Booking out-of-home is not a single click. Inventory has to be asked about, reserved, agreed and then committed, and each stage has its own state in AdQuick.
Knowing the sequence is what keeps a campaign from quietly losing sites.
The Stages
Stage | What it means |
1. Planned | The unit is on your campaign because it matched your criteria. Nobody outside knows about it. |
2. Requested | You have asked the media owner about it, via an RFP or a direct availability request. |
3. Available | They have confirmed it could be yours. It is not reserved. |
4. On hold | Reserved for you, temporarily, while you finalise. Holds expire. |
5. Booked | Agreed and committed. This is the point of no easy return. |
6. Contracted | Paperwork in place for the booked inventory. |
*Note: Stage 3 is where most mistakes happen. Available means nothing is reserved. If you want a unit, move it to a hold — otherwise another buyer can take it while you deliberate.
Automatic Requests
When you create a campaign with media owners on it, requests go out automatically — you are shown who will receive one and asked to confirm first.
That gets you from stage 1 to stage 2 without extra work. Everything after that is deliberate on your part.
Tracking Where You Are
The Availability filter on your plan is the quickest read on the whole campaign. Two checks worth making a habit:
Filter to Available — these are units you could secure but have not. Every one is at risk.
Filter to Hold Expired — these you had and lost.
Both lists should usually be short. A long Available list on a campaign close to launch means decisions are outstanding.
How Long It Takes
Media owners need time to respond, and the lead time is why campaign start dates have a minimum. Two things you control:
Your due date, which is the deadline media owners see for returning availability.
How quickly you convert availability into holds once responses arrive.
The second is usually the bottleneck, and it is entirely in your hands.