Want to bring in more customers? Creating an advertising campaign will help you reach consumers looking for you, but getting lost in the details is easy. Media buying can help you select the proper channels to reach prospects and customers, but where do you begin?
A quick search online for “media buying” might flood you with questions. Should you go digital? Build and promote a website? Advertise on social media? Once you decide, you’ll have many more decisions. Facebook or Instagram? Graphic or video? What’s your message?
Choosing and promoting the right message on the right media channel can save time and money, but making mistakes can waste time and money. So where do you start?
What Is Media Buying?
Media buying is strategically purchasing ad space on a variety of channels. It’s a critical step in the advertising process. You identify channels that reach out to your ideal target audience and analyze the best locations, placements and times to run your ads to ensure maximum effectiveness with your target audience.
While that sounds easy in theory, if you’ve ever created an advertising campaign yourself, you know how difficult it can be. Many pieces must fit together to ensure maximum reach, and once you think you’ve created a working strategy, everything can change.
A recent report from Hubspot revealed that nearly 80 percent of marketers say their industry has changed more in the past three years than it did in the last five decades. With that much change, how does a marketer know what to do?
What Are Media Channels?
If you go the old-school route for buying media, media channels could include radio shows, television commercials, postcards and magazine ads. While these options can be effective in the right circumstances, businesses today often turn to digital for faster, more effective results.
Digital media channels can include social media, email or influencer marketing. Savvy businesses may rely on search engine optimization or podcast marketing. Short-form videos like Instagram Reels or TikToks are seeing massive growth with marketers because of their effectiveness and high ROI.
Which will work for you? Media planners understand the various industries and learn how to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each type of media before selecting each channel. They use your budget, goals, industry and message to establish which media channels suit your needs best.
They maximize the impact of advertising. They do it by establishing a media plan. Think of it as having an expert marketer on your team delivering value and providing a high return on investment. Media buying is about forming a partnership that gives you every advantage in making your marketing dollars go as far as possible.
Where Do You Start?
A successful media plan requires a calculated strategy that enables you to reach the right target audience with the right message on the right channel at the right time. It also requires you to do it within your budget. While there isn’t a magic formula to help you accomplish that, you can increase your potential with some research.
Here’s a good series of actions to get you started:
- Identify your audience: You should thoroughly understand your ideal customer and what product or service they want from you. What do you offer that nobody else can?
- Look at your competition: Where does your competition advertise? What message do they use? Analyzing their strategies can help you develop your own plan.
- Develop a buyer persona: Your customer avatar will help you better understand your customers’ needs. You can carefully craft messages that engage customers. It enables you to target users better.
- Establish your budget: No matter how much you’re spending, why not get the most for every dollar going out? Big spending doesn’t always equal significant results. Instead, it’s about fine-tuning every campaign you send out to gain maximum effectiveness.
- Test and analyze: Digital offers ways to maximize every ad campaign you run. Create measurable goals that help you stay on target and use analytics to improve every ad you run.
How Do You Get Media Channels Right?
Media buyers have access to many different channels. They understand that each channel can have a role in your strategy, but each channel might not perform optimally for your business. Just because your competitor has great luck on Facebook doesn’t make it the right channel for you. TikTok is great for reaching specific age ranges, but are those the customers you want?
Finding the right channel for your specific message can be a game changer when it comes to getting the biggest payout for your dollar. Getting media channels right involves three simple steps:
- Evaluate the impact of the marketing channel: Each channel is built with a different focus in mind. You can expect faster results by selecting one that already targets people in a way you’re familiar with.
- Define your confidence: Are you already building in certain areas? Do you have an Amazon presence, an account on Pinterest or use video regularly? With a personal stake in specific strategies, you’re more likely to follow through over time.
- Keep it simple and comfortable: Video may be a rapidly growing media now, but it won’t be easy to build into your daily strategy if you don’t like it. A tricky channel may require you to hire new staff and adjust your resources, which may not align with your overall goals.
How InnoVision Can Help You With Media Buying
To get the most out of your advertising dollars, focus on improving every aspect of your media coverage, from ideation to realization. InnoVision can help you increase performance on any media channel at every stage. More importantly, they can hone in on which channels make the most sense for your business.
Remember that customers need multiple exposures to your brand before they are ready to convert. By contacting them on different channels, you strengthen your brand and increase the likelihood of connecting with you.
