Media planners begin the media buying process, which involves reaching customers through advertising. Creating a customized and innovative media planning strategy requires a strategic approach.
The plan includes the who, how, where, and when your ads will reach your audience. The who is diving deep to get your ads in front of the right people. The how and where direct which channels, digital or traditional (print, OOH, programmatic, radio, podcasts, etc.). The when leads back to who the audience is and when they are most likely to see or hear your ads on the identified channels.
Before creating an advertising plan that aligns with your brand's objectives, you need to share your goals, budget constraints, and target audience. Marketers may not understand the importance of these details to a media planner developing a customized media plan or the intricacies of creating an optimized plan to meet and exceed the brand’s goals.
Media planners are also tasked with staying on top of and ahead of the complex media landscape specific to a client’s business challenges and objectives in combination with trends, economic patterns, and/or issues specific to the industry sector.
Not all marketing and audiences are created equal. Effective media planning techniques and tailoring media channels and tactics to each audience's unique demographics require specific skills.
Understanding the Brand's Audience and Objectives
Before media planning can begin, marketers need to be clear on their brand’s goals, budget, resources, and priorities regarding brand awareness or performance marketing. This allows for media strategies to align with business objectives.
Is the goal to reach a large audience and make them aware that your brand exists to solve specific problems using a brand media strategy? Or is your audience already aware of their problems, how to solve them, and that you are an option? Do you just need to clarify with them how you are the best solution? Or are you looking for an integrated approach to continue building brand awareness while driving conversions? The answers to these questions not only inform the media buying plan strategy but should also determine the direction of your ad creative.
Audience targeting in media planning is one of the top priorities for planners. Marketers need to be clear on their target audience. Having clearly identified personas assists with developing a comprehensive audience analysis.
With those details, media planners will identify the nuances of ad formats, consumption habits, and media types that over-index with target audiences and specific demographics, working through strategic media plan development and offering media planning insights for brands.
Budget Allocation and Optimization in Advertising
Once your brand’s objectives and audience are clear, media planners will assess the available budget and identify the ideal resource allocation. Media planning strategists create plans that implement cost-effective media channels. Where possible, AI may be utilized for dynamic budget optimization, allowing for the highest conversion and lowest cost per metric.
Media planners understand the importance of omnichannel marketing, which incorporates all available channels into a connected strategy to maximize budget spending and results.
Channel Selection and Integration
Evaluating channel selection is essential to a customized and successful media plan. This involves identifying the most efficient traditional and digital advertising channels or recommending cross-channel media strategies.
Brand or performance objectives greatly influence media mix, channel selection, and cost per impression (CPM). Reach and frequency metrics, distinctive or “hard to reach” audiences, or niche products vs. broad demos guide channel selection. Overall budget and/or budget constraints dictate the final media mix.
Like all areas of marketing, media and advertising are constantly evolving, and media planners have to stay ahead of changes while evaluating the benefits of each emerging platform.
In developing a customized media plan that accounts for the client’s objectives and resources, planners must incorporate the right tools and platforms that offer dynamic, data-driven, and interactive ways to engage audiences to maximize impact.
- Enhanced Targeting Capabilities: Enable hyper-targeted advertising based on user behavior, preferences, and demographics.
- Integrating Channels: Platforms can replace or complement traditional media (TV, radio, print) due to their cost-effectiveness and measurable results.
- Expanded Audience Reach: Access to younger, digital-first audiences who may not engage with traditional media.
- Data Leverage: Incorporating the right programmatic advertising to deliver personalized ads in real time.
Planners understand the importance of full-funnel and cross-channel advertising. They incorporate applicable channels into a connected strategy and ensure your ads will be delivered to consumers across the best channels, devices, and platforms.
Media Planning Data Analysis
While the planner does not execute the media plan, the media buying strategies built within the plan will assist in defining key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the brand’s goals, identify the channels that may utilize AI for in-depth data analysis and reporting, and derive actionable insights for continuous improvement throughout the campaign.
Planners must also run competitive spend analysis across media types and competitors. They evaluate when to tap into national media consumption trends vs. specific trends unique to the client’s local market, DMAs, or regional footprints. Linking social or economic factors and competitor intel to their influence on the overall business challenge and how a tailored media strategy speaks to a holistic approach to strategic outcomes.
Advertising channel recommendations in your media plan will depend on your business goals. They will determine KPI focus and, in some cases, media buying setup and execution.
Goals and Performance Metrics in Media Planning
- Awareness: Impressions, CPM, VCR, Reach & Frequency, Brand/Ad Recall
- Consideration: Clicks, Comments, Shares, CTR
- Conversion: Reservations, Foot Traffic and Sales, form fills, etc.
Data analytics are used to understand consumer behavior, recognize opportunities for optimization, and lead in the direction of the best outcomes. Attention-based metrics, like time spent listening (TSL) and view completion rate (VCR), shape budget and channel allocation specific to the audience journey. Planners utilize location-based analytics, customer migration patterns, and persona insights to inform media placements.
Data analysis and related tools also help to develop an aggregated view of commercial activity, foot traffic analysis, consumer media consumption habits, and trends to identify the complete customer journey.
Data may also be used for the tactics below:
- Focus on tailor-made messaging, media, and promotions to ideal zip codes, reducing advertising waste.
- Use data sources like Google Analytics, social media insights, customer surveys, and market research reports across platforms.
- Heavy up zip codes with opportunity audiences.
- Find lookalike zip codes that match visitor personas within relevant drive times.
- Inform strategic OOH placements.
- Target zip codes with high current customer penetration using first-party data suppression to reach qualified new audiences at scale.
- Suppress non-performing zip codes.
Advanced Insights: What Planners Know That Marketers May Not
Media planning takes a great deal of expertise and requires an understanding of each business's unique elements across a wide array of brands from various industries. Here are additional insights that media planners understand and utilize.
- The significance of effective frequency and reach optimization
- Media consumption patterns and their impact on ad placement
- The role of AI in predictive analysis and media strategy development
- Navigating media fragmentation and audience segmentation challenges
- Tools, Platforms, and Partners needed to support custom media plans
To ensure the best outcome for your advertising media strategy, start by knowing and sharing your business objectives, audience insights, and budget. A skilled media planner can take that information and develop a customized media plan to reach your target audience at the right place and the right time, maximizing your advertising spend and reaching your goals.
For marketers, the expertise needed to understand the constant evolution of media and advertising can be overwhelming. Having transparent, collaborative, and inquisitive media-buying professionals on your team can give you confidence that you are optimizing your advertising strategy and allows you the time to focus on the 100 other priorities on your calendar.
