/54-media-plan-global

name: 54-media-plan-global
description: "Use when a PAID MEDIA plan is needed — work backward from revenue to max CPA and required budget, split spend across channels, funnel stages, and campaign types, build a ramp-up timeline, set KPI targets per channel, and prepare a contingency plan. Trigger on 'media plan', 'paid media budget', 'how much should I spend on ads', 'channel mix for the campaign', 'plan the ad budget', 'we have 10k a month and no plan'. Also use when a budget number exists and nobody has decided where it goes. Not for — the pure revenue-to-budget math, see `10-reverse-kpi-global`; the whole marketing budget including non-paid, see `61-budget-planning-global`; the next period plan built from results, see `57-next-ads-plan-global`."
metadata:
  version: 1.0.2
  category: performance
license: MIT
triggers:
  - "media plan"
  - "ads plan"
  - "paid media budget"
  - "budget allocation"
  - "how much should I spend on ads"
  - "channel mix"
  - "plan a campaign budget"
  - "paid media strategy"
output: "File .md — full media plan: reverse-calculated KPIs, channel and funnel allocation, campaign-type budget split, ramp-up timeline, KPI targets per channel, and a contingency plan"
related:
  - product-marketing-context-global
  - 10-reverse-kpi-global
  - 51-audience-research-global
  - 53-tracking-setup-global
  - 52-account-structure-global
  - 61-budget-planning-global
  - 57-next-ads-plan-global

Media Plan (Global)

A plan without hard numbers cannot tell you whether you are winning. Every figure in the plan must trace back to a revenue target. Run `10-reverse-kpi-global` for max CPA and required budget before allocating anything.

Information gathering

Read `.agents/product-marketing-context-global.md` plus any output from `51-audience-research-global` and `10-reverse-kpi-global`. If information is missing, ask up to 4 questions:

1. **Which offer, and what is the revenue target?** Target revenue for the period, AOV, and contribution margin before ads as a percentage (price minus cost of goods and variable costs such as shipping, payment fees, returns, marketplace fees, divided by price). 2. **What is the budget?** A hard cap, or a number derived backwards from the revenue target? 3. **Which channels and markets?** Meta / Google Search / TikTok / YouTube / Pinterest / LinkedIn — and which countries. Primary objective? 4. **What is the timeline?** Number of weeks, plus any launch date or seasonal moment that cannot move.

Principles

1. **Work backwards from revenue, never forwards from "the budget we have".** Revenue -> orders -> leads -> max CPA -> budget. If available budget is below required budget, lower the target or lower the CPA. Do not pretend. 2. **Market tier is a planning input, not a detail.** Per `references/benchmarks-global.md`, Tier 1 (US, Canada, Australia, Western EU) costs 6-7x Tier 2 (SEA, LATAM). A campaign profitable at 3x ROAS in a Tier 2 market may need 5-7x in the US for the same unit economics. Plan and report per market. 3. **Season changes the math.** Q1 is the cheapest window (January median CPM $15.74, about 21% below average). November peaks at $25.22, roughly 27% above average. A Q4 plan built on Q1 costs is already wrong. 4. **Spread across the funnel.** Running only bottom-funnel from day one produces high CPA because no trust exists yet. 5. **No blank KPIs.** Every channel gets its own CPA and efficiency target. 6. **Test first, scale second.** Weeks 1-2 are tuition. Do not judge ROAS in week one. 7. **Review weekly and adjust.** The plan is a hypothesis; live data decides.

Workflow

1. Reverse-calculate the KPIs (run `10-reverse-kpi-global`)

Target revenue / AOV        = Orders needed
Orders / close rate         = Leads needed
Max CPA                     = (Revenue x contribution margin %) / Leads needed
Break-even ROAS             = 1 / contribution margin % (before ads)
Target ROAS                 = Break-even ROAS x 1.5
Required ad budget          = Leads needed x target CPA

These must exist before step 2: leads needed, max CPA, target CPA, required budget, target ROAS. Build three scenarios (pessimistic / base / optimistic) and plan against base.

Sanity-check the result against `references/benchmarks-global.md`: global Meta medians are CPA $18-38 and ROAS 1.93-2.79. The common 3x ROAS rule of thumb only breaks even at about 33% contribution margin before ads (break-even ROAS = 1 / contribution margin), so it is healthy only when that margin is well above 33%; commodity margins near 20% need 5x+, and 1.5x can work for high-margin digital products (margin above ~67%). If your required CPA sits far below the bottom quartile for your industry and market tier, the plan is not achievable as written.

2. Regional cost baseline

Set the expected cost floor per market before allocating budget:

| Market tier | Examples | Meta CPM | Meta CPC | |-------------|----------|---------:|---------:| | Tier 1 premium | United States | $15-25 | $1.40-1.85 | | Tier 1 | Canada, Australia, UK | $10-22 | $1.10-1.80 | | Tier 1 Western EU | Germany and Western EU, Japan | $5-15 | $0.90-1.50 | | Tier 2 SEA lead | Singapore | $6-12 | $0.70-1.20 | | Tier 2 | Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines | $2-7 | $0.20-0.80 | | Tier 2 LATAM | Brazil and Latin America | $2-6 | $0.30-0.70 |

Full table in `references/benchmarks-global.md`. Never blend Tier 1 and Tier 2 into one reported CPA — the average describes no real campaign.

3. Seasonality adjustment

| Period | Median CPM | vs average | |--------|-----------:|-----------:| | January | $15.74 | -21% | | Q1 average | $18.29 | baseline | | Q2-Q3 | $18-21 | rising | | October | $22 | +10% | | November (peak) | $25.22 | +27% | | December | $22.04 | +11% | | Q4 average | $22.98 | +26% above Q1 |

Planning implications: front-load acquisition into Q1 if cash flow allows; reserve at least 30% more budget for the same volume in Q4, or shift brand spend into Q3. In US elect