Retail media budget template: an auditable blank ledger

A retail media budget template should preserve the link between a proposed activity, its charging basis and the evidence supporting it. This blank structure is for an England retailer operating controlled advertising inventory or an advertiser buying that inventory. Tesco Media and Insight Platform and Amazon Ads are examples of UK retail-media platforms; use the actual property and supplier for the activity being modelled. Choose the payer's perspective before completing any row.

No verified prices, quantities or tax assumptions are supplied in this template. UNKNOWN entries are deliberate missing-input states. The template is proposed modelling practice, not a quotation, forecast or record of a real campaign.

What to take away

Complete the cover record first

Record the retailer property, paid format, payer, supplier and service period. Add the decision owner and the date at which the model will be reviewed. Describe which implementation, media, reporting and support activities belong inside the budget.

Keep the source currency and the chosen reporting currency together. Use GBP for the England planning account once any necessary conversion has been documented. Preserve the authoritative source and date of an exchange rate if one is later needed; no conversion is supplied here.

Build the input ledger

Every completed row also needs a document reference, evidence date, currency and responsible owner. State the billable event beside a variable charge. A fixed amount should name its deliverable and period rather than use an unexplained quantity entry.

Use this as the working input ledger. Add rows for every contracted activity; keep UNKNOWN where evidence is missing.

The linked retail media hidden-costs source note discusses Criteo's account fee categories and working-media basis. It illustrates why fee categories and bases need recording, but does not identify an exact Criteo document title, populate the blank ledger or establish a UK rate.

Assign a calculation rule to each row

For an evidenced per-event price, multiply the documented rate by the eligible quantity, adjusting for any contractually defined bundle size. For a fixed service, take the agreed amount for the stated term. For a spend-linked fee, use only the eligible spend specified in its terms.

Complete a rule for each ledger row before calculating it. The descriptions below are placeholders to replace with the terms and evidence for the actual purchase.

Keep rounding, minimum charges and exclusions with the relevant formula. Calculate a partial subtotal only from validated rows and label it accordingly. If an essential value remains UNKNOWN, keep the complete budget UNKNOWN instead of letting a spreadsheet treat text or empty cells as nil.

Add an event dictionary

Maintain separate fields for ad requests, served impressions, viewable impressions and clicks. Attributed sales belong to the stated attribution rule; incremental sales require causal evaluation. Record the adopted metric specification and filtering method beside every quantity used in costing.

Use this event dictionary alongside any quantities used in the ledger. Fill in the supplier's adopted definitions and filters rather than assuming that different suppliers count events identically.

IAB Europe's Retail Media Measurement Standards, Version 2.1 (May 2026), covers media, attribution and incrementality. Treat it as industry measurement guidance, not a mandatory UK invoice format or proof that suppliers count events identically.

Separate cash from economic cost

HMRC's VAT Notice 700: The VAT Guide explains input-tax conditions. Ask a qualified accountant to determine the invoice treatment and recoverability for the actual purchase. Record VAT cash movements independently from any confirmed recoverable amount and retain UNKNOWN where the position is unresolved.

Add the contractual invoice and payment dates when available. A management allocation across periods does not change when the supplier is entitled to payment. This template provides no tax advice, statutory rate or assumed recovery percentage.

Preserve the decision trail

Keep approved assumptions separate from measured quantities and invoiced actuals. When evidence arrives, update the relevant row and retain the earlier version so the change is traceable. Record who accepted each assumption and whether a budget decision depends on it.

Before presenting a complete total, review omissions, duplicated charges and mismatched periods. Require real named finance and specialist review before publication, then refresh sources. The useful output is an auditable model whose unresolved values remain visible, not a polished total unsupported by evidence.

Before you act

Common questions

What should happen if an essential value in the budget remains UNKNOWN?

The article says to keep the complete budget UNKNOWN rather than letting a spreadsheet treat text or empty cells as nil. A partial subtotal should only be calculated from validated rows and labelled accordingly, so unresolved values stay visible in the model.

How should VAT be handled in this retail media budget template?

The article says to ask a qualified accountant to determine invoice treatment and recoverability for the actual purchase. Record VAT cash movements independently from any confirmed recoverable amount, and retain UNKNOWN where the position is unresolved. The template provides no tax advice or assumed recovery percentage.

Why does the template distinguish ad requests, served impressions, viewable impressions and clicks?

The article says to maintain separate fields for each, because attributed sales belong to the stated attribution rule and incremental sales require causal evaluation. Record the adopted metric specification and filtering method beside every quantity used in costing, since suppliers may not count events identically.