How to Create a Programmatic Media Plan, Step by Step

A media plan is a simple promise on paper. It says where the money goes, what it should deliver and how you will know whether it worked. A programmatic plan adds one more layer: every line has to translate into something a demand-side platform such as DV360 can actually buy.

Here is a seven-step way to build one, with a worked example and a template you can copy.

What goes into a programmatic media plan?

A complete plan answers ten questions. If any of them is blank, the plan is not ready.

Step 1: What is the campaign meant to achieve?

Pick one primary objective and write down the KPI that proves it. Plans that chase awareness, traffic and leads at once usually do none of them well.

CTR is click-through rate, the share of impressions that led to a click. ROAS is return on ad spend. A secondary objective is fine, but it should not change the channel mix much.

Step 2: Who are you trying to reach, and where?

Describe the audience the way you would to a colleague, then translate it into targeting. "Women aged 25 to 44 in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka who are planning a home loan" becomes age and gender settings, two states, Tamil and Kannada languages, and an in-market segment.

Write down which data you will use. Options include demographics, interests, in-market segments, your own first-party lists, contextual keywords and retargeting. Keep the brief honest about what matters. Every extra layer shrinks the audience and raises the price.

Geography and language deserve their own line. A plan for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar needs Hindi creatives and Hindi-heavy inventory. A plan for Kerala needs Malayalam. Our industry pages show which audiences and channels tend to suit each category.

Step 3: How much budget, and over which dates?

Fix the total budget, the start and end dates and the flighting, which is how spend is spread across those dates. Three patterns cover most campaigns:

• Continuous, with even spend every week. Good for always-on brands.
• Burst or pulsing, with heavy weeks and lighter weeks. Good for stretching a budget across a longer season.
• Front-loaded, heavier at launch and tapering off. Good for launches and sales.

Mark key dates such as Diwali, an IPL season or an admissions window, and plan heavier weeks around them. If the plan includes Programmatic Guaranteed deals, leave time for publishers to confirm inventory, especially on festive and sports dates.

Step 4: How should you split budget across channels?

Split by the job each channel does, then adjust for your audience and budget. Here are typical starting points, similar to where our plans start before industry adjustments:

Treat these as a first draft. A BFSI brand usually shifts weight to finance and news publishers. A car brand often adds connected TV, plus airport and highway DOOH.

Budget size matters too. Under about ₹10 lakh, keep it to three or four channels, so each one gets enough money to reach people more than once.

Step 5: Which buying type should each line use?

Give every line a buying type, because it decides both the price and the paperwork.

• Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) fixes the price and volume with one publisher. Use it when you need a specific app, site or date.
• A Preferred Deal fixes the price without promising volume.
• A private marketplace (PMP) is an invite-only auction with a floor price.
• Open auction is the widest and cheapest, with the least control over placement.

Check minimums before you commit a line. Our indicative figures put JioHotstar entertainment, ZEE5 and SonyLIV at about ₹10 lakh each, regional apps such as Sun NXT and aha at about ₹5 lakh, and news publishers at about ₹5 lakh each. Our guide on how to buy premium publisher inventory covers the deal process, and the premium inventory page lists what is available.

Step 6: How do you estimate delivery, reach and frequency?

Use three formulas, then sense-check them:

• Impressions = budget ÷ CPM × 1,000
• Views = budget ÷ CPV
• Reach ≈ impressions ÷ average frequency

CPM is the cost of 1,000 impressions and CPV the cost of one view. Reach is the number of unique people who see the ad, and frequency is how often each of them sees it on average.

Do not add reach across channels without a discount, because the same person can see you on YouTube and on an OTT app. Inside DV360, the campaign planning tool forecasts reach, frequency and CPM for a given budget and targeting, where reach forecasting is supported, and our post on how to forecast impressions in DV360 explains how. For the maths in more depth, see our reach and frequency calculator, and to turn rates into a budget, use the programmatic advertising cost calculator guide.

A worked example: ₹40 lakh for a four-week FMCG launch

Say a snack brand wants awareness among adults aged 18 to 44 in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, in Hindi, for four weeks. The rates below are illustrative, taken from inside our indicative ranges.

That is a blended CPM of about ₹181. The ZEE5 line clears its ₹10 lakh indicative minimum, which is why the example uses ₹40 lakh and not ₹25 lakh.

For reach, assume an average frequency of 4 on YouTube, 3 on ZEE5 and online video, and 5 on display. That gives roughly 55 lakh people before overlap. A quick shortcut is a flat overlap discount. At an illustrative 28%, plan on about 40 lakh unique people, then replace the estimate with deduplicated reach from DV360 once the campaign runs. DOOH is left out of the reach sum because its impressions are estimated viewers, not unique people.

Step 7: What creatives and measurement do you need before launch?

List every asset by line: 6-second bumpers, 15 or 20 second cuts for OTT, vertical video for Shorts, silent cuts for DOOH, and standard display sizes. Add language versions. Missing sizes are the most common reason a line launches late.

Then fix measurement. For action campaigns, place conversion tags or connect your analytics before day one, as covered in our guide on how to track conversions in DV360. For awareness, agree how you will judge reach, frequency, video completion and, where the budget qualifies, brand lift. Name each line in the plan the way it will be named in DV360, so the report maps straight back to the plan.

What does a good plan template look like?

One row per line, with every number traceable to a formula. Copy these columns into a spreadsheet:

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Too many channels for the budget, so nothing gets enough frequency.
• Planning to the lowest CPM instead of the cost of reaching each person.
• Forgetting deal minimums and lead times until the week of launch.
• No measurement plan, so the campaign cannot be judged.
• A plan whose lines do not match how the campaign will be built, which makes reporting slow and messy.

If you are planning a brand campaign specifically, our guide on how to create a digital branding campaign goes further on reach and creative. For typical CPMs by channel and what ₹5 lakh and ₹25 lakh buy, see how much programmatic advertising costs.

Next step

For a first draft of this plan, ask for a free media plan. A DV360 specialist applies channel weights for your industry and objective, suggests publishers and rates, and sends you the plan within one working day. If you would rather check the logic first, our post on how a media plan generator works walks through the formulas and a spreadsheet template.