What is media flighting, and how do planners schedule flights?
Part of Programmatic media planning
The short answer
Media flighting is a scheduling pattern in which advertising runs in set periods, called flights, separated by periods with no advertising. A continuous schedule runs throughout the plan, and pulsing keeps some spend in all periods with heavier bursts. The choice changes frequency per person, which sites can deliver and how the plan lines up with seasonal content.
Key takeaways
- The American Marketing Association definitions, reproduced by the Radio Advertising Bureau, separate continuous, flighting and pulsing patterns by whether spending stops and how much it varies.
- Concentrating the same impressions into fewer weeks raises frequency inside each cap window, so caps are set per flight.
- In Display & Video 360, campaign dates do not affect serving; line item and insertion order dates and statuses do.
- Seasonal timing should come from a dated source for the region, such as NOAA's description of tornado season, not from habit.
- Several markets need their own calendars, holidays and line items, even when they share one site list.
What is media flighting?
Flighting is one of three timing patterns a media plan can follow. The Radio Advertising Bureau (opens in a new tab) reproduces the American Marketing Association's definitions, which describe flighting as a pattern "in which advertising messages are scheduled to run during intervals of time that are separated by periods in which no advertising messages appear for the advertised item." The same definition adds: "Any period of time during which the messages are appearing is called a flight." This page calls the off periods dark periods.
Definition
- Flight
- A dated period in a media plan during which ads run, with its own budget, markets, creative and, in programmatic buying, its own line item or insertion order dates.
Definition
- Pulsing
- In the AMA wording, a pattern with some spending in all periods of the schedule and periods in which spending is notably heavier than others.
The pattern is a planning choice made before any platform setting. Budget pacing is a separate decision: it governs how spend is spread inside a flight once the flight's dates are fixed. A plan states both, but this page covers the flight calendar.
How do continuous, flighted and pulsing schedules differ?
| Question | Continuous | Flighted | Pulsing |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMA description | Messages scheduled continuously through the plan period | Intervals of advertising separated by periods with none | Some spending in all periods, notably heavier in some |
| Spend by period | Equal amounts in each period | Concentrated in flights, zero between | A base level plus heavier bursts |
| Frequency inside a flight | Lowest for a given budget | Highest, since the budget runs in fewer weeks | Rises during bursts, lower in base weeks |
| Fit with seasonal content | Ignores seasons | Can match flights to seasonal coverage | Keeps a presence and adds weight in season |
| Setup in a buying platform | One set of dates | Separate dates or line items per flight | Separate budgets or line items per weight level |
| Main risk | Spend in weeks when the audience is not looking | Absence when a buyer enters the market in a dark week | More setup and more line items to monitor |
How does flighting affect frequency?
A flight concentrates a budget into fewer days. If the same number of impressions runs in four weeks instead of twelve, the people reached in those four weeks see the ads more times within any given week. That concentration can be the purpose of a flight, but it makes the frequency cap the setting that decides how far the concentration goes.
Caps have limits of their own. In Display & Video 360, frequency caps (opens in a new tab) can be set at campaign, insertion order and line item level, and the help page gives a maximum time period of 30 days after February 28, 2025. It also warns that "Using a lower frequency cap will reduce the number of impressions your line items can bid on." A tight cap in a short flight can leave budget unspent. Google Ads reports average frequency per user over 7 days and 30 days (opens in a new tab), which gives a consistent window for comparing flights of different lengths.
Setting frequency for a flighted plan
- Set the cap per flight, not per year. A cap window longer than the flight does nothing useful once the flight ends, and the 30 day maximum in Display & Video 360 already limits it.
- Check the cap at each level. In Display & Video 360, serving stops when the first cap at campaign, insertion order or line item level is reached.
- Compare flights on the same window. Use weekly frequency, such as the 7 day measure, so a two week flight and a six week flight can be read side by side.
- Watch the dark week after a flight. Confirm that line items stopped on time and that no other line item using the same creative kept serving.
How does flighting affect site list delivery?
An inclusion list limits where a flight can buy, and a short flight gives each listed site fewer days to deliver. Specialist and local sites can carry far fewer impressions than large publishers, so a two week flight on a list of small sites may not find enough inventory at the planned frequency. Check availability for each flight's dates and markets, as covered in the guide to ad inventory availability, before promising delivery.
Each flight should name the list version it buys. If a site is added or removed between flights, the second flight runs on a new version, and the report for each flight refers to its own list. The guide to site list version control explains how to keep those versions apart.
How should flights match seasonal content?
A flight works best when the sites on the list are publishing the content the brief wants to sit beside. That depends on the region's real calendar. For weather driven products, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (opens in a new tab) describes tornado season as "the peak period for historical tornado reports in an area," notes "a general northward shift" from late winter through mid summer, and gives May into early June as the peak for the southern Plains.
Retail and holiday flights face moving dates. The US Census Bureau (opens in a new tab) calls holidays whose effects move between months from year to year "moving holidays," naming Easter, Labor Day and Thanksgiving, and explains that Easter can fall in March or April. A flight copied from last year's calendar can miss the week that matters. Google's Display & Video 360 forecasting (opens in a new tab) notes, about forecasted costs, that "Forecasts now account for country-specific seasonal periods, including holidays," so forecast each flight on its own dates.
Seasonal checks for each flight
- The flight's start date comes from a dated source for this region and year, not from last year's plan.
- Sample articles from the listed sites show seasonal coverage published in the same weeks last year.
- Moving holidays inside the flight are checked against this year's calendar.
- The forecast was run on this flight's own dates and markets.
- Avoid topics tied to the season, such as disaster coverage for a weather product, are in the brief.
- The dark period after the flight is dated in the platform.
For matching creative and context to the season itself, see seasonal contextual advertising.
How do you plan flights across several markets?
Markets that share a brief do not share a calendar. Seasons arrive at different times, holidays differ between countries and provinces, and a single national flight can land early in one market and late in another. A Bank of Canada staff paper on weekly data (opens in a new tab) lists the problem plainly among the difficulties of weekly seasonality: "Holidays do not always fall on the same day or week each year."
Five steps for a multi market flight plan
- Build one calendar per market. Mark the season, local holidays and school breaks for each market with their source and year.
- Set flights per market. Start and end each market's flight on its own dates, even when the creative and site list are shared.
- Split line items by market. Separate line items or insertion orders keep dates, geography, budgets and caps independent.
- Check the list per market. Confirm that the listed sites have an audience in each market's country, and add local publishers where a market needs them.
- Report by market and flight. Keep each flight's delivery, frequency and served domains apart, so one market's results do not hide another's.
How does PlacementGraph build the site list a flight runs on?
What does a flight plan look like for one advertiser?
Fictional example
A storm shelter installer's spring flights in Alabama
An unnamed installer of storm shelters and safe rooms serving Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile asks its agency for display on home improvement, regional news and local lifestyle sites. The client wants to run all year at an even weight.
The planner proposes a pulsing schedule instead. A low base weight runs through the year, and a heavier burst starts in late winter. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center says the season comes earlier during the spring on the Gulf Coast than the May into early June peak it gives for the southern Plains, so the planner checks NOAA's local tornado records for Alabama before fixing the burst date. The brief adds disaster and tragedy coverage as avoid topics, so the ads do not sit beside reports of a storm's damage.
Each market gets its own line items, dates and weekly cap. The burst and the base run as separate line items so that the burst can end on its date while the base continues. The approved list version is named on each line item, and the report keeps the burst and base weeks apart.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a dark period between flights be?
No industry standard sets a length. Base it on how long the product's buyers take to decide and on when the next seasonal window opens, and write the reason into the plan. A dark period shorter than the frequency cap window can let the same people carry high frequency from one flight into the next.
Can a private marketplace deal be flighted?
Yes, but the deal and the buyer's line item are set up separately, and the line item decides when the buyer bids. Pausing the line item creates a dark period on the buyer's side while the deal stays open, which keeps the setup ready for the next flight.
Should the site list change between flights?
Only for a reason. Review the list before each flight, since a site can change ownership, content or ad layout between seasons. If the review adds or removes a site, approve a new list version and name it on the next flight's line items, so each flight's results trace back to the list it actually bought.
Does flighting suit YouTube plans as well as websites?
The same patterns apply, but the frequency counting differs. Display & Video 360 says it uses a one way frequency counter for YouTube and partners line items, so impressions from each line item count toward the caps above it. Plan YouTube flights with their own caps rather than copying the website line items.
Sources
- Media Strategies: Flighting, Pulsing or Continuous (American Marketing Association definitions) (opens in a new tab)Radio Advertising Bureau
- Manage frequency with frequency caps (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Create a campaign (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Create an insertion order (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Create a plan for a campaign (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Measuring reach and frequency (opens in a new tab)Google Ads Help
- The Online Tornado FAQ (opens in a new tab)NOAA Storm Prediction Center
- Seasonal Adjustment Questions and Answers (opens in a new tab)US Census Bureau
- Seasonal Adjustment of Weekly Data (Staff Discussion Paper 2024-17) (opens in a new tab)Bank of Canada, November 18, 2024
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.