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Playbooks · TV budgeting

Convert a target TRP goal into a campaign budget

This job converts a target TRP goal into the gross and net media budget a planner needs to negotiate with media owners and quote to the client. It produces the number that anchors the draft media plan and the client's budget approval.

What you need first

  • Target TRP goal, target audience definition, and flight length — from the client media brief
  • CPP by channel/daypart for the target audience — from the media owner rate card or the agency's negotiated deal sheet
  • Planned TRP split across channels/dayparts — from the media mix strategy in the draft media plan
  • Audience index for the target demo versus the rate card's base panel, when they differ — from panel data in the planning tool (Nielsen, GfK, or local equivalent)
  • Volume/seasonal discount grid — from the sales house's current trading terms
  • Non-working cost ratio (agency fee, ad serving, production) — from the agency's commercial terms with the client, if a gross client-facing figure is required

The procedure

  1. Confirm the TRP goal, target audience, and flight length from the brief — produces the rating-point target to budget against
  2. Pull the CPP for the target audience from the current rate card or deal sheet, converting with the audience index if the rate card is quoted against a different base panel — produces a usable CPP per channel
  3. Allocate the total TRP goal across channels and dayparts per the media mix strategy — produces a TRP figure for each channel
  4. Multiply each channel's TRP allocation by its own CPP — produces a gross cost per channel
  5. Sum the channel costs — produces the gross campaign media budget
  6. Apply the sales house's volume or seasonal discount to the gross media cost — produces the net media budget
  7. Add agency fee, ad serving, and production costs if the client needs a gross investment figure — produces the client-facing budget

Worked through with numbers

Brief: 600 TRP over 4 weeks, Adults 25-54, split 60% Channel A / 40% Channel B per the media mix. Rate card CPP for Adults 25-54: Channel A 320 EUR, Channel B 410 EUR (premium daytime slot). TRP allocation: A = 600 x 0.60 = 360 TRP, B = 600 x 0.40 = 240 TRP. Channel cost: A = 360 x 320 = 115,200 EUR, B = 240 x 410 = 98,400 EUR. Gross budget = 115,200 + 98,400 = 213,600 EUR. Sales house offers 12% volume discount on gross media: net budget = 213,600 x 0.88 = 187,968 EUR. Add 11% for ad serving and agency fee: 187,968 x 1.11 = 208,644.48 EUR client-facing budget. Read it as: net cost per TRP is 187,968 / 600 = 313.28 EUR, sitting between the two channel CPPs but pulled toward Channel A's rate because it carries the larger TRP share.

Where it goes wrong

  • Weight each channel's TRP by its own CPP before summing, don't apply one blended CPP across the whole TRP goal — a flat CPP hides the premium channels' higher cost and undershoots budget
  • Confirm the CPP is quoted for the actual target audience, not the rate card's base panel — convert with the audience index first, otherwise a narrower demo's cost comes out wrong in either direction
  • Apply the discount to gross media cost only, not to agency fee, ad serving, or production — folding those in overstates the discount's real cash effect
  • Rebuild the CPP from the current rate card each time, don't reuse last quarter's number — rate cards move with inventory scarcity and season

How to know it is right

Divide the net media budget by the TRP goal to get the implied blended CPP and confirm it falls between the cheapest and most expensive channel CPP used in the plan.

Terms used

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