Making sense of Media Buying

Written By Mariah Madsen

The media landscape changes dramatically, continuously - so does the marketplace for buying and selling advertising, It's important to have tools to help evaluate the choices and make decisions about your advertising dollars.

These four easy steps can help you plan and purchase media more effectively and efficiently.

Set your goals

This step will help to narrow down the different options and mediums out there. To start, ask yourself these questions:

What do you want to accomplish?
This is the big one. Is this a campaign to increase brand awareness? Is this a time-sensitive message? Are you having a sale, for example?
When does this need to start happening?
Your timeline is critical in securing placement for your advertising - not to mention concepting, creative execution and review.
How complicated is my brand/message, and how long will it take consumers to understand?
Each medium has its own advantages and weaknesses. Your choice of media will depend on what you want to say and what you want to do.
Who is your demographic or target audience?
Narrow down who you are trying to reach. This will help you decide how to reach them.

Set a budget

Once you've set your goals, answer the following questions to set a smart budget. One that fits your needs without bleeding your funds.

How much can you afford to spend on this campaign?
It sounds obvious. However, it's important to set an amount. Make it known to your colleagues and collaborators. This figure can creep up quickly if you're not careful.
What do you expect in return?
It pays to think ahead and be conservative in your budgeting. What will your campaign achieve? Is it increased sales? If so, how much? If you are only expecting a $10,000 increase in sales, it doesn't make sense to spend $10,000 in media to promote it.

Plan and purchase media

By now, you should be able to narrow down your timing, audience and budget. It's time to decide which mediums are the most appropriate.

Here are a few facts about each medium to help:

Reach the masses with television
Based on the potential of people you will reach and the cost; TV can be very cost efficient. It also allows you to tell a story using both sight and sound. Does your message need that? Do you have the budget to adequately reach your audience, AND pay to produce a television spot?
Target your audience with cable
Cable can precisely reach a specific target audience because of its many networks to choose from. Cable is also cost efficient, so you can use it to add reach and frequency to your buy. As with TV, you should decide if it is worth the cost of production.
Add frequency with radio
Radio can reach a specific audience with a high frequency. This works well to help drive sales or communicate a more complicated message. Use your audience demographic and genres to narrow your choice of stations.
Say it fast and local with newspapers
Newspapers have a real local emphasis and can get your message out there very quickly. Many newspapers have struggled in the last few years, and tend to skew older. However, they are still a viable medium for advertising the right product.
Extend shelf life with magazines
Magazines generally hang around well past the publishing date. Pass-along readership also helps reach your audience. But think about your goals. Magazines lack a sense of urgency, but they are great for brand awareness. Smaller markets generally lack the specialized magazines you can find on a national level, however they are locally focused.
Engage and track on the Internet
The web is a part of almost everyone's life. Internet advertising results are easily measured, which makes it a very attractive medium. But with smaller markets or budgets, it may be difficult to access websites that drive traffic. There is no doubt that people go to the website of your local newspaper or radio station, but are they the people you want to reach? Do some homework on a website before you buy. Talk to them about monthly impressions and average unique visitors. These figures can help you decide if the site will help you meet your goals.

Now you have the basics of each medium. Start talking to sales representatives. They should provide all the information you ask for - don't be afraid to push them to share data you need to make a decision.

Ask sales reps why they think you should use their medium, and to back it up with facts.
Ask for reach and frequency or circulation numbers.
Ask TV sales reps about the highest rated stations and programs.
Ask newspaper or magazine reps about the publications with the highest circulations to reach your demo.

Now, gather all of your information and compare it.

Where are you getting the best deal?
Are any of the mediums offering added value?
How can you spend your budget to reach the most people at the lowest cost?

If you're in the target audience, look at each medium from the perspective of the viewer or reader. Do you watch or listen to the station? Do you subscribe to the newspaper or read it work? Do you rely on the website for information?

Last but not least, evaluate

The final and most forgotten step is evaluating the results.

First, look at what you purchased:

Did you get what you paid for?
Did the radio and TV deliver what they were supposed to?
Did your print ads look good? Were they next to any competitors?
Did your ads run when they were supposed to?

Next, look at your goals. What happened?

What were your results?
Did you meet your sales goal?
Did you increase traffic?

Consider the variables as well, some examples that could impact your outcome:

Was there a storm the day of your sale?
Was there a similar event going on at the same time as yours?

Based on how you answer these questions you should know if you reached your goals. Plus, you now have an arsenal of information to use the next time.

Selecting the correct media is important to capitalizing on marketplace opportunities. When you tie all of these steps together, you'll reliably create media plans that bring results.