Media Planning
How to plan the best advertising media for your business
Planning your media advertising well is a fundamental part of giving your campaign the very best chance of success. Without good planning, you are risking a lot of wasted time, effort and money and this is such a vital part of the eventual media buying process.
How you tackle this process depends very much on how intense your campaign is going to be and which media you intend to focus on. If you plan to use traditional media like magazine advertising and say National Newspaper Advertising, then the whole research and planning stage can be quite straightforward. This is also the case with Internet Advertising, as automated network systems and ppc advertising products can create tailor-made campaigns for you with very little effort on your part.
However, when it comes to Radio Station Advertising and TV advertising, the whole media planning stage can take on a whole new level of commitment. In fact, most companies that have the budget for these types of media will leave the Media Buying Services and media placement to an advertising agency or other professional company.
One thing that advertising agencies can do is use their experience to not only get you the best deals on advertising costs, but they'll also bring someone in to help on the creative design and production requirements too.
Whichever route you choose, your scheduled media planning activities (or those of the agency) must include:
- Which media will reach your target market in the best way
- What will it cost to run campaigns for each
- What do I want to achieve as a result of using this media
When you have looked at these areas, you then have to decide on the schedule, frequency and associated costs for the whole campaign. You must also make sure that correct deadlines are met and that your adverts achieve the positioning and coverage you require.
Take a look at our list of media planning and media buying agencies in our agency database
See our list of Advertising guide pages
Also see:
Media buying agency
Media Buying News
Buying Media Services
Internet Media Buying