric | Description |
Reach Universe | The total audience that can be reached across all channels via the IQM platform when no targeting parameters are applied. |
Linear TV Reach | The estimated maximum number of users you could reach via linear TV based on the plan’s inputs, which may overlap with CTV Reach. |
CTV Reach | The estimated maximum number of users you could reach via CTV based on the plan’s inputs, which may overlap with Linear TV Reach. |
Overall Reach | The estimated maximum number of users you could reach via either linear TV or CTV based on the plan’s inputs, with cross-channel overlap removed.
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Overlap | The estimated number of users you could reach via both linear TV and CTV based on the plan’s inputs. |
CTV Incremental Reach | The estimated number of users you could reach via CTV, but via not linear TV, based on the plan’s inputs. |
Locate additional Political Planner resources