Set up Audience Schedules From a CSV File
You can add data for multiple audience schedules at the same time by importing this data from a .csv file.
An audience schedule is also known as an impression multiplier.
An audience schedule is a construct that contains the impression multiplier, which serves the purpose of defining how many impressions are delivered in a single ad play at a given time of the day.
An audience schedule defines the impression multiplier value per hour, day part, or day. Every ad served will be multiplied by this value to come up with the number of impressions delivered.
Impression multipliers in the audience schedules are either obtained directly from the publisher's audience data provider or calculated from their audience data taking into account average dwell time and ad play length.
In Broadsign Reach, impression multipliers can be broken down into genders and age groups if the publisher has access to this data.
You can add your own audience schedule.
You will need to create a .csv file with the appropriate data. Broadsign Reach provides an audience schedule template for you.
To create the audience file requires three general steps:
- Export the audience schedule template from Broadsign Reach. This file provides you with the allowable columns and correct format. If your publisher has no audience schedule created yet, the columns will be empty. See Step 1: Download the Audience Schedule Data Template.
- Enter your audience schedule data into the file, respecting the format. You can leave existing columns blank; however, you are unable to add columns to the file. See Step 2: Enter Your Audience Schedule Data.
- Import the file, now containing your audience schedule data, back into your network. See Step 3: Import the File into Your Domain.
Note: You must follow the format of the audience schedule template. Otherwise, Broadsign Reach will consider the file to be invalid.
Read this section before entering data in the audience schedule template.
If you have an impression multiplier, the native audience type for Broadsign Reach, you can load this in directly using the audience schedule template.
Hourly impressions represent a total number of impressions generated by a screen over an hour. This is in contrast to hourly audience, (the data type below) which represents the total number of people in front of a screen in an hour, who may view more than one slot.
If you have hourly Impressions, then it is a straight up division of the hourly impressions by the number of slots per hour.
For example, if you have 480 impressions per hour, and 15 second slots, then:
3600(second per hour)/15(length of the slots)=240 slots per hour
At 480 impressions per hour, that gives each slot 480/240= 2 impressions per slot, also known as 2x impression multiplier.
Note: These numbers can be decimals (for example, 1.3564 impressions per slot).
The formula to convert the data prior to filling the audience schedule template is:
[Impressions per hour] / 3600 * [Slot length]
Hourly audience represents the total number of people in front of a screen in an hour, who may view more than one slot. This is in contrast to Hourly Impressions Data, which represents the total number of impressions generated by a screen over an hour.
If you have hourly audience data, then the maths will be based on dwell time using this formula:
[Hourly Audience Data] / 3600 * [Dwell time]
You can then enter the results in the audience schedule template.
For example, if you have 480 Hourly audience, and 15 second slots and a 45 second dwell time, then:
3600(second per hour)/15(length of the slots)=240 slots per hour.
With 480 Hourly audience, that gives each slot 480/240= 2 * 45/15 = 2 * 3 = 6
impression multiplier.
Note: These numbers can be decimals (for example, 1.3564 impressions per slot).
The idea here is that the audience will be there for more than one slot, as opposed to the hourly impressions data that always counts the same person seeing many ads.
The audience schedule data template provides you with the allowable columns and correct format. If your publisher has no audience schedule created yet, the columns will be empty.
To download the audience schedule data template:
Note: You must follow the format of the audience schedule data template. Otherwise, Broadsign Reach will consider the file to be invalid.
To open the audience schedule data file:
- Open the audience schedule data .csv file that you downloaded (Broadsign recommends Microsoft Excel or similar spreadsheet program).
- Enter your audience schedule data as described in Step 2B: Format the Audience Schedule File.
The .csv file can include several columns (see Column Details).
Before entering data, you may want to consider the scenarios in Audience Data Calculation.
Supported Encoding
The .csv file must use the UTF-8 encoding format, otherwise you may have issues with importing.
Column Details
Column Letter | Column Name | Content |
---|---|---|
A | Screen ID | The ID number of the screen. |
B-L: Schedule columns These columns contain scheduling information for your screens. It is possible to have more than one schedule per screen. Warning: Imagine that you have a screen with four schedules. You want to update only one of the schedules. It is important to leave intact the three that will remain the same and change only the schedule you want. If you save the file with one schedule, you will lose the other three. |
||
B | Start Date |
The date from which the audience data schedule begins. This information is mandatory. Note: Date format is "yyyy-mm-dd". Example: 2021-01-01 |
C | End Date |
The date from which the audience data schedule ends. This information is mandatory. Note: Date format is "yyyy-mm-dd". Example: 2021-01-31 |
D | Start Time |
The time from which the audience data schedule begins. This information is mandatory. Note: Time format is "hh:mm:ss". Tip: To define an audience value for an hour, use "10:00:00" as Start Time and "11:00:00" as End Time. However, for the last hour of the day, use "23:00:00" as Start Time and "23:59:59" as End Time. Example: 12:00:01 |
E | End Time |
The time from which the audience data schedule ends. This information is mandatory. Note: Time format is "hh:mm:ss". Example: 18:00:00 |
F | Mon | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
G | Tues | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
H | Wed | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
I | Thu | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
J | Fri | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
K | Sat | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
L | Sun | Enter "1" if the schedule is active for this day of the week; enter "0" if the schedule is inactive for this day of the week. This information is optional. |
M-AD: Audience columns These columns contain the audience impression data for your screens. Note: Make sure that the sum of the breakdown matches the audience total and the female/male total. The total cannot be "0", but at least "0.01". |
||
M | Demography Type |
Enter "basic", which includes only the total number of people in front of a screen at a time (per day part, per day, etc.). |
N | Total |
Impression multiplier. This information is mandatory. Note: You cannot enter the value "0". You cannot enter the character "-" or any other special character. |
O | Males |
Total number of males/hour. This information is optional. Note: You cannot enter the character "-" or any other special character. |
P | Females |
Total number of females/hour. This information is optional. Note: You cannot enter the character "-" or any other special character. |
Q | Males 12 | Total number of males/hour aged between 12-17. This information is optional. |
R | Males 18 | Total number of males/hour aged between 18-24. This information is optional. |
S | Males 25 | Total number of males/hour aged between 25-34. This information is optional. |
T | Males 35 | Total number of males/hour aged between 35-44. This information is optional. |
U | Males 45 | Total number of males/hour between 45-54. This information is optional. |
V | Males 55 | Total number of males/hour aged between 55-64. This information is optional. |
W | Males 65 | Total number of males/hour aged over 65. This information is optional. |
X | Females 12 | Total number of females/hour aged between 12-17. This information is optional. |
Y | Females 18 | Total number of females/hour aged between 18-24. This information is optional. |
Z | Females 25 | Total number of females/hour aged between 25-34. This information is optional. |
AA | Females 35 | Total number of females/hour aged between 35-44. This information is optional. |
AB | Females 45 | Total number of females/hour aged between 45-54. This information is optional. |
AC | Females 55 | Total number of females/hour aged between 55-64. This information is optional. |
AD | Females 65 | Total number of females/hour aged over 65. This information is optional. |
Once the audience schedule data file has been properly filled out, you can import it into Broadsign Reach. If you encounter issues when importing the file, contact Broadsign Services.
To import the audience schedule data file: