Guide
How do you turn a media plan into live campaigns?
Turning a media plan into live campaigns, the work media teams call trafficking, means translating every line of the plan into each platform's own objects: campaigns, ad sets or line items, ads, targeting, budgets, dates, bidding and tracking. It can be done by hand, with each platform's bulk tools, or by agents that read the plan, build the campaigns on Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Google Ads or DV360, check them, and wait for the team's approval.
By Nathan Venezia, Co-founder & CEO · Updated October 19, 2026
What a media plan has to become
A media plan says what to buy: for each line, a platform, an audience, a budget, dates, a goal, placements and creatives. A platform does not take a plan. It takes its own objects, in its own hierarchy, with its own names and required fields.
| Campaign | Targeting tier | Ad | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta (Facebook, Instagram) | Campaign | Ad set | Ad |
| TikTok | Campaign | Ad group | Ad |
| Snapchat | Campaign | Ad squad | Ad and creative |
| Google Ads | Campaign | Ad group (asset group on Performance Max) | Ad |
| DV360 | Campaign | Insertion order, then line item | Creative |
Each line of the plan usually becomes one object at the targeting tier: an ad set on Meta, an ad group on TikTok or Google Ads, an ad squad on Snapchat, a line item on DV360. The creatives go in the ads beneath it.
Why it still takes so long
A single campaign setup can involve hundreds of variables: objectives, budgets, bidding, targeting, pacing, creatives, tracking, naming, and the dependencies between campaign objects. A plan that runs on Meta, TikTok and DV360 is set up three times, in three interfaces, with three names for the same thing.
Then it is checked against the plan, line by line, because one wrong field can spend a budget in the wrong place.
Three ways to do it
- By hand. A trader builds each object in the platform's interface, copying values from the plan. Flexible, and the slowest: the time grows with every line, platform and market.
- With each platform's bulk tools. DV360's Structured Data Files create many campaigns, insertion orders or line items at once, and Google Ads Editor changes many campaigns offline, as drafts, before they are posted. They are fast at repeating a known structure. Someone still converts the plan into each tool's format, platform by platform, and checking the result against the plan is still a person's job.
- With agents. An agent reads the plan as it is, builds each platform's objects from it, applies the team's rules, and runs the result through checks before anything is sent. The team reviews the prepared campaigns and approves them. This is agentic media buying.
Step by step, with an agent
- Attach the plan as it is: an Excel workbook, a PDF brief, a deck, or a sheet in a tool the agent can reach.
- The agent reads every line, and the team's rules for that advertiser: naming conventions, campaign structures, QA checklists.
- It builds the hierarchy each platform expects, and resolves names into platform values: a city into a location, an interest into a targeting value, an audience into its ID.
- A deterministic layer checks every operation before it is sent: access rights, client scope, advertiser rules, required parameters, platform formats and quotas.
- The team reviews the prepared campaigns. Significant actions, such as launching a campaign or changing a budget, wait for approval by an authorized user.
- The approved operations go to each platform through its API. The agent then keeps watching delivery, pacing and performance, and reports back.
What to check before anything goes live
- Budgets. The total per platform and per line matches the plan, in the ad account's currency.
- Dates. Every flight starts and ends where the plan says, in the advertiser's time zone.
- Targeting. Locations resolved in the right country, audiences that exist in the account, and nothing dropped without a word.
- Naming. Every object follows the convention, so reporting can group them.
- Tracking. Pixels, conversion events and tracking tags attached where the plan needs them.
- Status. Created paused, and enabled only once reviewed.
Where Concord fits
Concord is the agentic infrastructure for media buying, automating campaign execution across advertising platforms. Concord reads media plans in any format, takes the creatives, applies your rules and prepares the whole structure as platform actions, checked before anything goes live.
It builds through its own integration with each platform: Meta for Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google Ads and YouTube, and DV360. Every parameter runs through 1,000+ checks before anything is sent, and significant campaign actions require approval by an authorized user.
The real case: L'Oréal Paris Age Perfect Midnight Cream, from media plan V3 to 3 campaigns, 9 ad sets and 22 ads on Meta. See how Concord executes.
Questions
What is campaign trafficking?
Trafficking is the work of turning a media plan into live campaigns: creating each platform's campaigns, ad sets or line items and ads, with the plan's budgets, dates, targeting, creatives and tracking, then checking them before launch.
Can an AI agent build Facebook and Instagram ads from a media plan?
Yes, with a tool that has a direct integration with Meta. In Concord, you attach the media plan and agents build the Meta campaigns, ad sets and ads it describes. Every parameter runs through 1,000+ checks before anything is sent, and significant campaign actions require approval by an authorized user. How Concord works on Meta.
Does it work with an Excel or Google Sheets media plan?
In Concord, yes. It reads a workbook sheet by sheet, so a plan spread across several tabs is usable as it is, and it can work from Google Sheets once connected.
Which platforms can Concord build campaigns on from a media plan?
Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google Ads, YouTube, DV360, TikTok, Snapchat and Amazon, which is in beta. See every integration.
Is a bulk upload tool enough?
For repeating a known structure on one platform, often. A bulk tool still needs someone to convert the plan into that platform's format and to check the result against the plan. An agent does both from the plan itself, and leaves the approval to the team.