How to view the campaign forecast

While you're assigning a campaign or an ad item to a zone, AdButler can provide a forecast or estimate of the resulting daily impressions based on the assignment details that you set.

All of the Pacing & Schedule parameters, the advertiser CPM, and any active targeting options are considered in the forecast. AdButler will also take into account the assignment details of the campaigns or ad items that have already been assigned to the zone.

The zone to which you're assigning the campaign or ad item must have logged at least one impression in the last 30 days for a forecast to be calculated. Further, AdButler cannot provide a forecast for programmatic setups because we cannot account for the entire bidding process.
  1. Go to the section of the relevant campaign (Your AdButler > Advertisers > Your Advertiser > Your Campaign).
  2. Click Assign to Zone at the top right of the Zone Assignments table. A list of eligible zones will appear.
  3. Click on the checkbox beside the relevant zone. The Assignment Details page will appear.
  4. Select a serve method.
If you set Delivery Pacing to Smooth Delivery, you must enter an impression quota as well as start and end dates for the campaign. If you set a start date that has already passed, AdButler will force the start date to the present date.

The forecast requirements for campaigns with Smooth delivery turned on

Once you've selected a serve method, you can click on Forecast at the bottom of the right menu to view the estimated daily impressions of the campaign as it stands.

The Forecast button on the Assignment Details page

Each bar represents the estimated impressions for a specific date, starting from the current day as shown on the bottom left of the graph. You can hover your cursor over a bar to check the exact date and estimated impressions that it represents. You can also change the period shown in the graph by clicking on the period dropdown menu at the top right of the graph. You can choose to view the estimate daily impressions for the next 30, 60, or 90 days (if the duration of the campaign covers those periods).

A forecast where the campaign assignment has no conflict

You can adjust your assignment details then click on Forecast after each adjustment to see how the estimate will change. For example, the screenshot above shows the forecast of a campaign with its priority set to Sponsorship [5] (the highest priority).

Note how AdButler doesn't see any competing placements with the current assignment details. On the other hand, the screenshot below the same campaign with the same assignment details, except with its priority now set to Standard [4].

A forecast where the campaign assignment has conflicts

You can now see which existing placements compete with the campaign you are trying to assign to the same zone, along with their key assignment details and stats.

You can use the search bar at the top right of the Competing Placements table to search for a particular placement. You can also adjust how many competing placements are shown at once by clicking on the View Rows dropdown menu at the bottom left of the table.

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