Media Buying, Selling & Planning

Our media planning and buying agency provides solutions for Internet advertising, communication strategy, banners, AdWords, social media, email, and mobile.

Our highly skilled media planning process uses the industry's leading research and media planning tools to develop robust, intelligent, creative and accountable media strategies. We suggest bespoke, flexible strategies for each campaign consultancy service that we undertake.

We ensure that our clients get the most out of their budgets and deliver added value to make their campaigns work harder, leading to additional sales within their media budgets.

What is Media Buying and Planning?

Media buying is a process that involves integrated marketing channels. Media planning and buying are about strategies, placement of ads, negotiation, and budgeting. 

The key steps involved are -  

• Identifying the target buyer through comprehensive market research

• Identifying consumer interest and behaviour

• It is finding the audience most receptive to the messages delivered through a media channel. 

• We are delivering creative strategies to motivate buyers to take action.

• Testing or examining the data figures (analytics), retesting, and modifying the strategies related to ad placement and messages to get better results. 

Modern services use technology-based channels like blogging, social media, PR, messaging, etc. They provide an easy-to-use communication system that allows you to remain constantly in touch with the target audience. 

What is Media Planning?

It involves strategically selecting the media platform you wish to use to promote your ad over a given period, thereby achieving the specific advertiser goal. 

Research 

• The first stage in media planning is conducting market research and SWOT analysis. In this stage, you establish broad objectives and segment the target audience to identify how a client should position itself. 

• The research can be used to define marketing tactics where you work closely with the brand or the business to understand the objectives or goals of the marketing campaign and discuss the aspects of the target buyer. 

• Research can be of two types - 

• Internal research aims to integrate the strategy with the brand's key objectives and goals.

• The external planner will gather information about the market, review the competition, and try to find ways to target the audience to engage them with ad content. 

• It is the stage where the marketer needs to disclose the nuances of the audience group and examine their behaviour to find out about the type of product the buyers are interested in getting and how they are accessing the channels. 

Objectives

• The second stage is to establish the objectives where traditional channels like TV, newspaper, radio, print, billboards, and digital are strategically considered to target the consumers. 

• A perfect mix of different channels should be able to produce a preeminent set of channels. Once the channels are selected, the planner will express interest in the supplier's inventory through requests for proposals (RFPs).

• As the executives design the request for proposal – RFP, they try to gain data figures related to the campaign, like what per cent of the ad is devoted to which type of buyers or how to search from displays or beyond.

• A user will allocate their money only to the most powerful mediums of all, and the marketing firm should target the most effective means for a specific type of message to get the strongest results. 

The firm tries to determine what per cent of the money spent will be on guaranteed real-time bidding (RTB).

Budgeting

• Cross-media client budget authorizations are conducted in the third stage, where you try to figure out if you are complying with the sanctioned/allocated funds. Are you tracking authorized versus planned spending?

• As the planners determine which mediums are the most cost-effective, they allocate dollars to those that can help them achieve the strongest results. 

• For guaranteed inventory, at the planning stage, you may send RFPs to suppliers interested in your campaign. You may also purchase premium inventory or get guaranteed inventory at your own established rates without RFP by purchasing automated guarantees (Automated guarantees are system-defined). 

What is the Media Buying Process?

The media buying process involves strategies like buying ad space or allocating funds to favourite time slots to ensure the buyer views the advertisements at the desired locations. In this region, you can reach the target market through outlets such as television, newspapers, radio, magazines, and online ads. 

The key strategies involved in the process are – 

Networking—Purchases must develop relationships with important channels to get TV slots. To get airtime, one may have to build relationships with the right executives, managers, or agencies.

Investigation – One can investigate to find out the latest and the best venues for distributing the ads. It is necessary to keep up with the channels where the purchasers should be on top of the new platform to impact the target market and translate the viewers into beneficial client recommendations.

Negotiation—The third stage is negotiation, where the buyers should be able to negotiate a fair price for the slots and find deals or discounts to gain more with less investment.  

Strategies For Successful Media Planning

Such a plan must be based on granular knowledge about the customer. To target the most valuable customers, an in-depth analysis of consumer behaviour and other contributing factors should be conducted.

Brands should be aware of the multiple platforms available to contact their target audience members and the various methods for engaging with them. 

Platform preference allows for choosing the medium to run campaigns. The campaigns must be planned to make appropriate use of the allocated budget.

However, if media planning is influenced by budget rather than customer engagement, it has limited flexibility. To maximize the investment's benefits, flexibility in allocating funds must be approved. 

Technically, modern channels can be integrated with traditional offline channels, but in such cases, the impact and effectiveness of the individual channels can be measured. maybe difficult 

Strategists make use of certain popular methods to get a better outcome like -  

Continuity – In this approach, the ad runs consistently throughout the campaign, two or three times a week. This strategy works as a reminder to the client. The product offered through such methods is not seasonal, and the method allows ads to remain consistently in the customer's mind. 

Flighting – Flights refer to the alternating period of ads followed by pauses in advertising on the channels. This strategy works well for seasonal products.

Pulsing—The pulsing strategy uses both flight and continuity. Low-intensity consistent ads can be mixed with high-intensity ones to achieve a higher impact. 

What is the Difference Between Media Planning and Media Buying?

Media planning involves formulating a strategy that involves market research, objectives, and budgeting. These are used to evaluate the brand and determine the proper combination of messaging and a mix to advertise it in a positive and impactful manner. In contrast, the firm establishes relationships with the salesperson, vendors, channel owners, and automated tool providers in media buying. It negotiates the placement, time slots, and performance of the ads.

It leverages strategies such as manual bidding, direct, programmatic, or RTB. Both processes are equally valuable for ensuring the campaign runs efficiently.  

What is the Future of Media Planning?

The process is time-consuming and requires considerable investment. The plan is developed before creative production with ad agencies; an individual third party mostly provides the creative effects.

Today, advertisers are buying digital slots to target buyers where programmatic advertising can provide an easy mechanism to run highly targeted campaigns and reach more viewers without spending funds and time on irrelevant marketing channels. 

Nowadays, many media planning and buying services use opaque processes to obtain scalable solutions. Some advertisers bypass agencies and eCommerce brands, using in-house SEO and social media channels or public platforms like Facebook and Google to contact and serve customers directly. 

Advertisers seek profitable techniques rather than just focusing on clients' needs. Media planning is becoming difficult for agencies working on traditional rules and technologies as the market is about competing demands for long-term brand building and short-term sales. 

Most brands invest in bigger brands to generate awareness, and they use digital activities to convert sales at the bottom while neglecting the middle. 

Conventional media planning and buying services invest in data analytics and collaborate directly with clients. Next-generation buyers are not very fascinated by TV or radio ads. They buy using smartphones, and brands struggle to grow on mobile phones. 

The future lies in automating online media planning and buying and digitally analyzing the available market data. Today, digital systems are complex and fragmented, but most upcoming firms use a coordinated mix of channels suitable to their business type to achieve the best results.

Define the role of Media Planning and Media Buying.

• The role of media planning and buying is to select the optimal combination of outlets to advertise marketing messages based on market research, identification and analysis of market requirements, comparative analysis, planning, and working towards the brands' budget. 

• Media buying is a complementary process in which an individual or agency tries to gain insight into the planner to find and negotiate ad space across various channels. Such negotiation can be done manually or automatically. 

• The cost of the ad space is determined based on traffic and exposure.

• The goals, audience, frequency, and budget determine the channels a firm or an individual uses.

Online Media Planning and Buying

Digital Publications – One can get user registrations and personalized contact emails or other details through online subscriptions. It is a cost-effective digital lead-generating channel. 

PPC - Advertisers can capitalize through PPC searches. 

Social Media can provide a method to contact users and maintain regular communication.

Programmatic Advertising – It provides extremely targeted ads that can be used to find a group or category of specific audiences. 

Offline  

Magazine – It has a long shelf life, and information provided by magazines serves as a source of information retained by the viewer for a long.

Newspaper – Readers of this group can be highly educated and well-earning, and it can be used to target local groups of buyers.

Radio—Radio is a low-cost medium with a local appeal that can generate a regional response.  

TV/cables – It can be used to launch a technically advanced system or a new cleaning product or consumer goods, where one can demonstrate how to use it. 

Billboards—If hosted in a busy marketplace or highway, they can attract hundreds of millions of users. To get a positive response, clear messages must be provided on such boards. 

How Does the Media Buying Process Work?

In the media buying process, you conduct audience research where you see the target audience and see how the target audience shifts by the medium. Consumer behaviour varies from one geographical location, and media planners use strategies to identify different varieties of mediums to recognize the most effective campaigns. 

The stages involved in the media buying process are - 

Identify the target audience – In this stage, the firm gathers information about the viewers, like the target age, income, gender, demographics, etc. 

Identify the audience's characteristics—The data related to the user is used to create a profile that can reflect the type of customer one aims to attract, including the ideal age, income, demographics, and gender of the audience.

Research the market—Research is necessary to understand consumer behaviour. The firm should conduct full research on the data, as it provides information about competitors, how to attract new customers, and how to reach the ideal audience. 

Set objectives – The marketers devise a plan by setting objectives, such as determining what to do with the viewers' response. The objectives will tell if you want to create awareness or are trying to get new user registrations or sales. If the objectives are determined, the firm can target to achieve them. Also, the objectives should be shared with the agency working on your strategies that can help achieve the most compatible goals. 

Plan—Once the objectives and goals are determined, the firm plans to buy the channel or outlet, determines how to use online space within the given budget, and determines which components of the plan should be used in the specific situation.

Negotiating – After researching, determining the objectives and planning, one approaches the agency to negotiate the ad time or space to get the best slot for the specific requirements. 

Launch—The launch is when you place the ad or commercial. Then, you need to monitor the placement to see the initial response to the aired ad. The statistics gathered through monitoring can be used to determine whether the ad distribution was done according to the given standards or whether the results are coming in the manner you expected. 

Test—The final stage is to measure the results, determining whether things are working according to your plan. If not, you can find alternative methods, fix the problems, and amend strategies to achieve better outcomes. 

Why is Media Planning Important?

Most successful firms start their campaigns by knowing the viewers where you try to find out about the customer's behaviour, attitude, and real-life personas. Audience profiling provides perception and is key to success in such campaigns. 

Internet-based users leave huge digital footprints as they move through websites, and this movement can be tracked to reach and interact with customers more efficiently. 

Media planning provides the research that advertisers can use to place ads in front of the right audience strategically. This strategy can help them achieve better responses to their marketing efforts, a competitive advantage, and the attraction of consumers with a niche interest in their messages.

• It can be used to determine the most appropriate advertising platform for a specific business. 

• It helps develop audience-centric plans and take calculated risks, which ultimately lead to winning new business and expanding into new markets. 

• It provides ways to post at better rates, proper time slots, and value-added placements.