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This article describes the basic functions of media costs and metrics in the media plan.
Introduction
Mercury Media provides information on a variety of cost metrics for plan items. A distinction is made between forecast values and realised values.
Forecast values reflect the expected media performance and related metrics. These values make it possible to assess the quality of a campaign in advance and serve as a basis for approvals by the advertising party and for advance invoices.
Realised values are based on actual delivery figures. They reflect the campaign values actually delivered and are relevant for final invoices.
Please note that realised values need to be used for accounting with both publishers and technical vendors (e.g. agency ad servers). These values are not the same.
Special characteristics of realised (delivered) values
Discrepancies may arise with regard to the actual delivery when conducting a campaign, e.g. a publisher ad server may report different delivery figures than the agency ad server (count discrepancies).
As a result, neither of these figures are used for invoicing in some cases, with an intermediate value being negotiated instead.
In Mercury Media, both the figures measured by the agency and those negotiated with publishers and, if applicable, technical vendors can be mapped transparently.
For this, the following fields are available (example based on clicks):
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Field name | Description | Ex.1 (CPC booking, 50% discount-in-kind) | Ex.2 (CPC booking,0% discount-in-kind) | Ex.3 (CPM booking) |
| REALIZED: Clicks (ad server) | Value measured by agency ad server | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| REALIZED: Clicks (negotiated with technical vendor) | Optional value, if negotiated with technical vendor | 600 | 800 | |
| REALIZED: Clicks (invoicing technical) | Amount relevant for invoicing with technical vendors If available, the negotiated value is entered here; if unavailable, the measured value is entered. | 600 | 1,000 | 800 |
| REALIZED: Clicks (negotiated with publisher) | Optional value if negotiated with publisher | 1,200 | ||
| REALIZED: Clicks including discount-in-kind | If available, the amount negotiated with the publisher is entered here; if unavailable, the amount measured by the ad server is shown. | 1,200 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| REALIZED: Clicks (invoicing media) | The amount negotiated with the publisher or measured by the ad server minus the discount-in-kind is shown. However, the amount is capped at 100% of the amount booked. Please note: This field contains 0 for plan items with clicks in an amount not relevant for invoicing (e.g. CPM bookings). | 750 | 1,000 | - |
Example 1
This example shows a CPC booking with 50% discount-in-kind.
750 clicks were booked (plus 375 clicks discount-in-kind).
1,000 clicks were measured by the agency ad server.
Negotiations with the technical vendor specify that only 600 clicks have to be paid.
Negotiations with the publisher specify that 1,200 clicks are relevant for invoicing.
The amount relevant for reporting and accounting is therefore 1,200.
The amount to be invoiced is 750 clicks (1,200 clicks less 50%discount-in-kind)
Example 2
This example shows a CPC booking with 0% discount-in-kind.
1,000clicks were measured.
A deviating amount was not negotiated with the technical vendor.
A deviating amount was not negotiated with the publisher.
The amount relevant for reporting and accounting is therefore 1,000 clicks.
The amount to be invoiced is 1,000 clicks.
Example 3
This example shows a CPM booking.
1,000 clicks were measured.
Negotiations with the technical vendor specify that only 800 clicks have to be paid.
No special agreements have been made with the publisher.
The amount relevant for reporting and accounting is therefore 1,000 clicks.
The amount to be invoiced is 0 clicks, as ad impressions were booked rather than clicks.
Overview in the viewer
The viewer provides an overview of the values. The viewer can be opened by double clicking one of the columns that show clicks, impressions or conversions.