Line item spend forecast in Display & Video 360 enables you to efficiently create line items that will spend their budgets. Spend forecast is updated automatically as you change the settings of a line item, so you can:
- Verify that the line item will spend its budget.
- Explore how each targeting option, bid, or budget impacts the chance of spending the budget.
How spend forecasts are calculated
Line item spend forecast simulates performance by taking historical traffic and layering your current targeting, bid, budget, and flight settings on top of it. In other words, the forecast is based on the number of historical bid requests the platform has received that match your line item’s settings.
The historical traffic used to estimate performance is based on the length of the line item’s flight, up to 30 days in the future. For example, the reach forecasting of a line item with a 7-day flight would take into account 7 days of historical traffic.
Spend forecasts are not a guarantee of the actual traffic your line items will get.
Explore the forecast
You’ll see spend forecasts in the Intelligence Panel as you create and edit line items with a flight date that starts in the future. Once your line item begins to serve, the forecasts will no longer be available.
Types of spend forecasts
- The risk of underspend could not be determined: It could not be accurately determined whether the line item will spend the assigned budget, or users have not provided all the inputs required to generate a forecast.
- Line item is at high risk of underspend: It is highly likely that the line item will underspend its budget. Along with the alert, there will be suggestions on changes that could be made so that the line item can spend its budget. Currently creative, bid, and targeting suggestions are supported.
- Low risk of underspend: The line item is expected to spend its budget.
Considerations
- Spend forecasts are only available for YouTube & partners, YouTube audio, video, and display line items. For YouTube & partners line items, spend forecasts are only available for the product and brand consideration line item type.
- "Budget" represents the flight’s line item budget. In cases where the line item budget is higher than the insertion order budget, the spend prediction only relates to the line item’s budget.
- Forecasts do not include considerations of line items with overlapping targeting, which may reduce your line item’s ability to spend.