Translate annual commercial targets into channel, market and monthly investment recommendations with assumptions that teams can understand and adjust.
Included with every ElenIQ planAll capabilities includedUnlimited usersPricing based on advertiser workspaces
Annual Investment Planning is the part of ElenIQ that builds the year. Start from an annual budget or target and your historical performance, and it recommends how to allocate investment across channels and markets, phases it month by month around seasonality and peak trading, and compares scenarios against target - with every assumption visible and editable.
The problem
Most annual plans start as a top-down number divided by twelve, then split across channels by last year's share. Seasonality, saturation and market differences are adjusted for by hand, if at all.
By the time the plan is challenged - by finance, by a client, by a missed quarter - nobody can say which assumption drove which number, and re-planning means rebuilding the spreadsheet.
Flat phasing
Even monthly splits ignore when demand and returns actually peak.
Last year's mix
Channel shares are carried forward instead of re-allocated to where returns are.
Hidden assumptions
Growth rates and efficiency targets sit in cells nobody reviews.
No scenario view
One plan is presented, so the growth versus efficiency trade-off is never seen.
Inside Annual Planning
See the recommended annual investment, its monthly phasing against seasonality and its market split, then switch scenarios to see how the plan and the forecast outcome change.
Monthly phasing aligned to seasonality and peak trading periods.
Annual investment
£2.4m
Recommended, all markets
Forecast revenue
£9.1m
Range £8.4m–£9.7m
Against target
+4%
Growth scenario
Monthly investment (£k)
Market allocation
Everything needed to turn a full-year budget into a plan teams can execute and defend.
Recommend the total annual investment and how it should be distributed, based on response curves fitted to your own history.
Split investment across markets and channels by where returns are strongest, not by last year's share.
Phase investment by month and quarter using measured seasonality, with promotional spikes detected rather than mistaken for demand.
Concentrate investment into peak trading periods where it still returns efficiently, and pull back where it does not.
Compare base, conservative, growth, efficiency and aggressive plans against target, side by side.
See what additional growth costs in efficiency - and what protecting efficiency costs in growth - before choosing a plan.
Every assumption is visible and adjustable, with a confidence score and the risks that would change the plan.
Export the plan to a spreadsheet and a stakeholder presentation, built from the same model as the on-screen plan.
01
Upload campaign data or connect a Google Sheet. ElenIQ checks quality and measures seasonality.
02
Enter the annual budget or commercial target, the KPI you plan against and any known context.
03
Review allocation and phasing for each scenario, with forecast outcome, range and confidence.
04
Edit the assumptions you disagree with, then export the annual plan for sign-off.
Two capabilities, two workflows. Forecasting models proposed changes; annual planning builds the year. Forecasts can inform the returns and assumptions an annual plan uses - neither replaces the other.
This page
Also included
Annual Investment Planning sits alongside Media Planning, Forecasting Intelligence, Creative Intelligence and Affiliate Growth Intelligence in the same advertiser workspace and the same subscription, with Ask Dex working across all of them. Nothing to buy separately.
Planning
Media Planning
Build market, audience and channel plans
Forecasting
Forecasting Intelligence
Model scenarios, returns and budget movements
Annual planning
Annual Investment PlanningYou are here
Build annual budgets, phasing and market allocations
Creative
Creative Intelligence
Turn creative performance into prioritised actions
Affiliate growth
Affiliate Growth Intelligence
Identify partner and programme growth opportunities
Ask Dex
Ask Dex works across ElenIQ. From Annual Investment Planning it can interrogate this workspace’s outputs and the assumptions behind them, and bring in the rest of the platform when the answer needs it.
How Ask Dex worksAsk Dex · from Annual Planning
“How should we phase next year’s budget to protect efficiency during peak periods?”
Protect efficiency by phasing the peak in two steps: lift October investment by 12% to build demand while marginal return is still high, then hold November below the growth scenario's level - Market A paid search saturates earlier in peak. The efficiency scenario keeps 96% of the forecast revenue for 9% less investment.
Annual Investment Planning is built for the people who set the year's budget and have to stand behind it.
Heads of performance & planning
Set the year's investment with a plan that shows how it was built.
Agencies
Build each client's annual budget and phasing in the same workspace as the rest of their planning.
Brand & marketing directors
Translate a commercial target into a budget the business can sign off.
Finance & commercial teams
See the assumptions behind the number, and what changes if they move.
Multi-market teams
Split one annual budget across markets and channels on a consistent basis.
Retail & seasonal businesses
Phase investment around peak trading rather than spreading it evenly.
Annual investment planning turns a full-year budget or commercial target into a plan: how much to invest in each channel and market, and how to phase it by month or trading period. ElenIQ builds that plan from your own historical performance and seasonality, with the assumptions shown and editable.
They are separate capabilities with separate workflows. Forecasting Intelligence models proposed changes - what happens if spend moves, and where the next portion of budget should go. Annual Investment Planning builds the full year: total investment, channel and market allocation, and monthly phasing. Forecasting can inform the returns an annual plan assumes, but neither replaces the other.
Phasing follows seasonality measured in your own history - months are indexed against the yearly average, and promotional spikes are detected rather than mistaken for demand. Peak trading periods receive more investment where the response curves show it will still return efficiently.
Yes. Compare base, conservative, growth, efficiency and aggressive plans side by side. They are structurally different - growth allocates to the highest marginal return, efficiency trims the least efficient spend, aggressive concentrates investment into peaks - so the trade-off between growth and efficiency is visible before you choose.
Yes. The plan exports to a spreadsheet with the monthly and channel detail, and to a presentation for stakeholders - both built from the same model as the on-screen plan, so the numbers always match.
No. Annual Investment Planning is included with every ElenIQ plan, alongside Media Planning, Forecasting Intelligence, Creative Intelligence, Affiliate Growth Intelligence and Ask Dex, with unlimited users. Plans are priced only by the number of advertiser workspaces you manage.
Media Planning, Forecasting Intelligence, Annual Investment Planning, Creative Intelligence and Affiliate Growth Intelligence on every plan, with Ask Dex and unlimited users. You only pay for the number of advertiser workspaces you manage.