Respond to a request from Planning

Hello! You're likely reading this because a Planning user has sent you an RFP. Read on for information on what to do next.

What's a request for proposal (RFP)?

A request for proposal (RFP) is a document sent from media planners to inventory providers to request media (inventory) to purchase for advertising purposes. Many inventory providers, or publishers, only provide inventory to buyers after being contacted with a RFP.

You can use Planning's RFP view to offer inventory and negotiate with an agency on the inventory they want.

Respond to an RFP

Once you've received a "Request for proposal" email from a media planner, click the link in the email to be taken to Planning. Once you're in Planning, click the Negotiation icon to start identifying inventory you wish to sell to this media planner.

Follow these steps to offer inventory to the media planner who's sent you an RFP.

1. In Planning, click the Negotiation icon and then click New on the Negotiation page.
2. To add inventory manually, click New on the Negotiation page. If you are doing this, go to step 6.
3. To add inventory from a spreadsheet, click Import on the Negotiation page. If you choose this method, the spreadsheet must be formatted according to Planning rules. If you are doing this, go to step 4. If you’re doing this for the first time, see the Tip below first, then go to step 4.

   Before you import inventory from a spreadsheet for the first time, click Export on the Negotiation page. This creates a .csv file that you can import into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will contain all the elements required by Planning.

4. Make the edits you want to the spreadsheet that you’ve created in Planning form. Go here for instructions on how to perform bulk actions in spreadsheets.
5. Click Import on the Negotiation page and specify your spreadsheet.
6. If you’re adding inventory manually, fill out the following fields for each placement you add:
   1. Name for the placement.
   2. Site name for where you want the placement to run.
   3. Packaging
   4. Start and end dates.
   5. Flights
      1. The "default" flight will be the same as your start and end dates
      2. To enter custom flight dates, click the pencil icon.
   6. Width and height of your ad.
   7. Compatibility for the type of media where your ad will run.
   8. Cost structure to specify the type of pricing used for the placement.
   9. Units to specify the number of units of inventory you want to purchase.
   10. Rate to specify the price in your Campaign Manager 360 account's currency you want to pay for each unit of inventory (such as 1000 impressions, each click, each conversion, or enter a flat rate).
   11. Total cost
   12. Cap cost
   13. Payment source to specify who will pay for the placement.
7. Once you're done adding placements, click Save to add the placements to your RFP response.
8. Back on the Negotiation page, click Share to share the products you've added with the media planner who initially sent you the RFP.

Compare your offer with the media planner's responses

Planning makes it easy to compare your offer to the media planner's and to change your offer and make it available to the agency.

1. Start in the Negotiation page in Planning.
2. Choose 1-line view to see just your offered placements, or 2-line view to compare them to the placements requested by the agency. (You can edit your own information in the second line, but not the agency's in the first line.)
3. Change values in the column(s) you want to change.
4. Click Share to share your edits with the media planner.

The agency will receive an email notification that you have changed one or more fields in your negotiation.

You will receive a notification when the agency changes any item in a negotiation. These notifications are enabled by default. To turn them off, click the name of a negotiation channel. In the channel’s pane, deselect the box next to “Notify me when the other party shares this negotiation”, and click Save.

Share documents in negotiation channels

Similar to RFP attachments, you can attach documents directly to a negotiation channel. Either party can add documents to the negotiation channel document library, and the other party can download it from there.

The document library appears as a new section in a negotiation channel properties pane. You can add, remove, and rename files. As with other fields in the properties panes, you must click Save to make the change visible. To add a document to a negotiation channel, follow these steps:

1. Start in the Negotiation page in Planning.
2. Click the name of a negotiation channel.
3. In the pane that opens on the right, click Add under Documents. Use the menu to select one ore more files from your computer.
4. Click Save. The files will now be available to the agency.

See alternate placement grouping

Occasionally, buyers and sellers may bundle inventory together in different groups. To see how your inventory grouping varies from the seller's grouping, if at all, click Mine and Theirs. The views will be identical unless you or the seller has changed the way placements are grouped.

Other areas of Planning

• Plan

  Click the Plan icon to see details of the media planner's plan as they build the list of inventory they intend to purchase from you.

  Note that you will not see any inventory from other publishers or from other RFPs in Planning.

• RFP

  Click the RFP icon to see details of the media planner's RFP as well as any files the media planner has shared with you as attachments. You can also see the due date (if one exists) to respond to the RFP.