Media buying refers to advertising from a media company such as a newspaper, television station, magazine, radio, print, outdoor as well as digital channels like social media platforms, blogs, or websites. The media buying process involves personal relationships between media planners, media buyers, and channel owners. It also entails negotiating the price and placement of ads and researching the best new venues for ad placement. After deciding on the right space, a media buyer will approach a respected company or platform to negotiate a price, timing, and the rest of the deal. For these reasons, it is important to find a good media-buying company in India, as there are many companies in the market. For brand success, it is essential to find a reliable and trustworthy company. 

What is media buying?

In the advertising process, media buying plays a vital role. To increase the effectiveness with the targeted audience media buying process works on a particular location and time to run the ad to get maximum results. The goal of media buying is to purchase placements on channels that are relevant to a brand’s audience at a time. While doing this one must keep in mind that the largest portion of the audience must see the ad, to achieve a low cost per action.

Media buyers seek to match the context of the ad with the medium. Media buyers work with media planners who create the media plan. The media planners outline the goals and objectives of the campaign. Media buyers also handle the negotiations with the advertising channels to secure placements in a given time and frequency.

Why is media buying important?

Media buying is important because the purchased media results in the campaign’s success. It is not about visuals; ads must be placed in the right location at the right time and frequency to reach the right audience. To get the best results media buyers purchase ads with traditional and digital media working together.

There are various ways to purchase media:

• Direct: Purchasing ads directly with the publisher.

• Network: Bidding and purchasing ad space through demand and supply side platforms.

• Programmatic: Use of technology to purchase and sell digital ads.

The media buying process

The media buying process involves:

• Determining the percentage of the required budget.

• Sending requests for proposals (RFPs) to media outlets, and evaluating the platform to maximize campaign performance.

• By creating an insertion order (IO), and finalizing the order.

• Select appropriate media outlets and size the ads accordingly.

• Launch the campaign, and measure results, ensure metrics are in place.

• Monitoring metrics from media channels.

• Reconciling expenditure in the media plan.

• Reconciling costs for under-delivering ads.

Factors to consider when buying media

There are four key factors to consider while buying media:

• Protect your brand: It is important for brands to partner with skilled and trustworthy buyers.

• Optimize your media buying: Buy a programmatic ad that runs optimization for you.

• Aim for cohesion: For the best return on your advertising investment, ensure your marketing and creatives work together.

• Prioritize measurement: To check which campaigns and creatives are driving the best results cost-effectively.