This post was co-authored by Amelia Leib, who was Condé Nast’s Media Strategy Director for nine years and started her career as a media buyer at LVMH. Now she is the Media Industry Lead at Similarweb. Show
Advertising is expensive. Whether in an agency or in-house, the media planner is the person who makes sure advertising dollars get spent effectively. Media planning is essential to reach the right audience and get the message in front of them at the right time. But there’s also a huge financial responsibility attached to it. Every bad decision can quickly run up painful costs. This article looks at the definition of media planning, how the media planning process works, and what’s important in media planning and buying. Let’s start at the beginning: What is media planning?Media planning is the process of determining where, when, and how often an advertisement should run to maximize both engagement and ROI (return on investment). It involves every step from campaign planning, budgeting, and scheduling to launch and even beyond. The media planner needs to acquire a solid understanding of the business, the audience, and the messaging. Digital advertising is continuously becoming more complex, and the planner must be familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of the different platforms and methods. The same is true for TV which is moving to CTV (connected television) and for radio which is now being replaced by streaming and budgets have shifted to podcasts etc.. What is a media plan and what does it include?The media plan is part of the campaign plan. It covers everything related to the distribution of assets through various media channels.
What are different types of media planning?Advertising campaigns can involve any variety and number of media types and channels. Let’s break down the different types into categories. We look at advertising in two main areas: online media channels and offline media channels. Campaigns can include both, and the media plan determines which channels to employ and how. 1. Examples of online media channels:
2. Examples of offline media channels
Types of digital media to include in the planning:In digital media planning, there are three types of media:
Media planning in an agency deals exclusively with paid media. The responsibility for owned media is with the client and the earned media falls under PR (public relations). Inside a company the responsibility could be distributed slightly differently. Planning the frequency of ads on digital media:A campaign can run for a week or an entire year. This doesn’t mean the actual ad will show the whole time during that period. In advertising, there are three approaches to the publishing frequency:
What’s the difference between media planning and media buying?Media buying is one piece of the puzzle of media planning. It refers to the actual act of buying the advertising space. In an agency setting, the media buyer is usually a smart negotiator because that’s the essence of the job. Here’s how the tasks are divided: The media planner receives the brief from the client, including the type of campaign, target audience, campaign goals, campaign duration, etc. The planner prepares the media plan and, when approved by the client, writes up an RFP (Request for Proposal) that gets sent to the potential media partners. Vendors come back with a proposal. The planner filters out the relevant proposals and then hands them to the media buyer. The media buyer negotiates the best deal with the relevant partners. That may sound like a small chunk of the process, but it’s actually huge. A media buyer needs to be familiar with the different media platforms, pricing schemes, and advertising methods. You can read more on what media buying is here. In companies that do not work with an agency but run their advertising campaigns by themselves, the lines are more blurry. The functions of media planners and media buyers often overlap. The marketing team or manager could be doing the actual planning, and the buyer could be drafting up the RFP and finding the vendors. In other settings, media buying may be integrated into the media planner’s job, in which case one person does both. What are the steps of a typical media planning process?
If media planning and buying are done in-house, the marketing team sets the goals, creates the plan and executes it. Campaign goals derive from the business and marketing goals. The planning and execution usually involves several people that share or divide responsibilities:
Now that the campaign is running, the planner’s job isn’t over. After launch, the most critical task is to make sure the media got delivered as planned. While the campaign is running, the media planner needs to monitor customer reaction, engagement metrics, impressions, and clicks because they are responsible for optimization as needed. Planners use web media analytics to get the necessary data. Similarweb makes it possible to benchmark ad performance against the competition and keep clients’ and stakeholders updated with accurate and timely marketing reports. What you need to consider for a media planning strategyLet’s now get a little more practical and see how to create a media plan and what to consider in the process. Put yourself in the shoes of a media planner. We’ll show you what and how you need to research to get the data that enables you to reach the necessary decisions for your media strategy. The following points are relevant for both an agency and a company doing their own media planning.
How to conduct research for media planning in advertisingIn digital marketing, web analytics tools are the cornerstone of strategizing. Any digital media plan should be based on data, and that data needs to be accurate and reliable. So, if you were (or are) a media planner, here are a few hands-on guidelines on what and how to research. Conduct market researchTo develop your media plan, start by conducting market research to understand the ideal types of content and media strategies for your target audience and customers. How can you tell? You check what works (and doesn’t work) for the competition. Identify similar campaigns that your competitors have run – or are running. Do a competitive analysis for your media planning strategy to identify the channels and publishers. Similarweb’s Marketing Channels feature allows you to compare your website’s core user acquisition methods against your competitors. Benchmarking paid search traffic to four competing websites. Research the target audienceEvery target audience has unique preferences and behaviors that could impact your media plan. Understand your audience’s demographics, like age, gender, and location, and examine what types of content this audience prefers and where to reach them. If you don’t have buyer personas, consider creating them. Buyer personas help envision real people and how they interact with an ad rather than just an abstract audience description. To get started on building yours, download our buyer persona template below. The template will help you collect and organize the necessary information that represents the audience you want to target with your advertising campaigns. So, it’s a great way to start planning your media strategy. What you see here is a sample slide. The template includes three slides for each persona. Check it out. Download the Template Now! Analyze competitors campaignsDive into the marketing channels of your competitors that share your target audience and see which campaigns generate traffic and engagement. Investigate their ad spend to determine if and how much you should invest in the various methods. First, you’ll measure how much your competitors’ paid traffic share is compared to other traffic sources. Then you’ll dive into how they generate the traffic. Do they use programmatic or display ads? Where are they running? Analyzing search visits by breaking it into types With Similarweb, you can not only see how they do it but also how successful the campaigns are. It will even show you where companies get the most valuable traffic from.. See each paid search ad or display ad and get links to the related landing pages. This lets you deep-dive into your competitors’ campaigns to understand what media they use and where they invest their budgets. Learn from what works for them and avoid making the same mistakes. Visualization of paid search trends per competitor. Identify trends and new possibilitiesWe started this article by talking about the cost of advertising and how the advertising possibilities are changing. The media planner needs to keep the finger on the pulse about what’s happening in the market. Otherwise, ineffective campaigns can turn into a growing cost leak. Identifying trends as they emerge enables agencies to help their clients be more successful. Marketing teams stay within the budget and improve ROI. Current, accurate data enables agencies to find the most efficient channels, reliable partners and optimize advertising efforts. If this is you, the Similarweb Digital Marketing Intelligence platform and Agencies Analytics can provide you with the tools and data that present a clear picture of your competitive environment and the forces that impact that landscape. You can identify the leaders and find out exactly how they succeed. Monitoring the activities lets you be the first to identify new players and successful new advertising trends. Want to see how it’s done? FAQsWhat is media planning? Media planning is the process of deciding where, when, and how often an advertisement should run to maximize engagement and ROI. What is a media plan and what does it include? A media plan is part of the campaign plan, covering the details of distributing assets through media channels. A media plan includes objectives, goals, the target audience, the types of media and media channels used, the timeline, and which frequency an ad is active. What are the different types of media planning? There are two main areas of media planning advertising. Online media channels include display ads and video marketing. Offline media channels include radio/podcasts and print. There are also three types of digital media planning, paid media, owned media, and earned media. This post is subject to Similarweb legal notices and disclaimers. What is media planning strategy?Media planning is the process of determining how, when, and to what audience a branding or advertising message will be delivered. A media planner analyzes how a message is intended to support a marketing or advertising strategy and then develops tactics to share that message in the right places with the right people.
What should be included in a media plan?A media plan will include details such as specific media channels best for message delivery, the number of impressions, the cost per million clicks and creative development specifications.
What is the purpose of determining media strategy?A media strategy is a type of strategy that implements the use of a particular media to achieve advertising or marketing goals. Media strategies are frequently used in advertising campaigns to increase brand awareness and interest in a company's products or services.
What are the two major components of media objectives?Media objectives usually consist of two key components: target audience and communication goals. The target audience component of the media objectives defines who the intended target of the campaign is.
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