Media Buying Professionals

The Role of Media Planners and Media Buyers

As a marketing consultant, one of the most frequent questions I often get is, “What kind of marketing really works?” to which I, of course, will have to respond, “That depends on what kind of business you have, and who you are trying to target.”  The real answer is in the secret of media buying, which is put together by professional media buyers and media planners.

When you’re in business school, marketing seems like the easy subject – it’s often taught in a “What are the 4 P’s?” kind of way, and then you have to figure out some ads or a marketing plan for a given case study.  But when you get out in the real world marketing a business, you realize that marketing possibilities are infinite – and you must figure out which ones will work best for you.  How can a person possible know what all the choices are, and make any sense of it all?

This is where media buyers and planners come in.

Media Planners Consolidate Advertising Data & Plan the Buy

Think of all of the media options out there: Google Ads, Facebook, newspapers, radio, flyer companies, television stations, trade magazines, trade shows, billboard companies, bathroom stall advertising…and the list is almost endless. Somebody has to know how to take a client’s budget and figure out exactly which channels will give the biggest bang for the buck in reaching the client’s desired target market.  This is the media planner’s job.

Now think about what that job involves.  Chatting to, and getting the pitch, from a lot of salespeople that work for all those media companies? Check!   Taking the media’s pricing, demographic data, geographic data, ad sizing/specifications, deadlines, and consolidating it into data that can be quickly accessed for decision-making?  Check!   And there’s perhaps one other area:  Media buyers can often check on what your competitors are buying in the market, and recommend the right amount of budget to get a reasonable “share of voice” to achieve the “share of market” you’re aiming for.

All of these things must be measured and budgeted, and selected for timing, ad size/placement, frequency, and the best visibility to your targets – and built into a carefully timed campaign budget, i.e. the media plan.

This is a little snapshot. Don’t strain your eyes – they point is, these people are good at spreadsheets.

Media Buyers Manage the Ad Campaign Buy

Once a detailed media plan is done, there is much more work to be done.   Do you need someone to take your “creative assets” – such as graphic design files, sound files, video files, etc. and deliver them to the chosen media?  Check!   And how about this:   Do you want to ensure that when the ads run, the radio stations, newspapers, websites, etc. actually ran them when and where they said they would, in other words, verifying that your money was legitimately used?  Big check!

The Difference between Media Planners and Buyers

Some marketing agencies will handle both media planning and buying.  However, most of the tasks I mentioned above describe the planning. Now, let’s discuss the media buying.

Media Buying – It used to be the norm, but today not always

Once the client approves the budget and plan, this can be handed off a media buyer.

The buyer negotiates rates with the media and contracts the space.  Sometimes, the buyer has a large retainer fee upfront from the client to cover the media costs, then doles that money out the media on behalf of the client.

Regardless, there is always a written authorization for media buyers to book space on behalf of the client, guaranteeing that the client will pay for the space, even if the costs get beyond what the agency got in the retainer.

Usually the document signed between the client and agency are called the “Agency of Record” agreement.

Why Media Buyers & Planners are Important

Media Planners & Buyers work to make sure the rates across the board are the best they can be, negotiating on the client’s behalf, and picking up “bonus” airtime and space as they go.  Because media buyers often work on behalf of many clients, they are able to act like a buying group – usually getting better rates because they know what the market will bear, and they have a lot of buying clout.

Today’s media planner/buyers also have another very crucial role to benefit the marketing strategy process.  Because they use sophisticated industry tools to track advertising activity, they can build in ways to monitor and track which ads are most effective throughout the process.  For example, by working with a marketing strategist to create separate landing pages for various ads, and multiple versions of creative ads, they can see which ads are pulling better results, and optimize the campaign as it is running.

This means you can get the best bang for your budget, and dramatically improve your campaign’s results mid-flight, especially if the media buyers are doing their job and really monitoring the campaign closely.

What Media Buyers & Planners do NOT do

Before you go running to a Media Buyer (or even a digital marketing firm that offers simply digital media buying services), keep this in mind:  Media Buyers are NOT creative service people and usually only provide strategy to select the right channels.   This means they expect that you will should come to see them while already knowing the following information:

• Who your target markets are – demographics, geographic locations and if you’re buying to reach other businesses, then the type of business, industry, and decision making level in the company.
• What budget you have in mind to spend (and/or which competitor-spending you might be trying to match/reach).
• What your creative (artwork) will be conceptually – and you will have to have it ready to be adapted to whatever media they choose for you (i.e. radio, print, outdoor).
• What your goals are, how much growth do you expect to achieve.
• Which website, phone numbers, or physical location to which you’ll drive your traffic
• The name of the person in charge of editing your website, so that tracking codes can be added.

How are Media Buyers and Planners Paid?

Advertising space is sometimes directly paid by clients, or if the media buyer acts as an agent and pays for it first (then billing the client back) there is usually at least a 15% charge, although we have seem higher and lower rates for digital media.  Media Planning is often a separate professional fee on top of this bill.   There can also be ongoing service fees throughout the campaign to manage it and track its results.

So Which Advertising Channels Work?

A media buyer once said to me that he thought that the creative/message made up 90% of the success of a given ad, and choosing the right channel is only 10%. He also said, “There are no bad advertising channels.”  I don’t necessarily agree (because I would never recommend spam, pornographic websites, and the like), but I agree in principle that the message is sometimes overlooked in favour of the channel.  If the ad is strong and memorable, someone will likely see it and act on it.   If the ad is weak or plain boring, but plastered everywhere, you have probably wasted your budget.   If you can get the strategy, message right AND channels right – and even continually track your results –  then you have marketing dynamite.   If you want to read more about building a promotional mix (i.e. selecting which channels for your marketing business), CLICK HERE.

The upshot is, media planners and media buyers are key parts of a great marketing strategy team, and can make all the difference in maximizing your marketing budget.   At Tenato, we have an excellent, longstanding strategic alliance with True Media, a team of professionals that has proven their weight in gold time and time again.  Give us a call if you’d like to learn more about how we can help you.