How do you make a media plan in Excel?
Put one row per channel and placement, the campaign’s weeks across the top, and each week’s net spend in the cells where the channel runs. Row totals give each channel’s budget, column totals the weekly spend, and gross = net ÷ (1 − commission). This template has all of that built in: pick a start date and length and download it.
Template or builder?
The Excel template is best when the plan needs to live in a spreadsheet the client already uses. The free media plan builder does the same job on a drag-and-drop timeline, imports existing Excel plans and exports a client-ready PDF, with no formulas to break.
Before you fill it in
- Work out the total budget from the target with the marketing funnel calculator.
- Agree whether the budget is gross or net; convert with the agency commission calculator.
- Plan impressions per channel with the CPM calculator.
Once it’s live, tag every channel with the UTM builder and keep spend on plan with the pacing calculator. More on structure in how to build a multi-channel media plan.
How to use the media plan template
- Choose the dates. Pick the first week and the length (13, 26 or 52 weeks), set your commission, and download.
- Add channels. Fill in one row per channel and placement, with its funnel stage and audience.
- Enter weekly spend. Type each week’s net spend where the channel runs; those weeks shade in.
- Check the totals. Net, commission and gross per row, and weekly and monthly totals, update on their own.
Frequently asked questions
What should a media plan include?
The objective and KPIs, the audience, each channel and placement, the flight dates for each, the budget per channel and per week or month, and the total in both net (media) and gross (client-billed) terms.
What is a media flowchart?
A media flowchart is a media plan laid out as a calendar: channels down the side, weeks across the top, with shaded cells showing when each channel runs. This template is a media flowchart with budgets in the cells.
Why are weeks grouped by the month their Thursday falls in?
Media is bought in whole weeks, so a week that spans two months has to belong to one of them. Taking the month of its Thursday (the middle of the week) is the ISO convention and keeps every month a run of whole weeks.
Does the template work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets; the formulas and shading carry over.
How do I calculate gross from net in the template?
Enter your agency commission at the top. Each row’s gross is net ÷ (1 − commission), and the commission column is the difference.