Marketing Planner with Calendar & Timeline

Setup Instructions

How to Use the Google Sheets Marketing Planner Template

The Google Sheets Marketing Planner Template is designed to streamline your marketing efforts by helping you plan, organise, and visualise your content across all your advertising platforms. Below is a comprehensive guide to using each sheet effectively.

1. Planned Sheet

The Planned sheet is the hub for recording and managing all your marketing activities, whether they are active right now or planned for some point in the future. You can list all your marketing plans here even if they are just an idea. The status of the event will determine its state within the life-cycle of your marketing planner. 

• Columns Overview:
  

  • Content: This is a general title or name for the marketing event.

  • Type: Use the dropdown menu to select the marketing platform (e.g., Facebook, Email, YouTube, etc.). There are over 20 options available and this list can be edited from the Settings sheet if you can’t find the specific option you need. 

  • Post Text / Headline: This is the specific post text or heading you wish to use for the marketing campaign. It will be useful for social platforms like X, Instagram, TikTok or for an email subject to name a few. 

  • Details / Notes: This is an internal note about the specifics of the marketing campaign, such as why you are doing it or any exclusions, etc. 

  • Owner: Assign a responsible person for the task. The list of names is managed from the Settings sheet. You can add up to 100 people to this list. 

  • Status: Update the status of each task using the dropdown menu. Statuses include:

    • New

    • In Progress

    • Under review

    • Published

    • Suspended

    • Paused

    • Completed

    • Archived

  • Start Date & End Date: Specify the timeline for each activity. The Start Date and End Date determines if the event appears on the Calendar and Timeline. This will show when an event starts, how long it lasts and when it finishes. You should add both a start and end date, even if the end date is the same as the start date. 

  • File: You can attach Google files from your Drive here for quick access to any supporting documentation. 

  • Retrospective: This gives you an opportunity to add some notes about how the marketing campaign went. What went well, what went badly, ideals for next time, etc. You can look back at these notes to ensure the next time you run a similar campaign you avoid any mistakes. 

  • When you mark events as ‘Archived,’ they disappear from the timeline, but continue to show on the calendar. To keep things tidy, you can filter the ‘Planned’ sheet to hide ‘Archived’ events.

2. Calendar Sheet

The Calendar sheet provides a visual overview of your marketing activities for any given month and year. This is only a visual representation; you cannot edit data on this page, but you can filter the results.

• Viewing Options:
  

  • In the top right, select the desired month and year to view all planned activities for that period. You can simply type the year in, such as 2024 or 2025. This calendar is fully dynamic and perpetual.

  • Each day can display up to 5 events. If more than 5 events exist, the day will indicate how many additional events are scheduled.

  • You can set the calendar to start on a Monday or a Sunday with the dropdown

  • You can view events by their 'Start Date', 'End Date' or 'All Dates' to visualise the month's events at a glance.

    • When entering an event on the Planned sheet that only has a 'Start Date' (single-day events), you should also enter an 'End Date' to ensure these show on the calendar if viewing events with the 'All Dates' option.

• Filtering:

  • Use the filters to narrow down events by Status, Type, or Owner.
    

• Dates:

  • You can choose to view events by their start date, end date, or all dates to visualise them exactly how you want.  
    

• Colour Coding:

  • Each marketing type is assigned a unique colour, making it easy to identify events at a glance. These colours are managed within conditional formatting rules for the Calendar and Timeline sheets.
    

• Today’s Highlight:

  • The current day is automatically highlighted for quick identification.
    

• Daily Breakdown:

  • A filterable panel to the right of the calendar provides a breakdown of all events for a specific day, along with their statuses.

3. Timeline Sheet

The Timeline sheet offers a comprehensive view of events, showing their duration and progress in a Gantt-style chart. This is only a visual representation; you cannot edit data on this page, but you can filter the results. 

• Columns Overview:
  

  • Content: This is a general title or name for the marketing event

  • Type: Indicates the marketing platform (e.g., Facebook, Email, etc.).

  • Owner: Specifies the person responsible for the task.

  • Status: Displays the current status of the task.

  • Start Date & End Date: Defines the task’s timeline.

  • Days: Shows the total number of days from the Start Date to the End Date where an end date exists. 

  • Progress: A Sparkline chart visualises the progress from the Start Date to the current date.

  • Remaining: Displays the number of days left until the End Date.
    

• Gantt Chart:
  

  • Located on the right side of the sheet, the Gantt chart visually maps tasks across the timeline. Days are broken down by date, day name, and week number.

  • The chart is colour-coded by marketing type.

  • You will also see a breakdown of Events displayed above the timeline so you can see at a gance your current activity for the following timeframes.

    • Total

    • Past

    • Active

    • Upcoming
      

4. Settings Sheet

The Settings sheet contains key configurations for the planner.

• Owner List:

  • Add or update names in the Owner column (Column D). These names will appear in the dropdown menus in the Planned, Calendar and Timeline sheets. Up to 100 Owners can be used.
    

• Status List:

  • There is a range of statuses in column B, which can be adjusted. However, two key status is ‘Archived’. This should not be changed as it is used specifically for filtering the timeline. Up to 100 Statuses can be used.
    

• Type:

  • There are 26 predefined marketing types shown in column C. These can be amended, removed or added to as required. Up to 100 types can be used. If these are changed, you will need to review the conditional formatting associated to these names for the Calendar and Timeline as these names are hard-coded.
    

• Other Settings:

  • Additional configuration options that support the functionality of the template can also be found here (Columns H to M), but it is not recommended to change these as they will effect the functionality of the sheet.  

5. Data Collation Sheet

The Data sheet (Hidden by default) acts as a backend tool to collate and organise data for the Calendar and Timeline sheets.

• Automatically populated based on the information entered in the Planned sheet.

• Used to drive dynamic visualisations in the Calendar and Timeline sheets.

Tips for Success

• Regular Updates: Keep the Planned sheet up to date to ensure the calendar and timeline reflect the latest information. Mark events as Archived when the event is in the past to only show current events on the timeline. The Calendar will show past, present and future events by default. Remember to hide ‘Archived’ events with the filters in row 1 of the Planned sheet to keep this tidy and up to date. 

• Filters: Use filters in the Calendar and Timeline sheets to focus on specific tasks or individuals.

• Settings Maintenance: Periodically review the Settings sheet to ensure dropdown menus and other configurations are accurate.

• Sheet Protection: Some sheets have protection applied to them to prevent unintential changes. Any cells within a locked sheet that can be edited have been excluded from the protection. The protection can be removed if required, but this is not recommended. 
  

By following this guide, you’ll be able to maximise the efficiency of the Marketing Planner Template and ensure all your marketing efforts are well-organised and effectively visualised.