A connected TV advertising planning template keeps decisions visible

What to take away

Start with the decision the plan must support

A planning template is only useful if it answers a question someone has already asked. That question might be whether to move budget from linear TV, how to reach a younger streaming audience, or how to test a new format without risking the whole quarter.

The Connected TV advertising: strategy and planning guide sets out the wider choices, so use it before you fill in rows. The template then becomes the record of those choices, not a substitute for them.

Write the decision at the top of the document in one sentence. Every later section should either support it or be cut.

Give the decision a date and a name. A plan that says "test streaming in the spring" is weaker than one that says "decide by 14 March whether to renew the streaming buy, owner: media lead".

The seven sections every template needs

1. Objective and success measure

State the business outcome, the audience, the time frame and the single measure that will decide success. Avoid stacking three or four measures, because no plan can be optimised against all of them at once.

2. Budget and buying route

Record the total budget, the split between platforms, the buying method and the currency. Label every figure as an illustrative example until a platform quote replaces it. For example, a team paying £400 a month for a managed service should show that as an assumption, not a cost.

As an illustrative UK guide, agencies often quote connected TV and BVOD inventory in the region of £20 to £40 per thousand impressions (CPM). The rate depends on targeting, season and platform.

3. Audience and platform mix

List the audiences you can actually target, the platforms that carry them and the overlap between platforms. Note where measurement is shared and where it is not.

4. Creative route

Set out the number of assets, the durations, the formats and the approval owner. The Mobile Creativity FAQ | IAB UK is useful here because its creative standards apply to much of the short-form video that runs on connected TV.

5. Measurement and reporting

Name the reporting source, the reporting cadence and the person who signs off the numbers. If two sources will disagree, say so in advance.

Agree definitions before launch. If the platform counts a completed view differently from your analytics, write both definitions into the row so the disagreement is expected rather than discovered in the report.

6. Compliance and risk

Record the regulator and the rules that apply. The Advertising Standards Authority enforces the CAP Code for advertising claims. Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 covers unfair commercial practices, and its banned practices list includes misleading actions.

The Competition and Markets Authority gains direct enforcement powers for these provisions from April 2025. Note the claims that need substantiation and the approval route. Keep this section short but specific.

7. Review and exit

Set the review date, the criteria for continuing and the criteria for stopping. A plan without an exit rule tends to continue by default.

The seven headings are the copyable scaffold. Paste them into your own document and fill the rows. One completed row reads like this:

Use a scoring rubric to force progress

Score each section from 0 to 3 and record the evidence. A section without evidence cannot score above 1.

The scale runs from 0 to 21 across seven rows, so a total below 12 is an average under about 1.7 per row. That threshold is a house convention, not a published standard: it treats any row stuck at 0 or 1 as unfinished.

A total of 15 or more sets an average above 2, so most rows carry evidence before the plan is briefed to a buyer or platform. Adjust the numbers if your template has fewer rows.

Score the plan with the people who own the rows, not alone. Re-score after every platform change or budget revision, and file the older version so you can see what moved.

Test the plan against the wider strategy

The template should feed into the Connected TV advertising strategy framework, which covers how the plan connects to brand, performance and measurement choices across a year.

Before sign-off, ask whether the plan still works if one platform changes its pricing or reporting. If the answer is no, add a contingency row.

Common questions

How long should a planning template be?

Two to four pages is usually enough. The value comes from the decisions recorded, not the length.

Who should own the template?

The media planner normally owns it, but the measurement and compliance sections need named owners from outside the planning team.

When should the template be reviewed?

Set a review date at sign-off, then review again if a platform changes its measurement, pricing or policy.

Does the template replace a media brief?

No. It sits alongside the brief and records the choices the brief assumes.