Quick scene setter, your current media playbook

• How long has your team managed paid media in this organizational structure? Options: Less than 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 1 to 3 years, 3+ years
• Describe the primary audiences you target today and the data sources you use to define them
• Which channels make up most of your current paid media spend? Options: Digital display, Programmatic, Social, Search, Linear TV, Connected TV, Out of home, Audio, Other
• Roughly how much does your organization spend on paid media per quarter? Options: Under $100k, $100k to $500k, $500k to $1M, $1M to $5M, Over $5M
• Who on your team currently owns media governance, and is that ownership formalized? Options: Head of Media, Director of Growth, VP Marketing, Analytics/Measurement team, Procurement, No single owner, Other

Where the current setup erodes performance

• If your last audit showed a substantial portion of programmatic spend was non-viewable or low quality, what in your buying process allowed that to happen?
• When was the last time you ran a paid media audit comparing CPMs, viewability, and waste by vendor? Options: In the last 3 months, 3 to 6 months ago, 6 to 12 months ago, Over a year, Never
• Which controls do you currently use to exclude low-quality inventory? Options: Blocklists/blacklists, Pre-bid filters, Viewability minimums, Whitelist publishers, Third-party verification, None
• How often do invoice or reporting numbers differ materially from bid-level delivery data? Options: Always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never
• What single failure in your current setup would make you stop a campaign immediately?

Who's steering the ship and who's listening

• Which stakeholder on your side would veto a new agency or buying approach, and why?
• List the internal approvals and committees a media change must pass through and the typical timeline for each
• Which KPIs is leadership using this quarter to evaluate media performance? Options: Sales lift, ROAS, CPA/CPL, Brand reach, Viewable impressions, Other
• When a campaign falls short of goals, who is expected to explain the outcome first? Options: Agency/partner, In-house media lead, Analytics team, Procurement, CMO/VP Marketing, No clear owner
• If leadership insisted on a conservative, sales-tied attribution model, would that prevent you from moving forward? Options: Yes, it would, No, we could comply, We would need more information

What is getting in the way right now

• Which recurring operational friction costs you the most time or budget each quarter?
• Tell me about a recent campaign that missed goals, what broke, and when it became apparent
• How does fragmentation across vendors or channels affect your ability to hit target frequency and reach? Options: Significantly, Moderately, Slightly, Not at all
• Which internal practices would need to change for a different buying model to work here? Options: Data sharing agreements, PO and payment terms, Reporting cadence, Creative operations, Decision authority, None
• What deadline or upcoming event forces a decision on changing media providers? Options: Contract renewal date, End of fiscal quarter, Product launch, Board or investor review, No fixed deadline

The other paths you're considering

• If you stayed with your current approach, what would have to be true about its performance to justify keeping it?
• Which external alternatives are you actively evaluating right now? Options: Incumbent agency, New agency partners, Build an internal buying team, Shift to direct deals, Do nothing
• Have any internal stakeholders proposed solving this without an external partner, and how serious is that proposal? Options: Yes, actively building internal team, Yes, shifting vendor mix, Not seriously considered, Unsure
• Which capability from another option would most persuade you to switch vendors? Options: Lower media costs, Transparent fee structure, Clear sales-lift measurement, Stronger audience targeting, Faster time to launch
• What would need to change about the incumbent for you to keep them after procurement review?

Budget, commercials, and what success pays for

• If we needed to reduce CPMs by 15 percent to make the plan work, what budget flexibility would you be willing to provide?
• Which budget and fee model do you prefer for media and agency services? Options: Percentage of media spend, Flat management fee, Performance bonus, Hybrid model, Undecided
• How transparent are your current insertion orders and fee structures with media partners? Options: Fully transparent, Partially transparent, Mostly opaque, Unknown
• What are your minimum ROI or sales-lift targets for a first quarter pilot? Options: Under 5 percent lift, 5 to 10 percent lift, 10 to 20 percent lift, 20 percent or more, No formal target
• If the negotiated commercial terms required signed data sharing agreements and a DPA, could you meet the contract timelines? Options: Yes, No, Need legal review

Operational readiness, integrations, and timeline risks

• Which single technical or data gap would make a launch impossible on your target date?
• Which analytics and ad accounts will we need access to for measurement and optimization? Options: Ad platform accounts, Analytics property, CRM or order data, CDP or audience platform, Billing and PO systems
• Are deterministic identifiers available and accessible for measurement once contracts are in place? Options: Yes, ready to share, Available after legal setup, Not available, Unsure
• Who on your side will be the day to day owner for creative approvals, data pulls, and tracker placement? Options: Media lead, Analytics owner, Ad ops, Procurement, External vendor, Unassigned
• Are there regulatory or compliance approvals that usually add more than two weeks to integrations? Options: Yes, often, Sometimes, Rarely, No
• If we required an API or secure file transfer to your CRM for near real time measurement, could you provision it within four weeks? Options: Yes, No, We can in 8+ weeks

Measurement, attribution, and where the numbers tell the truth

• Which attribution result would make you pull back digital spend immediately?
• How do you currently measure sales lift versus last click or modeled contribution? Options: Experimental lift tests, Modelled multi touch attribution, Last click only, Hybrid approaches, We do not measure sales lift
• Which closed loop revenue sources can we connect to validate lift and conversion? Options: Direct POS, Ecommerce backend, CRM lead to revenue, Third party panel, None available
• How often do you reconcile attribution differences between channels and vendors? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, Never
• What level of statistical confidence or minimum detectable lift do you require from a pilot to act on results? Options: High (p < 0.05), Moderate (p < 0.1), Practical significance is enough, No formal requirement
• If a pilot showed the sales lift within the agreed confidence, what approvals would be required to scale immediately?

Deciding week, what would make you say yes

• If the pilot proves the sales lift you require, what would stop you from signing the statement of work that week?
• Which internal documents or approvals are required to finalize commercial terms and start execution? Options: Budget sign off, Legal data processing agreement, Procurement PO, Board or executive approval, None
• Who is the final signer for vendor agreements and insertion orders in your organization? Options: VP Marketing, Procurement, CFO, CEO, General Counsel
• What timeline would you consider acceptable between pilot completion and full scale? Options: Immediately, 2 to 4 weeks, One quarter, Longer than one quarter
• What single remaining risk would make you pause the decision this quarter?

• Media Strategy Walkthrough

• Confirm the current state and its cost to your team
• You confirm that the demonstrated cross-channel plan meets your reach and frequency targets within the stated budget and lowers projected wasted impressions.
• Run a sample cross-channel forecast using the buyer's most recent quarter spend, and deliver a comparative CPM, reach, and projected sales-lift model before the follow-up session.
• You confirm that the buying approach and supply-quality controls are sufficient to reduce non-viewable programmatic spend to a single-digit percentage.
• Cross-channel planning scenario using your KPIs
• Provide the last quarter's programmatic delivery report including viewability, invalid traffic, and CPMs.
• Confirm the buying committee decision criteria and attendee list for the validation session.
• You agree the attribution approach produces a sales-lift metric acceptable for procurement and board reporting, and identify any remaining gaps.
• Buying approach and supply-quality controls
• Attribution and sales-lift proof with benchmarks
• You agree on the specific evidence and timeline required for the buying committee to decide.
• Agree on the scope and metrics for a short validation pilot to verify attribution and supply-quality improvements within the first 30 days.
• Validate alignment with your decision criteria
• Agree next evidence and decision timeline

• Media Strategy Walkthrough
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief — Media Strategy Walkthrough

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Activate programmatic campaign buys
• Execute paid social campaigns
• Execute paid search campaigns
• Execute direct-response television buys
• Buy digital and physical out-of-home placements
• Purchase audio placements (streaming and broadcast)
• Place print ad buys and insertions
• Deploy proprietary bid optimization
• Onboard and activate first-party audience data
• Manage insertion orders and billing reconciliation
• Traffic creatives and apply ad tagging
• Manage in-flight optimization and pacing
• Implement media-to-sales attribution and lift measurement
• Enforce viewability, brand-safety, and fraud controls

Activate programmatic campaign buys

• Provide the DSP account ID(s) and environment (test/production) you want us to use for programmatic buys
• Specify the campaign flight start and end dates and any hard blackout windows
• List the first-party segment IDs, CRM audiences, or cookie/mobile ad IDs you expect to activate programmatically
• Indicate acceptable inventory types for this buy Options: Open exchange, Private marketplace, Programmatic guaranteed, Preferred deals
• State the bid strategy or optimization objective to apply (for example target CPM, maximize conversions, target CPA) Options: Cost per mille (CPM) target, Maximize conversions, Target CPA, eCPM floor
• Confirm whether pre-bid brand-safety and viewability pre-filters must be applied at activation Options: Yes, No

Execute paid social campaigns

• Provide the paid social ad account IDs or business account names to be used
• Select the paid social placement categories to include Options: Social feed, Short-form video, Stories/Reels, Messaging placements, Audience network
• Describe which first-party signals (hashed email lists, CRM segments, pixel audiences) you want applied to social targeting
• Share how creative assets will be delivered (folder path, naming convention, CDN link) and any versioning rules
• Specify the KPI mix for paid social (for example target CPA, ROAS, or engagement target) and any channel-level minimums Options: Cost per acquisition (CPA), Return on ad spend (ROAS), Engagement rate, View-through conversions
• Confirm whether placement-level viewability and brand-safety verification is required for social placements Options: Yes, No

Execute paid search campaigns

• Provide the search ad account IDs and the primary billing account used for paid search
• Describe the keyword strategy and negative keyword lists you want enforced (match types, seed lists)
• List the conversion actions in your analytics platform that should be used for search bidding and reporting
• Indicate the daily or weekly budget caps and any ad group-level spend floors Options: Daily cap, Weekly cap, No cap
• State the preferred bidding approach for search (for example maximize clicks, target CPA, manual CPC) Options: Maximize clicks, Target CPA, Manual CPC, Enhanced CPC
• Confirm whether you require search term-level exports pushed to your analytics or data warehouse Options: Yes, No

Execute direct-response television buys

• Provide the broadcast flight dates, dayparts, and any hard blacklist/whitelist of shows or networks
• Name the DMAs (designated market areas) or regional markets targeted for TV buys
• Specify required creative formats and lengths to deliver (for example 6s, 15s, 30s) and file delivery method Options: 6s, 15s, 30s, Custom length
• Detail the measurement identifiers you will provide for TV matching (set-top box IDs, household hashes, panel IDs)
• Provide your target GRP or reach/frequency goal for the TV flight or acceptable audience reach thresholds
• Confirm whether program-level dayparting and program blacklists are mandatory for activation Options: Yes, No

Buy digital and physical out-of-home placements

• List the DOOH and physical venue types to target (for example transit, roadside, mall concourse, retail displays) Options: Transit, Roadside billboards, Mall concourse, Retail digital displays, Office building lobbies
• Provide flight dates, daily impression targets, or impression guarantees for each location cluster
• Specify the creative file formats, resolutions, and orientation required per screen type
• Describe how you expect location-level reporting to arrive (screen ID, lat/long, impressions, timestamps)
• Indicate whether you require mobile location-match audience verification for DOOH placements Options: Yes, No
• Select any triggers that should change DOOH rotations (for example weather, time of day, local events) Options: No triggers, Weather-based, Time-of-day, Event-based

Purchase audio placements (streaming and broadcast)

• Identify the audio inventory categories in scope (for example ad-supported music, podcasts, talk radio) Options: Ad-supported music, Podcasts, Talk radio, Live sports radio
• Provide required creative lengths and formats for streaming and broadcast (for example 15s, 30s, VAST) and delivery method Options: 15s, 30s, VAST/IMA, Other
• Describe the targeting signals to apply for audio (listener demographics, contextual categories, first-party segments)
• Supply the flight dates and daily impression or listener caps for audio buys
• Confirm whether completion rate or listen-through metrics must be exported to your analytics platform Options: Yes, No
• Name the approver responsible for final audio creative and insertion order sign-off

Place print ad buys and insertions

• List the print publications, run dates, and edition specifics included in scope
• Specify print ad sizes, bleed requirements, color profile, and accepted file formats for delivery
• Describe the proofing workflow you require prior to press (PDF proof, physical proof, color check) and approval gates Options: PDF proof approval, Physical proof, Color check, Other
• Provide the circulation or run quantity figures and any placement acceptance thresholds
• Indicate the documents you will accept for invoice reconciliation for print (tear sheet, publisher confirmation, insertion receipt) Options: Tear sheet, Publisher invoice, Placement confirmation, Other
• Confirm whether archived physical samples or digital archives of printed inserts are required for audit Options: Yes, No

Deploy proprietary bid optimization

• Identify which channels or campaign types should be governed by the proprietary bid optimizer Options: Programmatic display, Paid social, Paid search, DOOH
• Provide the performance objectives the optimizer should prioritize (for example CPA, ROAS, incremental sales lift)
• Specify integration endpoints and credentials required for bid signal exchange (for example DSP API, bidder endpoint) and security method Options: API key, OAuth, SFTP
• Detail guardrails required for the optimizer such as bid caps, floor prices, and pacing constraints
• Indicate whether you require a test or sandbox period with a baseline performance comparison before full rollout Options: Yes, No
• State the recalibration cadence desired for the bid model (for example hourly, daily) Options: Hourly, Daily, Weekly

Onboard and activate first-party audience data

• List the first-party sources to onboard (for example CRM export, site analytics audiences, loyalty platform) and expected file formats Options: CRM export, Site analytics, Hashed emails, Loyalty platform
• Provide segment IDs, approximate audience sizes, and freshness requirements (for example daily, weekly) Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Custom
• Describe the secure transfer method you will use to provide hashed PII or match files to the integration endpoint Options: SFTP, Secure upload portal, API
• Detail privacy constraints to enforce on these audiences such as consent flags, suppression lists, or retention windows
• Confirm whether you want lookalike or modeled audiences created from onboarded segments Options: Yes, No
• State any minimum match-rate or segment-size thresholds required before activation

Manage insertion orders and billing reconciliation

• Provide the insertion order (IO) numbering convention, PO references, and preferred invoice format
• Specify billing cadence and payment terms to appear on IOs (for example Net 30, Net 45) Options: Net 30, Net 45, Net 60, Advance payment
• Provide the general ledger (GL) codes or chart of accounts fields required on invoices
• What evidence will validate IO reconciliation (for example platform delivery reports, third-party verification reports, tear sheets)?
• Name the authorized billing contact and invoice approver plus their email and phone for escalation
• Confirm whether you require a formal disputed-invoice SLA and crediting workflow Options: Yes, No

• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Insertion Order (IO) / Order Form
• Fee Transparency & Rebate Disclosure
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA) & Data Sharing Permissions
• Campaign Acceptance Criteria & Sign-Off
• Payment Schedule & Invoice Terms
• Change Order & Amendment
• Industry Compliance Addendum (conditional)

• Go-live Health Check (weeks 1-4)
• First Measurement Review (weeks 4-10)
• Acceptance Gate and Incumbent Wind-down (around day 90)
• Ongoing Optimization Sync (monthly operational meeting)
• Quarterly Review and Planning

• Apply the agreed audience reweighting and document expected performance change and monitoring window.
• Archive legacy campaign assets and deliver a migration confirmation report showing data locations and retention status.
• Publish the acceptance decision record and remediation plan with named signatory recorded.
• Schedule verification check that remediation items are closed within the agreed timelines.
• Performance snapshot vs Campaign Scope targets
• Confirm that incremental conversions and eCPM are moving in the intended direction month-over-month.
• Reduce non-viewable impression rate through agreed inventory and verification tasks.
• Leave with a prioritized and timebound optimization plan for the next month.
• Reconfirm success criteria and owners
• Add or update inventory exclusions to address sources contributing to non-viewable impressions.
• Deliver a one-page post-test summary within five business days after each optimization completes.
• Quarter outcomes vs Campaign Scope targets
• Confirm measured sales lift (%) and incremental conversions for the quarter and determine whether they meet the trajectory set in Campaign Scope.
• Resolve any major attribution discrepancies and document the agreed canonical attribution approach for planning.
• Agree the next quarter's optimization plan, budget adjustments, and measurement changes in writing.
• Publish the quarter performance dossier including the canonical attribution dataset and test outcomes.
• Update the next quarter plan to reflect agreed budget shifts, test catalog, and measurement windows.
• Implement any data-sharing or analytics access changes required for improved measurement fidelity.
• Confirm deployment components are live and tracking is emitting expected events.
• Document any open blockers with remediation tasks and completion dates.
• Verify named owners for each critical integration and data feed referenced in Campaign Scope.
• Fix any non-firing tracking pixel and validate event receipts in the analytics endpoint.
• Restore or grant missing ad account and analytics access and confirm successful logins.
• Publish a short deployment runbook documenting where each data feed is located and who owns it.
• Present first measurement results
• Determine whether measured sales lift (%) and incremental conversions are progressing toward the targets recorded in Campaign Scope.
• Identify the primary root causes for any shortfalls, including non-viewable inventory and pacing issues.
• Agree a prioritized list of corrective actions with dates to restore trajectory before the acceptance gate.
• Implement supply quality exclusion list to reduce non-viewable impression rate and monitor impact.
• Adjust bidding parameters for underperforming audience segments and document expected lift timeline.
• Deliver a reconciled measurement dataset used for sales-lift calculation ahead of the acceptance meeting.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Produce a documented acceptance decision against the numeric targets recorded in Campaign Scope with a named buyer signatory if managed engagement.
• Confirm incumbent has been decommissioned or retained read-only, and that data migration or archiving is complete.
• Agree remediation items for any failed acceptance criteria with completion dates and verification steps.
• Review optimizations executed and observed impact
• Attribution reconciliation
• Present outcome data against each criterion
• Diagnose performance gaps
• Deployment and trafficking validation
• Surface persistent blockers
• Document pass or fail per criterion and acceptance decision
• Document learnings and channel-level performance
• Agree corrective actions and timelines
• Access and data feed checks
• Agree next quarter optimizations and measurement updates
• Early delivery signals review
• Confirm timeline to acceptance gate
• Agree next month's optimization plan
• Incumbent decommissioning review
• Blockers and immediate remediation
• Remediation plan for any failed criteria