Forecasting Guide

From Mocean Mobile Wiki

Version 2.1

Contents 1 Forecasting Overview 1.1 Holding Campaigns 2 Create New Forecasting Report 2.1 Forecast Period 2.2 Targeting Criteria 2.2.1 Device Targeting Criteria 2.2.2 Location Targeting Criteria 2.3 Placements 2.4 Save Forecasting Report 3 Load Saved Report 3.1 Edit Forecast Parameters 3.1.1 Edit Placement 3.1.2 Edit Targeting Criteria 3.2 Save Changes 3.3 Reset the Report 3.4 Delete Report 3.5 Save As New 4 Forecasting API

Forecasting Overview

Under Forecasting sub-navigation tab, you are able to view a forecast based on activity in your specific networks as well as super networks. The default forecasting screen is an overview of requests and clicks for the nearest week.

To view forecasts for another period of time, select one of the pre-defined periods (e.g. a week, a month, 3 months and a year) in the ' Period ' select box or specify the range of dates to begin and finish the report. Click Go to generate the forecasting report for the specified period.

To change chart metrics, use the ' Chart ' select box.

You can see the detailed information (the total number of requests and clicks, CTR, booked requests and revenue predicted) in the table right below the chart. The total network characteristics labeled '(All)' are available at the top of the result list.
NOTE: Forecasting report is generated including information on campaigns with Sponsorship, Ranked or Fixed Percentage priority types only. Inventory of campaigns with Performance Based and Backfill priority types is ignored

The data is grouped by zone. To view the date breakdown for each zone, click at the left of the zone in question.

To obtain the detailed information for each date, click on a specific date link. The table expanded will have the following columns:

• ID - the ID of the campaign reported.
• Campaign Name - the name of the campaign.
• Start - the date when the campaign has been/must be started.
• Type - one of the following types of inventory: booked, held or available (see section Holding Campaigns).
• Priority - campaign priority type (1 - sponsorship, 2 - ranked, 3 - fixed percentage)
• Allocation - the part of total inventory taken by the campaign.
• Requests - the predicted number of campaign requests.
• Revenue - the total revenue in dollars expected to be gained for the specified period of time.

Holding Campaigns

When generating forecasts, all the mobile inventory - the sum total of all the requests and clicks available - is divided between two types of campaigns:

• Held - campaigns with the 'held' status set but not running at the moment. In future such campaigns are to be running and so will require some inventory.
  To create a held campaign, select ‘Set as Held Ad’ option on the Delivery tab during the campaign creation process. After a held campaign has been created, it is placed to the Held campaigns list.
  NOTE: Fourteen days are given for you to ‘held’ a campaign by default. After fourteen days expire, if the ‘held’ status isn't removed, a campaign goes into deleted campaigns. Herewith, the ‘held’ status won't be deleted automatically. To remove ‘held’ status, deselect ‘Set as Held Ad’ option.
  NOTE: How to change the number of Held Campaign Expired Days set by default you can find at Edit Custom Preferences.

• Booked (or sold) - all other campaigns without 'held' status.

Create New Forecasting Report

To create a new forecasting report, click on Create New Forecasting Report.

Proceed the following steps to complete the report creation.

Forecast Period

Specify the forecast period by selecting one of the pre-defined periods (e.g. a week, a month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months) in a select box or specify the range of dates to begin and finish the report.

Targeting Criteria

You can set the following targeting criteria:

• Device
• Location

Device Targeting Criteria

To generate a forecasting report by certain devices, select ' Device ' option. Then, specify the desired device manufacturer, platform or capabilities. You can generate the report for all the devices available regardless of their type and capabilities or specify certain device manufacturers/platforms/capabilities as well as exclude any of them from forecasting.

• Phone Manufacturer:
  • Select 'All' to generate the forecasting report for all the phone manufacturers available.
  • Select 'Specify' to specify certain phone manufacturers. Check the desired manufacturers from the list appeared.

Clicking on the number at the end of the selected manufacturer will prompt to appearing of the list of phone models concerned with the manufacturer in question.

Select the desired phone models from the list appeared.

• To exclude certain manufacturers from the report under creation, select 'Exclude', then specify phone models and manufacturers you want to exclude from forecasting.

• Platforms:
  • Select 'All' to generate the forecasting report for all the phone platforms available.
  • Select 'Specify' to specify certain platforms. Check the desired platforms from the list appeared.

  

  • To exclude certain platforms from the forecasting report, select 'Exclude'. Then, specify phone platforms you want to exclude.

Location Targeting Criteria

You are also able to generate forecasting reports for a certain location (countries/regions, carriers, coordinates, points of interest, etc).

• Countries:
  • Select 'All' to generate the forecasting report for all of the countries available.
  • Select 'Specify' to specify certain countries. Check the desired countries from the list appeared. The number of regions concerned is shown as a link at the end of the selected country. Clicking on this link will prompt to appearing of the list of regions concerned with the country in question.

• To exclude certain countries from the forecasting report, select 'Exclude'. Then, specify countries/regions you want to exclude.

• Carriers:
  • Select 'All' to generate the forecasting report for all of the carriers available.
  • Select 'Specify' to specify certain carriers. Check the desired carriers from the list appeared.

• To exclude certain carriers from the forecasting report, select 'Exclude'. Then, specify those you want to exclude.

Placements

Specify the desired placement setting by selecting one of the following options:

• Browse network map
  You can link the ad not only with a specific network/site/zone but also with a certain channel.
  To select all records check ' Run Of Network '.

• Use saved placement setting(s)
  If you have a placement into your library, you can use it for the forecastinfg report creation.

Save Forecasting Report

To save a forecasting report check the ' Save Report ' checkbox, then enter a name and click on the Save Report button.

To complete a forecasting report creation push the Generate Forecast Report button.

Load Saved Report

In addition to creating a new forecasting report, you can load previously saved reports. Select the desired report from the ' Load saved report ' select box. Then, click Load.

The report you have selected will appear in the form of chart; the detailed information grouped by zone will appear in a table below. To view campaign-specific data, click on . That allows for the campaign list to expand.

Edit Forecast Parameters

You can view all the parameters the report is targeted by on the panel at the right; It also allows for updates in forecast parameters (both ’PLACEMENT’ and ’TARGETING CRITERIA’) by including additional parameters or excluding those unnecessary.

Edit Placement

To add some additional placements to your forecasting report, select ’edit’ link at the top of PLACEMENT panel. Then, specify your desired placement settings as it is described in the Placement section.

An example of excluding a certain zone from the PLACEMENT is given below. Click on to the left of the zone you want to exclude from the report. The same is for excluding sites and networks.

To view the updated report, select Update Report at the bottom of Forecast Parameters panel.

Edit Targeting Criteria

To change targeting criteria of the report being viewed, select ’edit’ link at the top of TARGETING CRITERIA panel. Then, include those your need or exclude unnecessary ones as it is described in section Targeting Criteria).

Save Changes

To save changes in the forecasting report being viewed, click ' Save ' at the bottom of the Forecast Parameters panel.

Reset the Report

To cancel all the changes made, select ' Reset ' at the bottom of the Forecast Parameters panel.

Delete Report

To delete the report, select the Delete option at the bottom of the Forecast Parameters panel.

Save As New

To save the current report as new, enable the ' Save as new ' check-box at the bottom of the Forecast Parameters panel.

Forecasting API

You are also able to retrieve different forecasting information by means of REST API functions. See Inventory Forecasting API Methods to obtain more info.