Planning Lesson #4: Generate an Insertion Order to Book the ads with your Media

Booking a media insertion is the final process of confirming the advertising space you’re buying from a media.

It typically involves sending an Insertion Order to your media representative.

What’s an Insertion Order?

An insertion Order is a media document that specifies the dates, formats, and other instructions regarding the ads you want to run.  

It’s the document you send to your media representative to buy media.

It also typically includes an I.O. #.

Why use I.O. # (a.k.a P.O. #)?

An I.O. # is an internal reference to the media buy.  

It is typically added to the invoice the media sends you.  This helps your marketing team traceback to the original media insertion information.

By default, an I.O #. is automatically generated for each media insertion using the media plan code, the media code, and a sequential number.  

This automation can be turned off if you’re already using an external system that generates I.O. # for you..

How to book a media insertion?

Media insertion are booked in the “Planning” module in a 2 steps process:

• Generate the insertion order PDF and send it to the media.
• Set the status of the media insertion to “Booked”.

Exercise: Book a media insertion

Follow these steps to book a media insertion:

• Step 1: Go to the “Planning” module.
• Step 2: Locate and open the media insertion you want to book by clicking on the view action (“eye” icon).
• Step 3: Click the “Insertion order” button.  This will display the “Generate insertion order” form.
• Step 4: Fill in the optional “Details” and “Instructions”
• Step 5: Click the “Generate” button.  This will download a PDF in your browser.
• Step 6: Review the PDF and send it by email to your media representative.
• Step 7: Click the “Status” button and select the “Booked” status.

TIP: You can include multiple media insertion in a single insertion order.  Use the “Insertion order” bulk action in the “List” view.