What is a media plan?

A media plan is a document that describes the distribution of the advertising budget by channels, periods and creatives with a forecast of metrics. Includes: goals and KPIs, budget, breakdown by channel, deadlines, expected reach/clicks/conversions, and those responsible. A must-have artifact for any performance campaign from 100K ₽.

How many channels should there be in a media plan?

Depends on the budget. Up to 100K ₽/month - 1-2 channels (only Yandex Direct or Yandex Direct + VK). 100-500K ₽/month - 2-3 channels. 500K+ ₽/month - 3-5 channels with diversification. Too many channels on a small budget scatters attention and reduces the effectiveness of everyone.

What metrics must be included in a media plan?

For each channel: budget, forecast of impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, conversions, CPL, CAC, ROAS. Plus top-level ones: total reach, share of advertising budget from revenue, expected revenue from the campaign. Minimum 8-10 metrics for adequate planning.

What is plan/factual analysis?

Plan/actual - weekly reconciliation of planned metrics with real ones. A discrepancy of more than 20-30% is a reason to reconsider the strategy. Increases team discipline and allows you to catch deviations before they eat up the budget. A must-have practice for performance marketing.

How to include risks in a media plan?

Decision triggers: if CPL has increased by 30% of the plan - review the creatives and targets. If ROAS fell by 40%, stop loss for the campaign. If the coverage is 50% below the plan, the semantics are expanded. The reserve for risks is 10-15% of the budget for flexibility.

Can I use a ready-made media plan template?

A template is a starting point, not an ending. The structure of a media plan is universal (goals → channels → budget → timeline → metrics), but specific values depend on the niche, goal, and budget. A ready-made template in Excel saves 2-3 hours of work, but is not a replacement for analytics.

How long does it take to create a media plan?

A simple media plan for 1-2 channels and 100-200K ₽/month - 2-4 hours of work with benchmarks available. Full media plan for 5+ channels and 500K+ ₽/month with forecasts and scenarios - 1-2 business days. It's an investment in campaign discipline that pays off by avoiding budget drains.

Who draws up the media plan on the team?

In an agency - usually a strategy planner or senior account manager. In in-house - head of performance or senior marketer. Defends himself to the client/management. Adjustments halfway through the campaign - through an agreed change request, not “after the fact”.

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StrategyMay 11, 202611 min

Media plan 2026: Excel template of 5 sheets for a performance campaign from 100K ₽

The minimum viable media plan takes 1 business day and fits into 5 sheets. Goals and KPIs, budget distribution by channel with forecast metrics, weekly tactics, creatives, plan/fact analysis. With a ready-made CPL/CAC/ROAS forecast formula and budget allocation benchmarks for 6 types of tasks.

A media plan in Russian Federation marketing is most often done in two ways: either “they don’t do it at all, because the budget is small,” or “they do it on 40 sheets in Excel, which no one looks at.” In this article I analyze the minimum viable media plan, which takes 1 working day, fits into 5 sheets and really influences the course of the campaign. Plus, I provide a ready-made template that is downloaded from my website 30+ times a month.

I have compiled more than 60 media plans since 2018: for agencies, for in-house teams, for my own projects. The numbers in the article are the median for the last 15 projects in performance niches.

A media plan is not a “mandatory piece of paper for the client.” This is a discipline tool that protects against two typical failures: “let’s try another channel” (without a plan) and “we have everything according to plan” (without checking the facts).

1. Why a media plan if the budget is only 100K ₽

A common misconception: a media plan is for large budgets. In fact, it's the opposite. On a budget of 100K ₽, a distribution error of 20% is 20,000 ₽, which could give 30-60 leads. On a budget of 1M ₽ the same error in relative value is 200,000 ₽. The smaller the budget, the more critical the correct distribution.

A media plan does three things:

Makes you say the goal and KPI clearly, not “we want more sales”
Distributes the budget before the start, not “by feel”
Creates a point for weekly plan/actual analysis

2. Structure of a minimum viable media plan

Not 40 sheets. 5 sheets:

Sheet 1 - Goals and KPIs. Main KPI, secondary, period, responsible.
Sheet 2 - Budget and channels. Budget distribution across channels with forecast metrics.
Sheet 3 - Tactics by week. What we do week after week, who is responsible.
Sheet 4 - Creatives and messages. What message-lines do we use, what creatives do we prepare.
Sheet 5 - Plan/actual. Template for weekly reconciliation of real metrics with forecast.

3. Budget distribution by channels

Depends on the type of task. Benchmarks for my projects:

Problem	Yandex Direct	VK Ads	TG Ads	Other
E-com performance	70%	20%	10%	—
B2B soft lidgen	60%	15%	25%	—
MedTech clinic	75%	15%	10%	—
EdTech online courses	50%	25%	25%	—
Gaming/eSports	30%	40%	30%	—
Brand awareness	20%	30%	20%	30% (media, YouTube proxies)

This is not a dogma, but a starting point. Adjusted for a specific project: if a MedTech clinic has a local geo and a large audience in one TG channel, TG Ads takes 25%, not 10%. Read more about distribution in article about Yandex Direct vs VK vs TG.

4. Forecasting metrics: how to count

The forecast is made using the following formula:

We take the channel budget (for example, Yandex Direct - 70,000 ₽)
Divide by the expected CPC (benchmark for a niche, for example 50 ₽) → we get clicks (1400)
Multiply by landing conversion (for example 2%) → get leads (28)
We calculate CPL (budget / leads): 70,000 / 28 = 2,500 ₽
We multiply leads by sales conversion (for example 15%) → we get sales (4)
We calculate CAC (budget / sales): 70,000 / 4 = 17,500 ₽
We multiply sales by the average bill (for example, 80,000 ₽) → revenue (320,000 ₽)
We calculate ROAS (revenue / budget): 320000 / 70000 = 4.6x

A forecast is not a prophecy, but a contract between marketing and business. If the fact deviates greatly, you need to understand why. Read more about CPC/CPL/ROAS benchmarks in separate article.

5. Tactics by week

Typical 8-week plan for a performance campaign:

Week 1. Preparation: semantics, creatives, landing pages, setting up Metrics and UTM.
Week 2. Launch Yandex Direct (manual bets). Preparation of VK Ads creatives.
Week 3. Launch of VK Ads. Yandex Direct is the first optimization of bids based on data.
Week 4 Yandex Direct - transition to auto strategy. VK Ads - scaling working campaigns.
Week 5-6. Testing creatives. Launch retargeting. Plan/actual reconciliation.
Week 7-8. Scaling of working segments. Preparation of a campaign report.

6. Plan/fact analysis - the main discipline

The most important part of a media plan is not the numbers themselves, but the weekly reconciliation. What's in the template:

Metrica	Plan	Fact	Δ	Trigger
CPL	2500 ₽	3200 ₽	+28%	Review of creatives
Landing conversion	2.0%	1.3%	-35%	CRO audit
Clicks	1400	1280	-9%	Normal
ROAS	4.6x	3.1x	-33%	Stop loss on weak campaigns

Once a week - fill out the table, discuss deviations, make decisions. On my projects, this 30-minute meeting saved thousands of budget rubles every week - because problems are caught in 2-3 weeks, and not at the end of the month.

7. What to include as risks

In a real campaign, something always goes wrong. Include in the media plan:

Reserve 10-15% of the budget for adjustments and unexpected opportunities
Stop loss rules for each channel: at what metrics do we turn it off?
Triggers for escalation: what deviations require a change in strategy
Plan B for each key channel in case metrics deteriorate

8. Conclusion

The media plan for 2026 is an operational document, not a presentation for the client. 5 Excel sheets completed per working day and reviewed once a week are the basis of the performance marketing discipline. Without it, the team works “by feel,” but with it, there is a language in which the result is discussed.

A ready-made media plan template in Excel with forecast formulas - I’ll send you a PM to Telegram in exchange for a short story about your task.