Digital media planning and buying is the process of determining which digital advertising platforms and time frames a brand or business will use to achieve their online objectives. A digital media planner or buyer identifies the most suitable media mix to reach the target audience effectively.
What Does a Digital Media Planning and Buying Agency Do?
A Digital Media Planning and Buying Agency works to create, implement, and manage digital media strategies for their clients. The primary responsibilities of such an agency typically include:
Strategy Development: The agency understands the client’s business goals and develops the most effective digital media strategy to achieve these goals. This process may include comprehensive market research to understand the target audience, analyze the client’s industry and competitive environment, and determine an effective media mix.
Media Planning: The agency decides which digital channels (such as social media, search engines, video platforms, etc.) to use and the most effective times to use them, based on the defined objectives and the online behaviors of the target audience.
Media Buying: The agency selects and purchases the best media spaces to publish the client’s advertisements. This process often uses a series of programmatic buying technologies for evaluating, negotiating, and purchasing ad placements.
Ad Creation and Publishing: The agency can assist in creating compelling ads that resonate with the target audience. These ads are then published on the planned media channels.
Performance Monitoring and Optimization: The agency monitors the success of the campaign and makes necessary optimizations. This includes continuous analysis and testing to understand which ads perform best on which platforms. They also track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess whether the campaign is meeting its objectives.
Reporting: The agency regularly provides clients with reports on campaign performance. These reports typically include which tactics worked best, which areas need improvement, and recommendations for future strategies.
The goal of a Digital Media Planning and Buying Agency is to help their clients achieve their digital objectives. These objectives might include increasing brand awareness, boosting website traffic, or enhancing online sales. The agency identifies and implements the most effective digital media strategies to achieve these goals.
Digital Media Planning and Buying Tools
Digital media planning and buying involve various tools and technologies. These tools typically make processes like audience analysis, budget management, media selection, performance monitoring, and reporting more efficient and effective. Here are some common tools used for digital media planning and buying:
Audiense: Audiense utilizes social media data to understand target audiences. This tool helps identify where users with specific demographic, geographic, or behavioral characteristics are located and what type of content they are interested in.
Google Ads: Google Ads offers the ability to publish ads on platforms such as search network, display ad network, and YouTube. It also features extensive keyword planning and research tools.
Facebook Business Manager: This platform enables the creation, management, and monitoring of advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. It includes targeting options and demographic information, as well as features for tracking and reporting on ad performance.
Programmatic Advertising Platforms: Programmatic advertising platforms (e.g., The Trade Desk, MediaMath, Google Marketing Platform) automate media buying and enable ads to be displayed across a wide array of websites, apps, and other digital platforms.
Moz and SEMrush: These SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools offer features like keyword research, competitor analysis, and site optimization. They help digital media planners understand how to best leverage search engines for their campaigns.
Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics: These analytics platforms provide the ability to track and analyze website traffic, user behavior, and other key metrics. This information can be used to understand which ads and which platforms are performing best.
Each tool serves a specific purpose, and when used together, they ensure a more informed and efficient digital media planning and buying process.
Sales and Lead-Focused Ads
Sales and lead-focused ads are typically targeted towards individuals whom a business wants to perform a specific action – often, this action is a conversion act such as purchasing a product or signing up for a service. These types of ads are commonly referred to as direct response advertising because the aim of the ad is to elicit a specific response from the target audience.
Sales-focused ads usually highlight a specific product or service and encourage the customer to consider an immediate purchase. Such an ad often emphasizes the features and benefits of the product or service and includes a direct call-to-action, like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Shop Now’.
Lead-focused ads typically target individuals who are interested in learning more about a product or service or those who may consider making a purchase in the future. Such ads aim to collect a person’s contact information to allow for further marketing communication, often presenting calls to action like ‘Learn More,’ ‘Sign Up,’ or ‘Request a Demo.’
Both types of ads are commonly used on digital platforms due to their trackable and measurable nature. This allows a business to determine which ads are yielding the best results and which tactics are most effective. Overall, the goal of sales and lead-focused ads is to help a business increase sales and expand its potential customer base.
Digital Media Planning and Buying Steps
Digital media planning and buying follows a strategic process to help a specific brand or business achieve its online goals. Here are the general steps of this process:
Setting Objectives: The first step is to determine the overall objectives of the digital advertising campaign. These objectives can be based on specific business goals, such as increasing brand awareness, boosting sales, driving website traffic, or reaching a particular target audience.
Defining the Target Audience: It is important to determine who the campaign is addressing. Various factors such as demographic information, consumer behavior, geographic location, and areas of interest help in identifying the target audience.
Creating a Media Strategy: In this step, it is determined which digital platforms will be used and what type of content will be created. This may include social media, search engines, content marketing, email marketing, video advertising, etc.
Budget Planning: It is necessary to decide how the total budget allocated for the advertising campaign will be distributed among various digital channels. This distribution is based on goals and target audience analysis.
Media Buying: In this step, advertising spaces on the planned digital channels are purchased. Purchases are typically made through a media buying platform or agency.
Ad Creation and Publishing: Ads are created and published on selected platforms in line with the goals and strategies defined for the campaign.
Monitoring and Optimization: From the moment the campaign starts, its performance should be monitored, and necessary adjustments should be made based on the results.
Reporting and Analysis: At the end of the campaign, the collected data is analyzed, and performance reports are generated. These reports help draw lessons for future campaigns.
Each step is related to the others, forming an effective digital media planning and buying strategy together. Since every business and every campaign is different, this process can be customized to fit specific goals and needs.