Planning Your Strategic Media Buying Campaign
There’s a lot that goes into a successful marketing campaign for your brand; it isn’t just about the ads themselves. To really push your brand to the next level, you’ll have to get your ads in front of the right people at the right place and time.
Read on to find out more about strategic media buying and how to plan the most successful campaign:
What Is Media Buying?
As the name suggests, strategic media buying requires a purchase. Specifically, it’s about buying advertising space from media outlets. This includes more traditional media, such as newspapers, TV stations, and radio. Plus modern digital channels like websites, YouTube, social media, and streaming. Media buying also includes negotiations and research over ad placement and budgets.
A strategic media buying campaign gets your ads in front of your target audience. It also may include a call to action.
Strategic media buying varies depending on the type of media. Television ads have different considerations than ads that appear on websites. For instance, you’ve most likely seen online ads appear in different places on a website’s page, such as a top or bottom banner ad.
What Are the Ways of Media Buying?
- Direct: This is the more traditional way, which includes forming relationships and negotiating with media publishers.
- Programmatic: This way of media buying is done via automated technology and using algorithms. It’s a more recent media buying trend, used specifically for the internet and mobile devices.
- Manual: This is buying and bidding for ad space via ad platforms like AdWords.
What are the Stages of Planning a Strategic Media Buying Campaign?
Set Your Goals
As you strategize, you’ll have to ask yourself some questions. Before you take further steps, figure out what your goals are. Do you want to increase engagement? Improve website traffic? Is the goal brand awareness?
Figure Out a Budget
You will also need to figure out your ideal budget early on. The amount that you’re willing to spend will inform your strategy in a big way. And research will be conducted to make sure you get a return on investment based on this advertising budget. Essentially, the goal is to optimize your exposure while spending as little as possible.
You’ll also consider if there is a difference in budget based on the type of media channel. Usually, this depends on what channels your target audience is on. For instance, if you’re trying to reach a younger audience, would you be willing to spend more on social media ad buying?
The overall price of media buying is determined by a number of factors. And it depends on the type of media, which comes with its own specific considerations.
Budget for TV Media Buying
For television, the price can vary based on location reach. For instance, having your ads air locally is the most inexpensive option, but locally can refer to a single city or a regional area. If you want your ads to air on television nationwide, of course, it will be more expensive. In media buying overall, more exposure means you’ll have to spend more money.
Other factors that determine the price for media buying in television include air time, amount of air space, rates, and lead demand.
Budget for Digital Media Buying
In online media, there are different kinds of determining factors for the price. In this area, how the ads appear on web pages is the major thing. More specifically, it’s where the ad appears on the page, how many pages it appears on, how many days it will appear, the size of the ad, and so on.
In addition to appearance factors, pricing will also depend on how much traffic the website gets and the general demographics.
Build Relationships
Fostering relationships is an essential part of media buying. When spots are limited, the media will obviously go with ads from companies they know, rather than those they’ve never heard of. It also leads to the best deals and grants you a higher return on investment. Working on a strategic media buying campaign with an advertising agency helps in this regard. The agency will already have long-term relationships with different TV networks, publishers, websites, and so forth.
Find Your Target Audience
Start by doing research to identify your target audience. Once you’ve identified your audience, it doesn’t mean an end to your research. Instead, you’ll want to delve further into the demographics to understand audience interests, wants, and needs. If you want your ads to be a call to action, you’ll need to figure out what moves them and what motivates them.
Once you’ve identified and understood your audience, it’s time to figure out how and where to find them. This step may include geographic research. That can help determine what time your ads should run and where. What time of day would your target audience be most receptive to your ads? Your budget also comes into play here, and a smaller budget usually means your ads will be more localized.
Track Your Results
Your strategy also doesn’t end once the ads are placed. Instead, it’s extremely important to monitor how your ad placements are working. Once you have the results, look for areas of improvement, and work on refining your approach as needed. Then you’ll have to retest to see how much of an impact those adjustments made. Keep on testing and retesting.
Stay Current
Update your strategy as often as you need to. Just because an ad placement works now doesn’t mean it always will. Media is an ever-changing field, especially in modern times. You’ll also have to make sure to stay abreast of changes and developments so that you don’t get left behind. Being aware of the latest trends in the marketplace and the newest methods of marketing will really pay off.
The most important step toward planning a successful strategic media buying campaign is to work with an experienced advertising agency. At InnoVision, we have a history of success planning strategic media buying campaigns. We’re the experts at media buying and understand every facet of this area of advertising. Reach out today and let us show you how we can help your business.
