A dealer runs a campaign that mixes a radio buy with a targeted social push, files for reimbursement, and gets back less than they expected. The reason is usually the split. Part of what they spent was above the line and part below, the program treats the two differently, and nobody tracked which was which.
Above the line and below the line is old advertising language, but in co-op it has teeth, because the split often decides how much a dealer gets paid back.
What the two actually mean
Above the line, or ATL, is the broad awareness spend. Radio, TV, billboards, the mass-reach work that builds the brand but is hard to tie to a specific sale.
Below the line, or BTL, is the targeted, measurable spend. Direct mail, paid social with tracking, search, an event, the work you can trace to leads and responses.
Neither is better. They do different jobs. The reason it matters for co-op is that programs frequently cap or match them at different rates, so the same dollar reimburses differently depending on which side of the line it sits.
Why the split gets lost
The trouble is that real campaigns do not respect the line. A single push might include a radio spot, a social buy, and an event in the same week, funded from one budget. If a dealer tracks it as one lump of spend, they have thrown away the information the reimbursement depends on.
Then, at claim time, someone has to go back and sort every invoice into ATL or BTL after the fact. That is slow, it is error-prone, and it is exactly the kind of reconstruction that leads to underpaid or rejected claims.
Tracking the split as you plan
The fix is to decide the split when you build the plan, not when you file the claim. If the budget is allocated by tactic from the start, each dollar already knows which side of the line it is on, and the reimbursement math is just addition.
- Tag each line of the plan as ATL or BTL up front, while it is obvious
- Keep the running total for each visible, so you can see the balance before you commit
- Match the split to what the program actually reimburses, rather than discovering the mismatch at payout
Sizle tracks the ATL and BTL split automatically as a plan is built, so the balance is visible while there is still time to adjust it and the claim does not depend on sorting invoices later. The point holds without any tool, though. The split is cheap to track while you are planning and expensive to reconstruct afterward.
If your claims keep coming back lighter than expected, the split is the first place to look. The money is usually not being denied. It is being reimbursed at the wrong rate because nobody decided, in advance, which side of the line each dollar was on.