Marin's Forecasting Overrides feature integrates Marketing Calendars with Marin Forecasting, such that users can modify the forecasting data used to power Ascend reallocation decisions.

Why you need a Forecasting Overrides

Sometimes, you might have access to data and information that Marin forecasting doesn't, for example:

• weekend business shutdown
• promotional events
• access to more historic data than has been uploaded to Marin

In such cases, it might not be reasonable for forecasting to pick up on such trends, so we have created the ability to augment such forecasts such that Ascend reallocation decisions are more accurate.

We expect most customers won't need to use this feature, but if you do, and you still have questions, please reach out to yourMarin representative who can guide you.

Check out the dedicated article on Marin's Marketing Calendar for more information

Creating Forecasting Overrides

Navigate to Settings (top right navigation panel) and click on “Calendar Events. This grid contains all customer- and client-level calendar events. Each Event day is a single row, and the Event Name, Category, and Description columns have general grid functionalities: filter / search / sort

Add entries for the desired events.  For an event to be considered as a forecasting override:

• “Event Name” must exactly equal the string “Forecast Override” (case insensitive)
• “Category” is not required and can be anything (or blank)
• “Description” must include "folder_ids":"" to apply overrides to all strategies
• “modifier”  is in percent (integer), supporting values between -100 and +300 supported
  • To increase the forecasted value by 10%, you would enter:  "modifier": 10
  • To set the forecasted values to 0 on affected days, for example, you would enter "modifier": -100
• Note: ALL forecasted metrics will be affected, including clicks, cost, conversions, and revenue

Here is an example:

Event Name	Start Date	End Date	[Category]	[Description]	[Client ID]
Forecast Override	2024-09-28	2024-09-29	some promotion	{"modifier": -100, "folder_ids":""}	3456
Forecast Override 2024-09-28	2024-09-29					{"modifier": -100, "folder_ids":"1234,3456"}	
...

Viewing modified forecasts

Once the forecasts have subsequently been updated (typically ~8am client time zone), you will be able to see this in the Strategies "Pace" charts, and will also be reflected in the Pacing in-grid “thermometer” charts, dynamica allocation decisions and Allocation dashboards etc.

Check out the dedicated article on Marin's Strategy Pace Chart for more information

Best Practices

• Only use this feature where strictly necessary, as optimization decisions will be impacted.
• Use the optional “Category” field to include more detail on the reason the forecasts are being overridden
• Set dates as far into the future as necessary
• Only specify folder_ids where necessary (otherwise, newly created folders would not be included unless new events were created)