Achieve Precision in Media Planning: The Benefits of Flight Control

Clients often ask when Adelaide's AU is most effective for improving outcomes. The answer? Every phase. From planning to analysis and activation, AU enhances media strategies. But often, different campaigns and brands require different levels of media quality to achieve their goals. This understanding is what led us to develop Flight Control.

Introducing Flight Control

Flight Control is a suite of tools that helps advertisers pinpoint optimal media quality minimums for their objectives, enabling better planning, optimization, and benchmarking.

By focusing on business outcomes, Flight Control transforms AU into a powerful solution for improving media strategies. Advertisers are seeing several key benefits:

Reduced Ad Waste: Case Study #1 shows how implementing an AU Floor (minimum media quality threshold) strengthens the relationship between exposures and outcomes, identifying sources of wasted spend.

Better Business Outcomes: Case Study #2 demonstrates how investing in media above an AU Floor significantly lifts brand KPIs and conversions.

Cost Savings: Case Study #2 also shows the value of integrating cost data into Flight Control analyses. Optimizing towards media above the AU Floor would lower CPMs by 10.6%.

Media agencies like Havas Media Network integrate custom Flight Control calculators into their own planning tools to set clear media targets for each campaign. Programmatic partners are using it to inform custom algorithms and media curation.
‍

Implementing Flight Control

Determining optimal media-quality targets involves three phases:

Phase 1: Benchmarking

We’ve measured hundreds of billions of ad exposures across channels to establish robust media quality benchmarks. We also leverage millions of recorded conversion and brand-lift outcomes to tailor KPI- and vertical-specific benchmarks. Before a campaign even starts, advertisers can use these norms to guide their media investments.

Phase 2: Establishing AU Floors

Different campaigns and mediums require different levels of attention. Getting the AU minimums right is crucial. Set them too low, and you risk wasting media dollars on ineffective placements; too high, and you overlook valuable media (and possibly incur higher costs for limited exposure).

So, how do we set AU Floors? No matter the KPI, we start by scoring exposures and linking them to outcomes. We systematically filter out lower-quality exposures and analyze the resulting impact on brand lift or conversions. This method helps us pinpoint the precise AU Floor needed to achieve consistent impact.

Phase 3: Strategic Activation

With AU Floors set, an advertiser can now use AU strategically. One straightforward approach is domain exclusion, where strategists exclude domains that perform below their AU target. Another strategy is to evaluate partners based on how much of their media meets the AU Floor. Some advertisers have taken it a step further, integrating AU minimums into media contracts to guarantee a certain level of quality.

Flight Control empowers advertisers to leverage media quality data effectively. By setting precise media quality targets and strategically activating them, advertisers can reduce ad waste, achieve better business outcomes, and realize cost savings. As more agencies and partners adopt these tools, the industry will continue to see improvements in media quality and campaign performance.