Many factors come into place when looking to make a media buy, but the primary focus starts with budget, demographics, and what you’re marketing or selling.
Sure, if you had unlimited funds for unlimited campaigns you could just buy everything and look at the results later, but this is extremely inefficient and not result oriented.
The primary goal of media is targeting. Which vehicles target which demographics at what reach and at what price?
How to get here?
Start with research. Your ads need to appear on the sites that your prospects like to visit. Once you’re clear on your demographics, we like to use these sites to start the research phase:
- Google Ad Planner – - This is an excellent tool that identifies media opportunities by demographic or by URL
- Magic Bullet System’s Demographic Tool – - Insert a URL of a site that is related to the offer your are going to promote to get specifics on who is visiting the site
- Compete – - Very similar to Quantcast except broken down by keyword. There is also a paid version where you can do more in depth analysis
- Alexa – - Alexa is one of the original ratings sites providing free web traffic metrics, top sites lists, site demographics, hot urls, etc.
Once you get a decent read on what the research is telling you, create a media target list and dig deeper to start to indentify which of the sites provide the best returns. This is a funnel process and by the time you’re down into the smallest part of the funnel, you should be looking at your most targeted sites based on your demographics with affordable rates.
How do you get affordable online media rates?
Build relationships. Media buying and planning is all about relationships. A Media Rep is just as interested in selling you a successful buy as you are interested in executing on one. You can work with your Media Rep to tell them what your goals are, how much you have to spend, what your campaign is about, etc. Also ask your rep for recommendations. At this point you are in your final phase of research and understanding how each of the media networks you’re most interested in will help you meet your end goals. And, don’t be afraid to negotiate rates – - media rates are based on negotiations too so once you get your initial rates, ask them how to get the best rates possible. There is always wiggle room here for the most part.
Finalize your research by creating a Media Buy Plan – - a spreadsheet listing all of your media channels, media rep contacts, website targets, ad size specs, and budgets. This puts your entire buy in one place for you to manage.
There are many different vehicles to use for paid online advertising. Find the ones that work best based on these objectives and create a targeted media mix to run your campaigns.
Then, get your ad creatives and tracking together, launch, monitor closely for optimization, and Test, Test, Test!
If you reach your break-even point then pause your campaign.
Be sure to start with remnant traffic when you are initially testing traffic out and gathering your metrics.
Also, start with at least two banners to rotate for each size.
Before signing an Insertion Order (IO) make sure you have the following terms in your contract.
- Remnant Traffic
- Net 30 Terms (if possible)
- Frequency Cap 1×24 with even delivery
- 24 hour out clause
- Billing based off of your reporting
- US Traffic Only (Unless you are promoting a non-US offer)
Contact Digispace Solutions for strategic consulting expertise for your nexts online media campaigns.
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