Flights is where you manage all sponsored activity running on your site or network. A flight is a time-limited, budgeted unit that places an advertiser's ads in sponsored positions.
Creating a flight
Click Create flight in the flight list menu to open the four-step wizard. Before you start, make sure the advertiser is already set up in Admin, flights cannot be created without an existing advertiser.
Step 1: Campaign Selection
Select the advertiser and choose which campaign this flight belongs to. If no suitable campaign exists, select Create new campaign and give it a name. Campaigns are containers that group flights for the same advertiser, a useful way to separate different activity periods or product categories for the same brand.
Step 2: Flight Details
- Flight name: Use something descriptive that makes the flight easy to identify in the list, for example "Nike, Summer Campaign June" rather than a generic label.
- Start / End date: The period during which the flight is active. Flights do not serve before the start date or after the end date, regardless of remaining budget.
- Flight budget: The total spend cap for the flight. Delivery depends on available inventory, which is shaped by your site traffic, how often the advertiser's products are relevant in that traffic, and competition from other active flights. Budget is therefore not guaranteed to be fully spent. Set it based on what the advertiser has agreed to spend.
- Target CPC: The cost-per-click goal. The bidding system adjusts bids dynamically to hit this target over time. Must be at or above the minimum target CPC set in Admin > Auction & Bidding.
- Pacing: How the budget is distributed over time. Even spreads spend evenly across the flight duration and is the right default for most flights. ASAP spends as quickly as possible, use this when a advertiser needs maximum early exposure, such as for a product launch or a time-sensitive promotion.
Step 3: Products Selection
Search for and select the products that should be sponsored. You can search by product name, category, brand, SKU, or any other attribute evaluable in Elevate. Switch to the Selected tab to review your choices before continuing. A broader product selection gives the system more to work with and generally leads to better delivery, a very narrow selection limits where the flight can serve.
Step 4: Confirmation
Review the full configuration before saving:
- Advertiser
- Campaign
- Flight name
- Dates
- Budget
- Selected products
Create flight submits the configuration. The flight will move to Scheduled and start serving when the start date is reached.
Save as draft saves the configuration without activating, useful when preparing flights in advance or before a final review.
How flights are served
Once a flight is active, it may take up to 15 minutes before sponsored ads appear on your site. Performance data in the flight detail panel refreshes every 10–15 minutes. Metrics such as impressions, clicks, and spend may not reflect the most recent activity immediately.
If a flight is active but not delivering as expected, there are three common reasons.
- Pacing: if the flight is set to Even and the daily goal is already met, it will intentionally hold back until the next day.
- Bidding: if the target CPC is too low, the flight may not be winning enough auctions to generate impressions.
- Product relevance: if the selected products don't match the categories or search queries where placements are available, the flight has nowhere to serve, or limited inventory.
When troubleshooting a underdelivering flight, check these three in order before making any changes, and remember that each change causes the flight to retrain.
Editing a flight
Click Flight settings in the top right of the detail panel to edit
- Flight's name
- Budget
- Dates
- Pacing strategy
- Target CPC.
Changes can be made at any time, but keep in mind that modifying a live flight causes it to retrain, so avoid frequent adjustments. Make changes when there's a clear reason, and give the flight time to stabilise before evaluating the effect.
Deleting a flight
To delete a flight, click the three-dot menu at the far right of any row in the flight list and select Delete flight. You will be asked to confirm before anything is removed.
Note that deleted flights are not permanently removed, they are archived and will appear in the flight list with an Archived status. Historical data is preserved and the flight remains visible for reporting purposes, but it can no longer be edited or reactivated.
Reading the flight list
Each row represents one flight. Use the Search field to find a specific flight by name, the Status filter to narrow by lifecycle stage, and the Filters button to slice the list by any combination of advertiser, campaign, dates, or other dimensions.
The Columns button lets you customise which metrics are shown, the full list available is: Advertiser, Campaign, Pacing, Ad Revenue, Sales Revenue, ROAS, Orders, CPA, Conv. rate, Clicks, Impressions, CTR, eCPC, eCPM, CPM, Target CPC, Progress, Start date, End date, Daily goal, Budget, and Creator.
Impression and click data refreshes every 10–15 minutes. Conversion data has a delay of 1–2 hours.
Flight statuses
- Draft: the flight has been saved but not yet activated. No ads are serving.
- Scheduled: the flight is configured and will start serving when the start date is reached.
- Active: the flight is live and serving sponsored placements.
- Paused: the flight has been manually paused. No ads are serving, but the flight can be resumed.
- Completed: the flight has reached its end date or exhausted its budget.
- Error: something has prevented the flight from serving correctly. Review the flight settings and contact support if the issue isn't immediately clear.
- Archived: the flight has been archived and is no longer active or editable.
Key columns to watch
Pacing indicates whether the flight is spending its budget at the expected rate over time. In practice, this means comparing actual spend to date against expected spend, based on the flight's pacing logic and how much of the flight period has elapsed. A flight that is significantly behind pace may not deliver its full budget before the end date, worth flagging to the advertiser early rather than late.
ROAS is the clearest signal of whether a flight is generating value for the advertiser. It is calculated as revenue attributed to the flight divided by the cost of the ads, a ROAS of 5 means the advertiser earned five units of revenue per unit of ad spend. A strong ROAS validates the placement and makes renewal conversations easier. A low ROAS is worth investigating, product selection and relevance are usually the first things to check.
Viewing flight details
Click any flight to open its detail panel. At the top you'll see the flight's status, date range, and a budget bar showing how much has been spent relative to the total. The campaign name is also shown here, click it to see a dropdown of other flights belonging to the same campaign, useful for navigating between related flights without going back to the list.
Use the date picker to adjust the reporting window inside the panel. This only affects what data is displayed, not the flight itself.
The detail panel has two tabs:
Financial Performance shows Ad Revenue, Sales Revenue, ROAS and Pacing. Use this tab to assess whether the flight is delivering financial results relative to what was agreed with the advertiser.
Delivery Metrics shows Impressions, Clicks, CTR, Orders, Conversion rate, eCPM, CPA and eCPC. Use this tab to understand whether the flight is reaching shoppers and driving action, not just spending budget.
Data in the detail panel refreshes every 10–15 minutes. Metrics such as impressions, clicks, and spend may not reflect the most recent activity immediately.