This FAQ is designed to help you get the most out of your forecasting queries.
Also see:
How are inventory and avails calculated?
The inventory forecasting calculation is based on the last 28 days of data, which is aggregated based on publisher, station, delivery method, day of the week, and dimensions for listener/content profiles. Then, factoring in the selected targeting options, we calculate the average inventory per day-of week to get the total inventory for the requested dates. Note that day-of-week is based on station time zone, not UTC.
Why isn’t the change I made to a dimension showing up in the forecast?
When dimensions are changed (such as adding new stations or segments, adding or removing stations from station tags, etc.) we require 28 days of historical data to accumulate with the updated dimension in order to have an accurate forecast.
The 28 day period starts on the day there is an ad request and we begin to receive impressions/missed opportunities for a listener with this dimension. Until the 28 days is reached, the dimension will be visible in the UI but the forecast won’t be accurate.
Why isn’t my ad quality/exclusivity rule or flight showing up in the forecast?
We run an update of flights, exclusivity rules, ad quality rules, and reseller contracts three times a day, at 10:00, 15:00, and 20:00 UTC, and each update process runs for about three hours. Any changes made to a flight or rule, and any new flights or rules, will not begin to show in forecasting until the next update finishes running.
For example, if you create a new ad quality rule at 11:00 UTC on Tuesday, you can expect the rule to be included in forecasting after the next update finishes running, which would be approximately 18:00 UTC that day. (It starts at 15:00 UTC and runs for about three hours.)
Can avails results be a negative number?
Yes. If contending flight impressions is greater than total inventory, it means the contending flights have reserved more inventory than the total inventory. In other words, it means the inventory has been oversold.
Are flights with no goal taken into account in Forecasting?
No, since we cannot calculate the contending impressions on no goal flights.
Do archived flights show as contending if their end date has not yet been reached?
No. Archived flights do not appear as contending flights even when their end date has not been reached. However, reconciliation can be affected by archived flights that still have not reached their end date. For this reason we recommend the following when you cancel or otherwise finish a flight before its end date is reached:
Close out the end date of the flight as soon as possible after the flight was cancelled (note that you cannot choose a flight end date earlier than “today”).
Reset the flight goal to the amount of impressions that were delivered at that time the flight was cancelled.
Let the flight mark itself as DONE instead of archiving it.
Are there any specific best practices for pre-roll forecasting, such as including the duration?
Pre-roll forecasts are based on session start so ad duration has no effect and can be ignored. Furthermore, most of the time there will only be one pre-roll, so industry separation is irrelevant. If you have more than one pre-roll, then you should include IAB category filters in your forecast query.
How can I query for RON (all stations) out-of-market inventory?
We recommend you use the Save query tool to create templates that you can re-use:
Create and save a query for each of your markets.
Include the stations in your market and use Geo filters to exclude the geographic areas based on the station coverage data that is passed to Triton in ad requests (DMA, MSA or LAT/LONG).
For out-of-market forecasts: use the Exclude Geo filter.
For in-market forecasts, use the Include Geo filter.
Once saved, these queries can be run when needed, and you can add filters and/or change splits if needed.
How do you accurately forecast when you have set an industry ad separation interval of two ads within a break, yet you don’t want the campaign to deliver twice within a single mid-roll break?
Insure your Advertiser ad separation interval, found in the Ad Separation Settings, is properly set up. Enter a number of ad interval higher than the number of ads allowed in your ad breaks:
Podcasts: refer to your ad break settings in Omny Studio.
Streaming: since you only know the duration of your breaks but not necessarily the number of ads per break, enter a number that is high enough to ensure it is more than the number of ads that could appear in the break. For example, enter “21” for a five-minute break, as it is highly unlikely that such a break would include more than 21 ads.
Important! Be sure to include the advertiser name in your forecasting query (Add filter: Advertiser.)