What Is Media Buying?
The Media buying process is a set of strategic wholesale multi-platform ad space purchases, discussions, and agreements aimed at finding the most advantageous positioning at the lowest price for your period.
Media buying falls into the paid media category and generally means the procurement of media space and time for displaying ad creatives. While buying media, the goal is to find the ideal location, time and context to deliver relevant ads to the target market and increase conversion rates, sales or brand awareness. Media buying is time-based, meaning that the buyer is paying for”renting” all possible placements on all possible platforms. So they must be accessible for the timeslot when it is convenient for the advertiser to place the ad.
Advertising decisions aren’t made overnight. In actuality, the stage of meticulous preparation is the most time-consuming and presupposes in-depth research and careful preparation. In the pre-launch stage, the media buyer considers and makes relevant media decisions. The core focus is to make sure that the chosen media outlets align with advertising objectives.
“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.” — David Ogilvy
First, get a clear picture of the existing clients, and inquire who they are. Distribute your audience into segments such as demographics (age, sex, social and marital status), geolocation (area, town, country), behaviour (interests, hobbies) and other groups to understand whom you’re dealing. After getting to know your audience, try to find similarities and patterns to get an idea of the target audience or individuals who could be interested in your service or product. After identifying the target group, consider the best way to reach those individuals. Where do they go? How do they shop? Can they buy online or come directly to the venue? If you intend to advertise online, consider channels to reach potential customers: search engine ads, website, blog advertisements and social network platforms such as SMMrank. Make certain that you understand what platforms and devices in your target group uses.
Investigate potential competitors, and get a sense of their media buying strategy. Identify where your competitors advertise, whom they target, what worked and what didn’t work for them.
Choose forms of advertising that correspond your campaign goals: print ads in newspapers and magazines; video commercials on TV, online and movie theaters; indoor posters and outdoor billboards; radio advertising; banner and text digital media; mobile advertising and so on. However, this might be a bit challenging — for every media channel, there must be a personally tailored message that fits that specific channel.
If you buy digital media, discuss with the demand-supply platform (DSP) provider its platform fees and service costs, and make sure there are no hidden fees. Adjust the programmatic budget by setting the daily or monthly limits.
Allocate the Budget, and Plan the Campaign Execution
After identifying precisely to whom to advertise, where and how, it’s time to get your hands wet. Set a target return on investment. Allocate a campaign budget according to the results you expect to achieve (clicks, conversions, sales completes, sign-ups, etc.). Estimate expenditures for a specific period, such as day, month or quarter budget. Think about how to distribute your marketing budget across channels — offline and online. Plan every dollar you spend and don’t forget to account for unforeseen expenses.
Stage Two: Campaign Launch
During the launch phase, the main responsibility of the media buyer is to ensure effective media delivery and constant monitoring of the campaign performance. At this stage, it is crucial to analyze what works and what doesn’t and, based on those insights, make further decisions.
Ensure Media Delivery
As a media buyer, you must make sure the advertisement appears in the desired location, in front of the target audience and in the right context. Make sure to deliver highly relevant messages that bring value to consumers instead of disturbance or irritation. Track the progress and the customer engagement.
Respond to Customer Behavior or Competitor Activities
Sometimes potential customers don’t interact with the advertisement as planned, and you don’t receive the desired response (clicks, buys, signs up, calls, etc.). In this case, be ready to adapt and change the strategy according to the consumer feedback. Furthermore, track the performance of your competitors, and always be aware of industry trends.
Attention! Don’t be afraid to adjust the settings, budget and/or media outlets during the campaign. Set up deadlines for reassessment. Be ready to review periodically throughout the campaign, and always re-evaluate the original plan and strategy. If you find that the results are not meeting the initial objectives, be flexible and adapt quickly.
Stage Three: Post-launch Reflections
The post-campaign stage is a time to reflect and think about the good, the bad and the ugly of the advertising campaign in terms of delivery, media space, return on investment, customer engagement and overall performance.
Analyze the Effectiveness of the Campaign
Collect as much data as possible, and review statistics and granular reports to see the strong and weak points of the campaign. Analyze the effectiveness of the media space and whether it generated revenues that were expected. Check how the target audience interacted with the product, and assess consumer behavior. Evaluate the return on investment, and mark errors that have been made to avoid them in future advertising campaigns.
Collect Data, and Draw Insights
When you have all the data, it is time to make put it to use. In digital advertising, data is used to build algorithms that help optimize advertising campaigns and provide better targeting. Data is a marketer’s best friend, so look at it carefully. Aggregate data, and look for major and minor trends. Don’t look at singular points, especially when they change the direction. Search for relationships among variables or correlation and dependence patterns that help understand the logic. Finally, look at the data from different angles. Invite others to examine the data and discuss your impressions.
Opt for Digital Media
Advertising is much more than creating an appealing banner or commercial. A brand might design the most brilliant ad in the world, but it would be totally worthless if nobody sees it. And you don’t just need any old audience to see the ad; you need the people who are most likely to be interested — your target group — to see it.
“Creative without a strategy is called’art’. Creative with a strategy is called’advertising'”. — Jef I. Richards
Successful advertising does not only depend on what is revealed and how, but also on where it’s displayed and to whom it is addressed. For this reason, media buying is extremely important. The location where the ad appears determines the results of the whole advertising campaign and brings the advertiser-desirable revenues or leave him penniless.
At the exact same time, the media buying procedure is rather time-consuming. No one wants to blow their entire marketing budget on something that doesn’t bring results. As a result, the success of this campaign depends vastly on the area of ad exposure. While buying media, be clear about your objectives, and pick the right channel to your marketing.
Today, more and more advertisers buy digital media because they know that their customers spend most of their time online. The internet is the place where your target audiences hang out. Programmatic advertising allows you to run highly targeted campaigns and reach audiences across platforms and channels.
