Behavior Pre-Flight

Working with Pre-flight mode for a Behavior report - Controls, Inferences and Actions.

Introduction

One of the core objectives of Consumr.ai is to make consumer-led data actionable and scalable by building touch points throughout the consumer journey. Consumr.ai provides answers to complex questions for marketers by asking for simplified inputs like first-party audiences, third-party interest segments, brand or category keywords, or just brand domain, to provide in-depth insights from various dimensions. Though insights make us wiser in knowing our consumers better, no data is powerful until it is actionable. To achieve our core objective, we present Pre-flight Mode to the world of marketing that transforms intelligent data into powerful plans for media, creative and content strategies, and campaigns. In this manual, we will take you through the various features and functions of Pre-Flight Mode and how to create a media strategy leading to activations using a Behavior Insight Report.

Understanding Pre-flight Mode

Where do you find pre-flight?

Pre-flight mode is a key step in the Consumr.ai workflow. As we have emphasized the significance of this module in the introduction, we will now explain how to access it. Although we aim to provide a direct route to pre-flight, it is currently located between Insights and Activation. To enter pre-flight mode, you need to generate an insight report, which in this manual is the 'Behavior Report.' At the bottom of the behavior report, you will find a button that enables you to transition the insight data to pre-flight mode.

Settings for Pre-flight

Pre-fllight settings card for a behavior report

On coming to the Pre-flight page, the topmost bar contains some basic controls:

Top of the page control to select organization | to go back to the seed insight | to see the mode you are in

The ‘Go to Insights’ button

This button links back to the insight report that is connected to the pre-flight. Pre-flight borrows intelligence from the output of the Insights mode. You can access the pre-flight mode via the Insight mode by transitioning the data of the insights. However, it is not mandatory to stick with the data of the same insight. Pre-flight gives you the ability to change the insight report to generate a plan. This button dynamically adapts the link back to the selected insight. You can treat this as a dynamic "back" button to go back in the flow.

The Mode

Consumr.ai has various modules based on user touch points and needs. It starts with Inputs, which a user can choose by means of the Omnibox, Discover, or Solve sections of the home page. The next touchpoint is the Insight mode, which delivers insights based on combinations of selected inputs. After the Insight mode, you can carry forward the output of an insight to the Pre-flight mode, also known as the Action Mode, where Consumr.ai converts your data discovery process into actions leading to activations.

Before we can proceed to the first card of Pre-flight, which is "Settings," let's discuss some other important controls.

A view of the section to see/change the report name and to select an insight report from

Report Name

To the left of this bar is the name of the report. That is editable manually. The feature is informative and simple and is available across all reports. However, it works a little differently in Pre-flight mode. A report name is ideally generated by default, giving an option to the user to change it and assign it to a custom project. However, unlike other reports, a default report name is not generated unless you enter all the details in Settings and move over to build the media plan. You will normally see an "untitled report" with no option to amend it until you complete the settings and move to the targeting section (which we can read about further down in the manual).

Insight Report selection

To the right of this bar is a dropdown where you can select an insight report. When you move from an insight report, this dropdown will reference the insight report that you moved from, by default. If you wish to change the Insight report, you can do so, and you will notice that the options of the settings and tabs will change depending on the type of insight report you select.

Pre-Flight Type

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This section is for selecting a type of pre-flight report. If you select a behavior insight report, then you have two types of pre-flight reports: a Behavior Media Report or a Creative Report. Since the entire module has a progressive disclosure based UX, once you select an insight report, the tabs will unveil with a drop-down to choose whether you want to create a Media Report or a Creative Report. Once you decide, the drop-down will convert to a tab, and the options will load below it. A “+” button will appear next to it, allowing you to add another tab for the other option. This way, you can have a media and creative report in the same report ID, and they will be linked together. Both pre-flight types use the same insight report to create the plans, and they can coexist in the space that pre-flight creates.

To create a behavior pre-flight, ensure that you have the right insight report selected, and from the drop-down for pre-flight type, select “Behavior.” Once you do, the settings card will load, giving you options to fill it up.

Pre-Flight Settings

Pre-flight settings card explained

The settings card comprises of 2 columns to fill in. To the far left of the section, we have some basic selections to inherit properties from.

Account

In this drop down, you will find a list of all the accounts you have linked to your organization. Select the one you want to plan and activate the campaign in.

Seed Campaign and Adset

The Seed campaign is filtered and populated from the selected account, and the Seed Adset is filtered from the Seed campaigns. It is called a 'Seed' campaign/adset because Consumr.ai is not designed to create a campaign and adset that can be time-consuming for you. Instead, you can select an existing campaign and adset that contains the settings you want to build a new plan with. In the backend, it will inherit the properties of the campaign and adset you have selected, along with the targeting and budgets that get assigned in the pre-flight stage. This will create a new campaign and adset with just one click of a button.

Campaign Budget

This is where you enter the budget you have decided for the campaign. Depending on the seed campaign and adset you choose, the budget will adjust to daily or lifetime.

Date Range

This should be defined based on how long you want the campaign to run. Please ensure that you select a date range starting from the next date. Today will ideally not be the right date to start the campaign from, hence it is disabled. Also remember that the date range should greater than 24 hours. Though we recommend that it will be far more effective if the date range selected is above 7 days.

Plan

There are two types of plans in this dropdown: Standard and Thematic. Each of these plans adds significant value. The Standard plan extracts interests and breaks them down based on the Efficiency Index into three ad sets. You can assign any ad across these three ad sets and then check which ad performs well and optimize them accordingly.

On the other hand, you have Thematic. This type of plan is created for creative convenience. Here, interests are grouped by theme (category), giving the creative team the opportunity to communicate with audiences based on the theme. For example, if the theme is sports, then all the interests related to sports will be clustered in this theme, making it easier for the creative team to build communications that involve the brand and have a sporty feel to them. This type helps increase engagement with ads by making them extremely relevant.

Targeting Precision

This slider has 5 levels. From left to right, the targeting precision becomes broader as we move right. You can select the right level depending on the objective you are trying to serve. Niche targeting will restrict the reach but focus on yield, but the broader you go you may get more reach, but the yield may go down.

After filling in all the fields, you can move on to the targeting section.

Targeting

Targeting card explained in Pre-Flight mode

The targeting section is where data and learnings from the insights are carried forward and are available as options for you to add. Let us go through each of these parameters, one at a time:

Age & Gender

These 2 parameters will populate the default recommendations inherited from the insight report.

Section in the targeting card that recommends and allows a user to edit Age and Gender targeting

However, the user has the option to change it by clicking on the edit button. It is recommended that you use the learnings from the insight, as it is data driven though never imposed.

Age and Gender section in edit mode

If you decide to change it, select the age range, and gender preferences and click the green button.

Interest

Interest is by far the most important parameter that gives direction to the targeting. This option is applied as an 'AND' intersection over the demographics and geography, bringing the top 10 to 15 cohorts from the behavior insight report that you have selected.

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You have the option to remove or add other cohorts by hovering over the tab, where the 'X' button will appear. Clicking it will remove the cohort from the targeting. Alternatively, the last tab is always 'Add More'. Click on it and it will turn into an autocomplete search box.

A screenshot of how to add additional interest in targeting

Type in the first 3 letters you want to search and the auto complete will display the available segments.

Cities

This card defines the geographies. By default, it will show the flag of the country the insight report belongs to. You cannot change this, so please select the right insight report. This card does not recommend cities by default as it may have a direct impact on the reach.

The cities section in the targeting card of Preflight mode for a Behavior report

However, if you want to add cities to your targeting, open the accordion, and a ‘Recommend’ button will appear. Click it, and Pre-flight will bring the recommended cities from the insight you have selected. Alternatively, the user can click on "Add More" and manually add the cities that are needed.

Browser and Devices

This is an optional section. You should be careful while adding device and browser targeting as it applies with the "AND" intersect, which can have a direct impact on the reach of the campaign. Like the other parameters, should you want to add this targeting layer, click on "Add More" and add the options you want from the dropdowns.

This image shows how browser(s) and/or device(s) can be added to the targeting section

Habits

Habits are identified by the regular activities that the audiences undertake. Again, this parameter applies with an “AND” intersect, so you should be careful while adding it.

This images shows how Habits can be added to the targeting section

Should you decide to go ahead, click the “Add More” button and you know what to do.

Education & Work

Once again, optional parameters intersect with targeting using "AND". You can add filters for the audience's education levels and/or place of work.

This images shows how Education and Work can be added to the targeting section

Stages of Life

An interesting card, that helps you target based on their relationship status, i.e: the stage of life the audiences are in. Example: Married, Married with kids age under 3 & more

This images shows how 'Stages of Life' can be added to the targeting section

Estimated Size

This is an assistance card that provides an estimated size of the audience you will use to build a plan. If the size is too small, pre-flight will not be able to create a plan. The card includes a legend of the colors that the size can change to. If the estimations are broad, you may want to add more filters to narrow it down to an ideal size and avoid wasting resources. If it is a niche audience, you may have a lower reach size. However, if you receive a low size indicator, it is almost certain to generate an error, so it is recommended to make your selections broader.

It is advised that you keep your eye on ‘Estimated Size’ while you are selecting your targeting parameters. After carefully selecting the targeting parameters, you are free to go ahead and ask Consumr.ai to start creating a plan.

The button to start the process of creation of a pre-flight plan

Click the button, “Create Pre-flight plan” to go ahead.

Preflight with Advanced AI

The targeting parameters depend on the insight report. If you execute a basic insight report, recommendations will only be available for Age, Gender, Geographies, and Interests. However, if Advanced AI is enabled, you will have the option to add Habits, Browser & Devices, Education & Work, and Stages of Life. To know more about Advanced AI, please refer to our manual, “Understanding a Behavior Insight report”.

Pre-flight Plan

The type of plan is selected in the ‘Settings’ section, where you have 2 options: Standard and Thematic. In this section, Consumr.ai will provide you with the standard version of the pre-flight plan. You can read more about selecting the right plan, here.

In this section, will have relevant information about activations.

First, it will give you a glimpse of the budget that you selected in the settings section. Though you will be able to see an edit option in case you want to amend the amount.

This image shows how the budget can be modified

If you change your mind about the budget assigned earlier in pre-flight or realize that there was a mistake, you can take this option. After you change the budget and click ‘Update’ it won’t change the targeting but recalculate the budget allocations against each adset and campaign.

You can also see the campaign period and Total unique audience size that are populated for you to reconfirm that you have got the plan right.

A screenshot that shows the filters that are applied as common targeting parametes across adsets.

This expandable accordion is to give you a glimpse of the common parameters that will be attached to each ad set on activation.

Final Interest targeting

You will see 3 ad sets if you select a standard plan. In thematic, you may get more than 3 ad sets which depends on the number of significant themes that come up in your targeting.

A look at how standard interest targeting plan looks in pre-flight

As in the screenshot, each ad set’s name is editable and it displays audience size and budget split that pre-flight mode has worked out for you, depending on the reach estimates. You have the option of removing an entire ad set by clicking the cross button on the top right corner of each card.

There are some additional flexibilities that pre-flight offers, like each interest tab is draggable if you want some interests to move across ad sets. Click on an interest tag and drag it over to the other ad set.

In addition, you can also choose to add another ad set by clicking the dotted card section that says “Create a new ad set”, name it and start moving interests from other ad sets.

Mentioned below is how a Thematic plan would look.

A look at how a 'Thematic' interest targeting plan looks in pre-flight

As mentioned before, the difference here is that interests are now split into the closest themes. For example, all music-related interests will feature in the Music theme. Interests that cannot be classified will be included in an ad set named "Others." You can choose to move these interests into existing ad sets or split them into newer ad sets by creating new ones. We always recommend keeping fewer ad sets so that overlaps can be worked out within the set itself.

Given below is an example of how interests can be moved.

A gif that shows how interests can be moved from one adset to another

Every time you make a change to the budget or targeting, you will be required to hit the ‘Recalculate’ Button, to recalculate the audience size and to reassign budgets based on the size.

The recalculate button incase an interest in moved from an ad set to another

Once you do the plan will refresh in approx. 20 seconds and the recalculate button will be replaced with ‘Begin Activation Button’.

The button to move on to activation stage

Activation Settings

Parameters of an activation card

This section means business. Experimentation phase is now over and once you are satisfied with the targeting, it is time to move ahead with the Activation. This relatively smaller section will reconfirm and ask you information to finalize your campaign activation.

Campaign type and Seeds would expect you to confirm if there were an existing campaign you would like to push the new ad sets in, or if you would like to create a new campaign altogether. If it's a new campaign you wish to go for, you will need a name for your new campaign, and then other properties can be inherited from the Seed campaign and ad sets. This makes the entire process extremely simple. If this is a new account and you don't have a Seed ad set or campaign to select from, then we would recommend you go to the platform and prepare one, and then add it as a Seed ad set and campaign.

Some may argue the need for a Seed campaign and ad set and why not provide the steps to create the campaign from Consumr.ai itself. Consumr.ai is not built to replicate the process that the native platform does best. The foundation of Consumr.ai is to provide intelligence based on data, so that you can make the right decisions. Seeding helps pick the best of what a media platform can do and using their ability to execute the intelligence that Consumr.ai has worked out for you.

Status messages post completion of an activation process.

Once the Seeds are set, click the 'Activate' button, and Consumr.ai will start to push the settings you have picked into the platform you want to activate it in. A new card will appear that will give you the details of activation. In case there is an ad set that fails to activate, an error will flash with instructions on what needs to be done next.

Conclusion

In conclusion, pre-flight is the action mode of the platform. It gives more purpose to the insights you have created and the time you have put into data analysis. Pre-flight has two modes of creating a plan: creative and media. We cover the process of creating a media plan and its nuances in this manual. Going through it will help you understand the system design and the reasons for creating it the way it is.