Media Buying 101: What is Media Buying and Why is it Important?

Buying media is a strategic necessity for brands that want to connect with the right audience at the right time and for the right price.

With decades in the luxury space, MediaMax has the expertise and a proven track record of helping brands build effective campaigns that resonate and drive maximum ROI and conversions.

But precisely what is media buying, and how can a partnership with us help you achieve your marketing goals? In this handy media buying 101 guide, we’ll cover all the information you need, including:

Some quick definitions
An explanation of how online media buying works
The differences between media planning and media buying
The role of media buying platforms in modern-day marketing
The importance of buying media for local advertising
Tips for designing an effective media buying strategy

What is Media Buying?

Media buying refers to the process of purchasing ad space across various digital and traditional channels, such as TV, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and websites. To reach the right audiences and ensure maximum exposure and impact, media buyers must place strategic and cost-effective ads.

What is a Media Buyer?

Media buyers are marketing professionals responsible for identifying the best channels and negotiating the best prices for ad placements. As pivotal players in ensuring successful marketing outcomes, the typical media buyer skill set, whether at an individual or agency level, is epitomized by:

Strong analytical skills
Negotiation prowess
A deep understanding of audience behaviors
Exceptional budget management
Thorough knowledge of ad performance optimization

What is a Media Buying Platform?

Media buying platforms are marketplaces where advertisers purchase ad space across various formats to streamline the buying process. For example, at MediaMax, we provide exclusive access to both print ads and digital ads through our long-standing partnership with Condé Nast. This means we can offer unique print and digital ad placement opportunities in luxury lifestyle magazines like Architectural Digest, Bon Appetit, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, and Vanity Fair.

How Online Media Buying Works: From Planning to Purchase

Several strategic considerations must be made when buying online media, from initial research to placing ads. Here’s a quick breakdown of each phase and the steps media planners and buyers must follow to achieve optimum results.

1. Research:

Getting to know the media consumption habits of your target audience is essential. Learning where they spend their time and what types of content they engage with is crucial in selecting the most effective ad channels and allocating a realistic budget.

2. Media Plan Development

A comprehensive media plan outlines your preferred channels and ad formats, budget allocations, campaign timing, and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to measure success. Your media plan should be aligned with specific campaign goals such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or boosting sales.

3. Send RPFs

The next step is sending requests for proposals (RFPs) to media outlets that outline campaign specifics like your goals, target audiences, KPIs, and approximate budget. Remember to include a response deadline to keep your campaign on track.

4. Evaluate Options and Send Insertion Orders

Next comes gathering and reviewing each RFP response, weighing factors like proposed tactic, audience, estimated KPI performance, and cost. Once you’ve selected the media mix that best aligns with your plan, send an insertion order (IO) for each placement to finalize the purchase. IOs are formal, legally binding agreements and should include cost, run dates, and ad specifications.

5. Develop Creative Assets and Launch the Campaign

When developing the required creative assets, it’s essential to ensure proper ad sizing in line with each outlet’s requirements and send them to your vendors according to the deadlines specified in your IO. Then, it’s launch time, so you’ll need to ensure you have all the necessary tools ready to measure campaign success.

6. Monitor and Optimize

Monitoring KPIs like click-through rates and conversions internally and against media outlet goals allows you to gauge success and make any necessary adjustments. You’ll need to:

Check ad spending against your budget
Make tweaks to optimize ad performance
Negotiate “make goods” with media vendors for any underperforming ads

Media Buying vs. Media Planning

Media buying focuses on purchasing ad space, whereas media planning is the strategic phase that precedes it. Media planners are responsible for any actions that involve analyzing market data, defining campaign objectives, determining the best media mix to reach the target audience, and creating a detailed blueprint that guides the buying process.

Once the media plan is in place, buyers execute the plan by purchasing the ad space. Their key responsibilities are negotiating with media vendors, securing the best rates, and ensuring that ads are placed in the right locations.

Media Planning and Media Buying in Action

To illustrate the distinct roles of media planning vs. media buying, let’s look at an example of a luxury brand launching a new skincare product.

Media planning would include the following:

Researching the target audience to pinpoint affluent women aged 30-50 who are interested in luxury beauty products.
Setting an objective to create buzz and drive sales for the new skincare line.
Selecting a suitable media mix, including print ads in high-end magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, digital media buying on beauty and lifestyle websites, and targeted social media campaigns.
Allocating a budget to prioritize print and digital platforms, anticipating high engagement from the target demographic.

Conversely, media buying would focus on:

Negotiating premium placement in the beauty sections of Vogue and Vanity Fair so the ads are featured prominently.
Ensuring ads are placed during peak times, such as in the September issue of Vogue (which has the highest circulation of the year).
Monitoring campaign results and optimizing performance by reallocating funds from less effective digital ads to more impactful print ads.

What is Media Buying’s Role in Modern Marketing Strategies?

Media buying enables brands to reach highly targeted audiences with precision by leveraging analytics and technology to optimize ad spend and performance. Here’s a closer look at why it’s essential.

Digital marketing integration: By purchasing ad space on digital platforms like websites, social media, and streaming services, media buyers can place ads where target audiences are most active to ensure higher engagement rates and improved ROI.
Expert external insights: Brands can leverage insights from experienced media partners with connections across specific industries, such as beauty, real estate, travel, and technology, to create more accurate buyer personas.
Data-driven decisions: Companies can utilize ad metrics to better understand audience behaviors, preferences, and engagement patterns, allowing them to manage ad campaigns more strategically.
Real-time optimization: Advanced analytical tools allow for immediate responses to improve effectiveness, such as tweaking creative assets, changing targeting parameters, and reallocating budgets to higher-performing ads.
Cross-channel campaigns: Working with media buying platforms to place ads across multiple channels ensures consistent messaging, a cohesive brand experience, and maximum reach.

Why Is Media Buying Important in Local Advertising?

Driving foot traffic is often a primary goal for brick-and-mortar businesses. So, what is a media buy’s purpose here? It’s a good question that many smaller and emerging brands tend to overlook. Media buying can be crucial in helping you reach more potential customers in your immediate vicinity. Here’s how.

Targeted regional campaigns: By placing ads on channels with a strong local following, media buying increases focus and target audience accuracy. For example, a fine-dining restaurant looking to attract nearby residents might place ads on local food blogs.
Cost-effective solutions: Brands don’t necessarily need to spend big bucks to get big results. At MediaMax, we provide custom-designed digital marketing strategies for small businesses with modest budgets, ensuring they can compete with larger brands in local markets.
Enhancing local brand recognition: Consistently placing ads in trusted local media is a proven way to foster customer loyalty. For example, a boutique might run regular ads in a community magazine or sponsor local events to reinforce its brand image and attract repeat customers.
Leveraging local insights: Media buyer insights and data about regional preferences and behaviors are critical in placing ads that drive better engagement. We have significant experience guiding small and emerging businesses in this regard.

4 Tips for Setting Up an Effective Media Buying Strategy

A comprehensive and meticulously planned media buying strategy is essential for maximizing the impact of your advertising campaigns. Here are some actionable tips to help you create an effective strategy to drive optimum results.

1. Choose Between an In-House or Outsourced Strategy Early On

Clearly define what you want to achieve with your advertising campaign, and weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing to a dedicated media agency. If you decide to outsource, choose an experienced partner that specializes in creating tailored approaches to meet your unique needs and organizational objectives.

2. Hone in on Your Target Audience with Precision

Identify your target audience and ideal customer profiles based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. Working with a dedicated media agency can save you a lot of time here. For example, we utilize advanced data analytics and local advertising insights to pinpoint the most responsive audiences for your campaigns, saving you days of tedious research and data manipulation.

3. Carefully Balance Channel Preferences Against Budgets

Ensure that the ends justify the means by calculating projections for ROI based on ad spend. Many businesses struggle to place ads on their preferred channels due to pricing roadblocks that arise during the negotiation process. In this regard, working with MediaMax can significantly boost your ROI. Our expertise and industry connections enable us to secure cost-effective prime placements in luxury lifestyle magazines like those under the Condé Nast brand.

4. Continuously Track and Optimize Your Campaigns

Placing ads where you can track the KPIs specified in your media plan is essential for ensuring campaign effectiveness and making on-the-fly performance optimizations. When you partner with MediaMax, we’ll deliver detailed reports to help you and your team understand the ROI of your media buys and make informed decisions about tweaks and adjustments based on return on ad spend (ROAS).

Experience the MediaMax Advantage: Tailored Media Buying & Planning for Your Needs

If you want successful advertising outcomes, MediaMax’s experience, expertise, and unrivaled industry connections can make all the difference. Here are just a few reasons why we stand out in the media buying and planning landscape:

Unique selling proposition: We’re the only media agency offering local access to major magazines published by Condé Nast, opening the door to exclusive ad placements that reach affluent and engaged audiences that are hard to target through other channels.
Tailored strategies for small businesses: Unlike larger agencies that focus primarily on big-budget clients, we ensure high-impact advertising solutions are accessible to small and emerging businesses.
Expertise in the luxury space: With a proven track record in the luxury sector, our understanding of the nuances of luxury branding enables us to reach affluent consumers through carefully curated strategies that communicate your unique value propositions to the right audience.
End-to-end support: From initial media planning and strategy development to media buying, execution, and optimization, you’ll receive all the personalized advice, insights, and analytics you need to understand ROI and make informed decisions.

To see the results of our exclusive partnerships and expertise, look no further than our collaboration with Loewen Windows. By strategically placing ads in high-end Condé Nast publications like Architectural Digest, MediaMax helped Loewen Windows reach an affluent audience of homeowners interested in premium home improvement products. Our targeted approach increased brand visibility and drove higher engagement and sales within the local market.

Are you ready to take the guesswork out of media buying and focus on core operations, knowing that your advertising efforts are in expert hands? A partnership with MediaMax may be exactly what you’re looking for.