By Omkar Waghmare | October 2021

How to Build a Media Buying Strategy

Advertising is an ever-growing industry. Every hour, every minute, and every second we're exposed to countless ads. Brands know the power of advertising and the resulting Return on Investment (ROI). But that's not enough.

Everyone knows the magic of ads. And, to stand out in this market, you need an outstanding and on-point Media Buying Strategy.

What is Media Buying?

Media Buying is a process where the advertiser buys, negotiates, and arranges the advertising space for the ads. Media Buying makes sure that the ads are reaching the exact target audience, at the right time, and under an optimized budget.

In current times, media buying demands the ideal combination of both, traditional media and digital media. Traditional Media includes newspapers, radio, billboards, and television. Whereas, Digital Media comprises websites, social media, ott, third-party platforms, etc.

Before media buying, the whole planning and strategizing are done under Media Planning. Study of the target audience, the competitors, company objectives, budget allocation, and much more happens under this.

Media Planning is the brain behind Media Buying. The former guides the latter to go ahead and execute the plan smoothly.

How to Build a Media Buying Strategy?

Here's a basic framework of how you can go ahead with the Media buying for any business.

1. Set up your Goal

There has to be a strong and clear reason why you’re ready to spend money on ads. It could be generating more leads, sales, or just brand awareness. You need to set up the goal that you want to achieve through media buying. Anytime you feel confused or lack clarity, fall back to this goal as your safety cushion.

2. Identify and Study the Target Audience

Advertising is always outbound. Not everyone will appreciate your ads. Especially when your offering is not at all relevant to them. Therefore, identifying your target group and studying the same comprehensively is the next thing you should do. What are their likes, where do they hang out, which medium they use frequently for news, and much more parameters have to be analyzed properly.

3. Get Your Ads Ready

It’s time to get your ad creatives, copy, design, and anything else required, ready to create the final ad. Plan every small detail relevant to the campaign objective. The type of ads, number of ads, budget allocations, and all that’s important to the campaign have to be set up here.

4. Scan the Market

Before jumping on actual media buying, scan the market. Know who all publishers are in demand, all the competitors that exist, what are the immediate trends in the industry, and so on. That’ll help you to choose the right set of combinations of traditional and digital media.

5. Approach Media Houses and Negotiate

It's time to execute. Approach the publishers and media owners you have selected to feature your ad on and speak to them about the time, place, duration, and all the details. Negotiate for the optimum budget smartly.

6. Run, Track and Optimize

Now, let the ads run on the opted media spaces. Track every single ad, every single detail, and keep an eye on how they are performing. See if the target audience is reacting as per the standard set up earlier. And, if not, try to figure out the loopholes and optimize the ad.

This is the go-to way you should approach and plan your Media Buying Strategy. Simple, On-point, and yet comprehensive in results.

Final Words

The success of Media Buying depends on your understanding of the target audience. You should know everything crucial to your target group in advance. Budgeting and Negotiating is the much later part of the process.

We hope we were able to help you in building your Media Buying Strategy. Anything you have in mind, let us know in the comments.

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