When configuring or updating campaign settings for Classic Canvas or Journey Canvas, you'll need to decide whether to enable the Margin feature or not. This article explains the tool so you can decide what's best for your campaign.
Margin overview
The Enable Margin feature impacts billing if you work for an agency with a client base. Let me explain the difference with a use case. Say you have a $10,000 budget for programmatic advertising, and your agency margin is 30%.
If the toggle is off, your campaign will spend $10,000 on media buys. On top of that ad spend, the client owes your agency 30% (i.e. $3000). So, toggle off means your margin is external to the spend budget.
If the toggle is on and you enter a 30% target margin, the budget available to buy media would be approximately $7000. That's an estimate because margins are based on CPMs, which do vary. illumin would generate a statement describing $10,000 for services and another bill for media costs of about $7000.
Calculate margins on the Report Builder
When building a report with the Report Builder tool, you can calculate margin fees. Click the Metrics tab, go to the Budget heading, and add two metrics to your report template:
- Cost = The sum of media cost and journey's margin.
- MCost = Media cost (the sum of inventory cost - Clearing cost) and media fees.
Your agency margin can be calculated as follows:
- Agency margin = Cost - MCost
Opening the margin page
If you're building a new campaign on Classic Canvas or Journey Canvas, the workflow naturally guides you to the Enable Margin toggle. Optionally, you can open an existing campaign and edit the selection.
Classic Canvas
To access the Enable Margin toggle on an existing Classic Canvas journey:
- Open the Journeys page and click a campaign name. The canvas displays.
- Go to the top right corner of the page and click the gear icon (next to the money bag icon). The General Settings & Billing page displays.
- Scroll down to the Enable Margin heading.
- Switch the toggle to the ON or OFF position. If ON, enter values. (see below)
- Click Save.
Journey Canvas
To access the Enable Margin toggle on an existing Journey canvas:
- Open the Journeys page and click a campaign name. The canvas displays.
- Go to the top right corner of the page and click the gear icon (next to the money bag icon). The Journey Settings page displays. By default, the General settings & billing tab is selected.
- Scroll down to the Enable Margin heading.
- Switch the toggle to the ON or OFF position. If ON, enter values. (see below)
- Click Save.
Billing types
Dynamic CPM
Select this option to set minimum, maximum, and target margins for CPMs that vary with inventory. The cost of impressions fluctuates and changes in real time based on the impression's worth.
- Min Margin = The lowest possible margin the system can take at any moment.
- Max Margin = The highest possible margin the system can take at any moment.
- Target Margin = The margin goal you would like to achieve by the end of the flight.
Fixed CPM
If you select the Fixed CPM option, enter a target CPM (e.g. $15.00) that will be charged (regardless of inventory costs) plus a maximum and target margin rate.