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Create or manage a Political Planner plan

Add your targeting criteria to a new Political media plan; or edit, download, or duplicate one you’ve already created.

Written by Team IQM

On this page:

Political Planner overview

Political Planner proposals provide powerful insights into your media plan’s potential reach and impressions once you layer targeting parameters onto your campaigns. You can pre-optimize your audience and targeting details to help ensure each political campaign spends in full—all without spending resources on test-and-learn budgets.

Review Political Planner overview to learn more, or refer to the instructions below to get started.

Create a plan and generate strategies

Follow these steps to create a new Political Planner plan:

  1. Open the Planner app.

  2. Select + Create Plan. This will redirect you to the New Plan page.

  3. Complete the following plan sections:

    1. Plan Information - Required

    2. Custom Voter audience - Optional

    3. Basic Details - Required

    4. Locations - Optional

    5. Demographics - Optional

    6. Audience - Optional

    7. Pre-bid Audience - Optional

    8. 3rd Party Data Segments - Optional

    9. Creatives - Optional

    10. Device - Optional

    11. Inventory - Optional

    12. Advanced - Optional

Note that only certain sections are applicable and available for plans with a Voter TV+ objective (Plan Information, Basic Details, Locations, Demographics, Audience).

Plan information - Required

Follow these steps to complete the plan’s required Plan Information section:

  1. Enter a name for the plan.

  2. Choose a plan objective based on the information you’re bringing to the plan (e.g., budget or targeting rules) and what information you’d like to explore.

    1. If you selected Reach Forecasting as your objective, enter the total monetary budget for all of the plan’s strategies.

  3. Click Next.

Custom Voter audience - Optional

Custom Voter audience notice: Custom Voter audiences help ensure your political campaigns reach the right users. These audiences are built using voter segments, and are customized based on locations, districts, demographics, party registration, and more. Refer to Custom Voter audience overview for more information.

Note that creating a new Custom Voter audience from a Political Planner plan is optional. If you’d like to skip this step, refer to Skip Custom Voter audience creation for step-by-step instructions.

You can create a Custom Voter audience directly from the plan, and in the following ways:

Create with voter segments

  1. Follow steps 1 through 12 of the Create with voter segments workflow.

  2. Click Next.

Create with AI assist

  1. Follow steps 1 through 6 of the Create with AI assist workflow.

  2. Click Next.

Skip Custom Voter audience creation

Follow these steps to create a plan without generating a new Custom Voter audience:

  1. Select Skip & Next. This will open the Skip Custom Voter Audience pop-up window.

  2. Click Skip to confirm your selection.

Basic Details - Required

Follow these steps to complete the plan’s required Basic Details section:

  1. Locate and expand the Basic Details section.

  2. Choose the plan’s start and end dates.

    1. Click Apply to add your selection to the applicable field.

  3. Select the plan’s time zone.

  4. Set a daily frequency cap, which limits the maximum number of times per day the same user should see your ads.

    1. Select – to decrease the Frequency number.

    2. Select + to increase the Frequency number.

    3. Frequency settings are supported for plans with a Reach Forecasting or Budget Estimation objective.

Note that plans with a Voter TV+ also require a Total Plan Budget.

Locations - Optional

Political Planner plans support location targeting within the United States. Follow these steps to add optional location targeting settings to the plan’s Locations section:

  1. Locate and expand the Locations section.

  2. Enter the desired location into the search field, or skip this step and browse the list of locations.

  3. If desired, filter the results by location type.

  4. Select the checkbox(es) next to the desired location(s).

  5. Click the Zip Codes tab to search and select locations by ZIP code, if desired.

  6. Review and manage your selections in the Targeted Locations panel.

    1. Expand a section to review all locations by that location type.

    2. If desired, select the toggle to move a targeted location from the plan’s Allowlist to its Blocklist.

Demographics - Optional

Use the available menus to select the plan’s target age group(s), gender(s), income range(s), and/or ethnicities.

Audience - Optional

The plan automatically populates the Audiences section with the new Custom Voter audience you created during plan setup. Follow these steps to review and, if desired, add additional audiences to plan:

  1. Locate and expand the Audience section.

  2. Select the desired audience type(s).

  3. Click Select Audience. This will open the Select Existing Audience pop-up window.
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  4. Search or browse and select audiences that you previously created in the Audiences app.

  5. Select Submit.
    ​

  6. If desired, select the toggle to move a targeted audience from the plan’s Allowlist to its Blocklist.

Pre-bid Audience - Optional

Follow these steps to add optional Pre-bid targeting to the plan’s Pre-bid Audience section:

  1. Locate and expand the Pre-bid Audience section.

  2. Search or browse and select the Pre-bid audiences that you previously created in the Audiences app.

  3. If desired, select + Add Pre-bid Segments to search and add individual pre-bid segments instead.

  4. Select the trashcan icon next to any segments that you’d like to remove. Note that doing so will only remove the segment from this particular plan–not from the original Pre-bid audience.

3rd Party Data Segments - Optional

Follow these steps to add optional data segments to the plan’s 3rd Party Data Segments section:

  1. Locate and expand the 3rd Party Data Segments section.

  2. Enter search terms, separated by commas, to search for specific audience characteristics.

  3. All selected segments will appear in the Select segments list, along with their reach and cost details.

    1. Note that all segments added to this Segment Group are assigned an “OR” relationship.

Creatives - Optional

More on creatives: You won’t need to add your creatives until after you convert a generated proposal into an insertion order (IO) and campaigns. But we recommend reviewing Creative ad specs and requirements to ensure the creative(s) you plan to target in your plan’s campaigns will render and scale as expected.

Follow these steps to add a required creative-type selection to the plan’s Creatives section:

  1. Locate and expand the Creatives section.

  2. Select one or more creative formats.

  3. If you plan to run on connected TV (CTV) or over-the-top (OTT) devices:

    1. Select the Video creative format.

    2. Click the TV Ad Buying toggle.

If no individual selections are made, the plan will consider all creative types in the strategies it generates.

Device - Optional

Follow these steps to add optional device-targeting settings to the plan’s Device section:

  1. Locate and expand the Device section.

  2. Select one or more device types.

  3. Select one or more channels.

  4. Note that the CTV and OTT channel options only become enabled when the TV Ad Buying toggle switch is enabled in the plan’s Creatives section. Refer to Creatives - Optional for more details.

Inventory - Optional

You can choose one of the following inventory-targeting options for your plan:

  • Open Exchange: Public inventory sources made available via real-time bidding auctions. This option includes targeting individual IAB categories and/or exchanges.

  • Inventory Groups: The eligible Open Exchange or Connected TV (CTV) inventory groups previously created in the Inventory app. Note that Open Exchange and CTV inventory groups created purely for blocking and groups with zero or unknown Reach aren’t eligible. Private Marketplace (PMP), Programmatic Guaranteed (PG), and Contextual inventory groups also aren’t eligible at any time.

Open Exchange inventory type

Follow these steps to add optional Open Exchange inventory targeting to the plan’s Inventory section:

  1. Locate and expand the Inventory section.

  2. Select Open Exchange.

  3. To target IAB categories, which are the IAB Tech Lab’s page content categories:

    1. Open the IAB Categories menu.

    2. Search or browse and select all desired categories, or Select All.

  4. To target specific exchanges:

    1. Open the Select Exchange menu.

    2. Search or browse and select all desired exchanges, or Select All.

Inventory Groups inventory type

Follow these steps to add optional Open Exchange or Connected TV (CTV) inventory group targeting to the plan’s Inventory section:

  1. Select Inventory Groups.

  2. Search or browse the list of Open Exchange and Connected TV (CTV) inventory groups.

  3. If desired, filter the groups by group type.

  4. Review key details about each inventory group:

    1. Icon: A circle icon next to the group name represents that the group is an Open Exchange inventory group, while the internet-connected TV icon represents that it’s a CTV inventory group.

    2. Creative Type: All supported creative format types are listed next to each inventory group’s name.

    3. Count: The total number of ad placements (Inventories or Apps) that match the search criteria you applied when you created the inventory group.

    4. Device Breakdown: The breakout of devices for each inventory group.

  5. Click the checkbox(es) next to the inventory group(s) you wish to target.

Advanced - Optional

Maximum campaign limit notice: While a plan’s advanced split strategy allows you to create more precise campaigns, too many selections may cause you to exceed the plan’s maximum limit of 250 campaigns. If you receive an error related to exceeding this limit, we recommend changing your Manual Campaigns selection to reduce the plan’s campaign count.

You can segment the plan’s campaigns in the following ways:

  • AI Campaigns: Let AI automatically segment the plan’s campaigns by supported dimensions.

  • Manual Campaigns: Manually segment the plan’s campaigns by the supported dimensions of your choice (Location, Audience, Device Types, Inventory).

Segment with AI (AI Campaigns)

Follow these steps to automatically split the plan’s campaigns:

  1. Locate and expand the Advanced section.

  2. Select AI Campaigns.

Segment manually (Manual Campaigns)

Follow these steps to manually split the plan’s campaigns:

  1. Locate and expand the Advanced section.

  2. Select Manual Campaigns.

  3. Click the checkbox next to a targeting dimension to segment your campaigns by that dimension.

    1. Open the dimension’s menu to select individual parameters, if desired.

  4. Repeat step 3 for each selected dimension.

  5. Review the number of campaigns that the plan will include.

    1. More detailed Advanced plan settings typically result in a higher number of campaigns.

Generate Strategies

Follow these steps to generate media strategies from a plan:

  1. Click Generate Strategies only when you are ready to activate the plan. In other words, check that you’ve completed desired plan inputs.

    1. Note that the Generate Plan button is clickable only after all required sections have been completed.

  2. If you’re not ready to generate strategies from the plan, select Save As Draft to come back later.

Plans with a Voter TV+ objective will include a Next button in place of the Generate Strategies. This redirects you to cross-screen planning settings and insights. Refer to Voter TV+ for step-by-step instructions.

Voter TV+

Follow these steps to manage cross-screen planning settings and insights for plans with a Voter TV+ objective:

  1. Review the linear TV baseline details (Linear TV CPM, GRP (Linear TV)) and enter the CTV CPM.

  2. Choose how you’d like to model the plan’s Audience Overlap data.

    1. Refer to Key terms and concepts: Reach Distribution Settings for more details.

  3. Review reach forecasting metrics based on the plan’s Reach Distribution Settings.

    1. Note that Audience Overlap metrics pertain to the IQM Universe.

    2. Refer to Key terms and concepts: Audience Overlap for more details.

  4. Select Generate Proposal.

The proposal will begin generating immediately.

Review or add strategies and generate a proposal

Strategy notice: Reviewing and adding strategies is applicable for plans with a Reach Forecasting or Budget Estimation objective.

Review strategies

Depending on your plan inputs, a single plan may include up to five strategies. You’ll arrive at this page automatically when you select Generate Strategies from the plan creation workflow.

Refer to Plan outputs - Strategies for more information each row.

Edit strategies

Strategies can’t be directly edited. You can however, make adjustments to the plan itself by selecting Edit Plan.

After you apply your desired changes, refer to Generate Strategies to restart the strategy generation process and return to the Strategies page.

Edit a plan - Voter TV+

For plans with a Voter TV+ objective, you have the option to edit the plan’s Reach Distribution Settings.

Follow these steps to edit an existing plan’s Reach Distribution Settings:

  1. Select the Plans tab.

  2. Click the pencil icon in the Actions column of the desired plan.

  3. Select Next until you reach the 3 out of 3 Steps page of the plan.

  4. Review the linear TV baseline details (Linear TV CPM, GRP (Linear TV)) and enter the CTV CPM.

  5. Choose how you’d like to model the plan’s Audience Overlap data.

  6. Click Save Plan to apply the changes.

Add a strategy

You can add a new strategy in one of two ways:

Add a strategy from scratch

Follow these steps to manually enter all inputs for a new strategy:

  1. Select + Add Strategy. This will open the Add Strategy pop-up window.

  2. Enter a name for the strategy.

  3. Choose the From Existing Strategy creation method.

  4. Click Add. This will open a plan creation form, with the existing strategy’s details prefilled.

  5. Follow the steps outlined in Create a plan and generate strategies to update the plan elements of your choice. Note that only the following elements can be added:

    1. Frequency

    2. Pre-bid Audience

    3. 3rd Party Data Segments

    4. Inventory

    Other sections’ edits are limited to removing existing inputs.

  6. Select Generate Strategy to create the new strategy.

Add a strategy from an existing strategy

Follow these steps to create a new strategy starting from an existing strategy’s pre-filled details:

  1. Select + Add Strategy. This will open the Add Strategy pop-up window.

  2. Enter a name for the strategy.

  3. Choose the From Existing Strategy creation method.

  4. Open the Strategy menu and choose an existing strategy to start from.

  5. Click Add. This will open a plan creation form, with the existing strategy’s details prefilled.

  6. Follow the steps outlined in Create a plan and generate strategies to update the plan elements of your choice. Note that only the following elements can be added:

    1. Frequency

    2. Pre-bid Audience

    3. 3rd Party Data Segments

    4. Inventory

    Other sections’ edits are limited to removing existing inputs.

  7. Select Generate Strategy to create the new strategy.

Generate a proposal

Voter TV+ notice: Follow the steps outlined in Voter TV+ instead to generate a proposal for a plan with a Voter TV+ objective.

To generate a proposal, select Generate Proposal in the desired strategy’s column.

The proposal will begin generating immediately. You can open and adjust the proposal by following the steps outlined in Review and manage a generated proposal.

Review and manage a generated proposal

Review a proposal

Proposals featuring a Ready, Processing, or Converted status can be reviewed. You can review proposals in the following ways:

Review a proposal from the Strategies page

Follow these steps to review a proposal from the plan’s Strategies page:

  1. Select the number of proposals listed next to Generated Proposals. This will open the Generated Proposals pop-up window.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Proposal Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

Review a proposal from the Proposals tab

Follow these steps to review a proposal from the Proposals tab of the Planner app:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

Edit a proposal

Edit proposals with a Reach Forecasting or Budget Estimation objective

You can change a generated proposal’s name and start date, and the names of each of the proposal’s campaigns.

Follow these steps to apply changes to a generated proposal:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

  3. Located the desired proposal elements.

  4. Click Update Changes.

Edit proposals with a Voter TV+ objective

You can change a generated proposal’s CTV Budget and/or Linear TV budget and the names of each of the proposal’s campaigns. If you added location targeting settings during plan creation, you can also split the proposal’s campaigns by location.

Follow these steps to apply changes to a generated proposal:

  1. Follow steps 1 through 2 of Edit proposals with a Reach Forecasting or Budget Estimation objective.

  2. Apply the desired changes to the proposal.

    1. Edit the CTV Budget, if applicable.

    2. Edit the Linear TV Budget, if applicable.

    3. Split the proposal’s campaigns by the location dimension.

    4. Select the Campaign Name field to change a campaign’s name.

  3. Click Edit Plan.

Download a proposal

Proposals featuring a Ready, Processing, Converted, Failed, or Processing status can be downloaded. You can download proposals in the following ways:

Download a proposal from within a proposal

Follow these steps to download a proposal:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

  3. Open the Download menu.

  4. Choose Download as CSV or Download as XLSX, depending on your preference.

    1. Proposals generated from plans with a Voter TV+ objective can be downloaded as a PDF or XLSX file.

Download a proposal from the Proposals tab

Follow these steps to download a proposal from the Proposals tab of the Planner app:

  1. Click the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the download icon in the desired proposal’s Actions column.

  3. Choose Download as CSV or Download as XLSX, depending on your preference.

    1. Proposals generated from plans with a Voter TV+ objective can be downloaded as a PDF or XLSX file.

Duplicate a proposal

Proposals featuring a Ready, Processing, Converted, Failed, or Processing status can be duplicated. You can duplicate proposals in the following ways:

Duplicate a proposal from within a proposal

Follow these steps to duplicate a proposal:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

  3. Click the page icon. This will open the Duplicate Plan pop-up window.

  4. Enter the plan’s name.

  5. Choose the plan’s start and end dates.

  6. Select Duplicate.

  7. Follow the steps outlined in Create a plan to choose the plan’s inputs and generate strategies. The existing plan’s details are pre-filled.

Duplicate a proposal from the Plans tab

Follow these steps to duplicate a proposal from the Plans tab of the Planner app:

  1. Select the Plans tab.

  2. Click the page icon from the desired plan’s Actions column. This will open the Duplicate Plan pop-up window.

  3. Enter the plan’s name.

  4. Choose the plan’s start and end dates.

  5. Select Duplicate.

  6. Follow the steps outlined in Create a plan to choose the plan’s inputs and generate strategies. The existing plan’s details are pre-filled.

Delete a proposal

Proposals featuring a Ready, Failed, or Expired status can be deleted. You can delete proposals in the following ways:

Delete a proposal from within a proposal

Follow these steps to delete a proposal:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

  3. Select the trashcan icon.

Delete a proposal from the Proposals tab

Follow these steps to delete a proposal from the Proposals tab of the Planner app:

  1. Click the Proposals tab.

  2. Open the ellipses menu from the desired proposal’s Actions column.

  3. Select Delete.

Restore an expired proposal

Follow these steps to restore an expired proposal:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Click the checkbox next to the expired proposal that you’d like to restore.

  3. Select Restore. This will open the Restore Proposal pop-up window.

  4. Choose a new start date for the proposal.

  5. Click Restore.

Edit a proposal’s campaigns

You can edit one element of a proposal’s campaigns: their names.

Follow the steps outlined in Edit a proposal to change a campaign’s name.

Delete a proposal’s campaigns

Deletion notice: Note that deleted campaigns are unrecoverable, and this action is permanent. As a safeguard, consider duplicating a proposal before deleting any campaigns from it.

Follow these steps to delete campaigns from a generated proposal:

  1. Select the Proposals tab.

  2. Select the desired proposal from the Name column. This will open the proposal and its details.

  3. Locate the Campaigns section.

  4. Select the checkbox(es) next to the campaign(s) you’d like to delete.

  5. Click Delete.

Generate campaigns from a proposal

Once a proposal features a Ready status, you can generate its campaigns. This will convert a proposal into an insertion order (IO) and campaigns. Refer to Generate campaigns from a Political Planner proposal for step-by-step instructions.

Locate additional Political Planner resources

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