By using Mediatool's automated plan naming conventions, you'll benefit from time savings, greater data integrity, and improved data tracking (when used together with integrations).

By configuring a naming convention, every plan that you create in Mediatool will be assigned a standardized naming property that you control. The plan convention name will be generated in the Plan Setup of every new plan based on the convention configuration. From there, it can be used to rename your Mediatool plan and to name your campaigns on external platforms.

In this article, you will learn how to configure a plan naming convention as well as how to use it as a tracking code for your integration data.

If you are interested in configuring a field in the sheet view based on combinations of other entry fields in the same sheet, please visit our article on Template Fields (Text Calculation).

There are three components that can be used to configure a plan naming convention; plan fields, tag categories, and utilities & separators.

You may combine these components as you please within the Settings. Then, when your plan fields and tag categories are determined in the plan setup, a convention name will be automatically created based on your configured template.

Plan fields

Plan fields are fields that are selected in the plan setup of every plan. There are a few default plan field options such as Organization, Plan Name, Plan Start Date, and Plan End Date. You also have the option to add custom plan fields, which can be set up as either text or date fields. All custom plan fields will generate as additional inputs in the plan setup of each plan.

You can change the date format of a date field by clicking the calendar icon after it has been added to the template. See documentation for dateFormat options (external link)

Tag categories can be selected in the plan setup of every plan. Tags that are selected in the plan setup will be applied to every line item in the sheet view of that plan. If you choose to add a Tag category to your plan naming convention, tag categories selected in the plan setup will be added to your plan naming convention as well.

You can display a tag by its abbreviation by clicking the tag icon after it has been added to the template.

If there is a tag category you'd like to add to your naming convention template or an abbreviation you'd liked to use, they must be configured separately in the Tags section of Settings.

Utilities & separators are used between plan fields and tag categories in order to provide clarity and separation between the various components of your naming convention.

Once you've configured a plan naming convention, the conventional name for each plan will be generated in the Plan Setup after the plan is created.

It is important to note that the plan name is a required field that has to be manually entered to create a plan. If you'd like your plan name in Mediatool to match the naming convention name; create the plan, click on plan setup, and then copy/paste the auto-generated conventional name into the plan name field.

Many Mediatool customers will opt to use the auto-generated plan naming convention as a tracking code - a means to match results data from various integrations to the planning data within mediatool.

In order to this, you must take the following steps:

After completing these steps, you will be able to easily compare your plans and your actual results in combined charts.

All results relevant to this campaign will flow back to this plan. So, when you view the Reports section of that particular media plan, you will be able to combine both results and planning data for maximum insight.

Have questions or need help? You can reach us directly via the messenger on Mediatool.com or the contact support button located in the top right corner of the Mediatool App.

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