Media planning and buying is simply how marketers decide where to place ads and then purchase that ad space. It's finding the right channels to reach your audience, whether that's social media, TV, radio or anywhere else people might see your message.
For marketing managers and business owners, understanding this process helps you make better decisions about your advertising budget. It makes sure you're not wasting money on ads that won't reach the right people.
Here, we take you through the basics of media planning and buying and cover what you need to know to make informed decisions for your marketing campaigns.
What media planning and buying involves
Media planning and buying is how marketers decide where to place ads and then purchase that advertising space. The process typically looks like this:
Setting campaign goals
Finding your target audience
Choosing which media channels to use
Working out your budget
Buying the ad space
Measuring how well it's working
What is media buying?
Media buying follows after your planning phase. It's the process of purchasing the advertising space you've decided on in your media plan. Media buyers determine the price and placement of ads based on research to reach the right audience for their client's product or service.
There are two main approaches to media buying:
Direct buying, which involves purchasing ad space directly from a publisher through direct negotiations.
Programmatic buying, which uses automated technology to purchase digital advertising space, often in real-time.
The media planning and buying process
Media planning and buying follows a sequence that helps advertisers make the right decisions about where and when to place their ads. From researching your audience to evaluating campaign results, each step builds on the previous one to create an effective advertising strategy that, when done right, maximises your return on investment.
Define your audience
The first step is understanding exactly who you want to reach. Research demographics (age, location, income), behaviours (what they buy, where they shop) and media habits (what platforms they use and when). Through market research, you'll identify your target audiences and understand their interests, which forms the foundation for all your future decisions.
Set campaign objectives
Before spending any money, you need clear goals. Are you trying to build brand awareness, generate leads, drive website traffic or increase sales? Your objectives will influence everything from the message to media selection to how you'll measure success. Make these goals specific and measurable so you can track your progress.
Choose your media channels
Based on your audience research, you'll select the platforms where your target customers spend their time. If your audience likes videos, focusing on platforms like TikTok or YouTube may work better than traditional print ads. Your channel mix might include social media, search engines, television, radio, print publications or outdoor advertising depending on your audience's habits.
Develop your budget
Now you'll decide how much to spend overall and how to divide that budget across your chosen channels. According to Nielsen, the average company spends about 3.8% of its revenues on advertising, but new companies or those building market share often spend more. Your budget allocation should prioritise channels that will best reach your target audience.
Create your media plan
Now we bring everything together into a documented strategy. Your media plan will outline your audience, objectives, channels, messaging approach, budget allocation and timeline. It serves as a roadmap for your campaign and ensures everyone involved understands the strategy and their responsibilities.
Purchase ad space
With your plan in place, you'll now buy the advertising space or time. Media buying falls into two broad categories: direct (purchased directly from a publisher through negotiations) and programmatic (using automated platforms to buy ad space). This step often involves negotiating for better rates or premium placements.
Launch your campaign
It's time to deploy your ads across your chosen channels according to your timeline. This includes finalising creative assets, uploading them to platforms and making sure they're displayed correctly. Careful coordination ensures your campaign launches smoothly across all media.
Monitor performance
Once your ads are live, track their performance in real-time (for digital) or as reports come in (for traditional media). You'll monitor metrics like impressions, clicks, engagement, conversions and return on ad spend to see how your campaign is performing against your objectives.
Optimise as needed
Based on your monitoring, make adjustments to improve performance. This might mean shifting budget from underperforming channels to high-performing ones, tweaking your creative or adjusting your targeting parameters. The beauty of digital ad channels is that you can quickly adjust messaging, budget and strategy in response to real-time metrics.
Evaluate results
After your campaign ends, analyse overall performance against your original objectives.You’ll better understand what worked, what didn't and why, providing valuable insights for future campaigns. Document these learnings to continuously improve your media planning and buying strategy.
Understanding media channels
When planning your advertising strategy, you need to understand which channels will best reach your target audience. Media channels are the various platforms and methods you can use to deliver your advertising message. These channels fall into two main categories: traditional media and digital media.
Traditional media channels
Traditional media refers to advertising platforms that existed before the internet. These include radio, broadcast television, cable and satellite, print and billboards, all forms of advertising that have been around for years. Many businesses still find these channels effective, especially for building trust and credibility.
Some key traditional media channels include:
Television: TV advertising reaches large audiences and creates a multi-sensory experience with both audio and visual elements. It's still considered prestigious and can build strong brand awareness.
Radio: An affordable option for reaching local audiences. Radio ads can target specific listener demographics based on station format and airing times.
Print media: This includes newspapers and magazines. Print is one of the oldest advertising channels, with newspaper ads dating back nearly 500 years. It remains a trusted medium, with 82% of customers trusting it when making purchase decisions.
Outdoor advertising: Billboards and posters provide high visibility in public spaces. They're effective for simple, eye-catching messages.
Direct mail: Physical marketing materials sent directly to potential customers' homes or businesses.
Digital media channels
Digital media refers to advertising delivered through internet-based platforms. These include social media, email, Google ads and podcasts. Digital media now accounts for 72% of media planning and buying.
Key digital media channels include:
Social media advertising: Platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X and LinkedIn offer highly targeted advertising options based on user demographics and behaviors.
Search engine marketing (SEM): Includes paid search ads that appear at the top of search engine results pages based on specific keywords.
Display advertising: Banner ads, pop-ups and other visual advertisements that appear on websites across the internet.
Email marketing: Direct communication with potential customers through targeted email campaigns.
Video advertising: Video ads on platforms like YouTube or streaming services allow for engaging, visual storytelling, similar to traditional TV ads but with better targeting capabilities.
Mobile advertising: Ads specifically designed for mobile devices, including in-app advertising.
*Check out how much it costs to advertise on Google in 2025
Choosing the right media mix
Most successful media strategies combine both traditional and digital channels, though it depends on your budget and overall scope. Combining traditional marketing channels like print, TV and radio with digital channels like email, social media and paid ads is where businesses can see beneficial results.
The right mix depends on:
Your target audience's media consumption habits
Your campaign objectives
Your budget constraints
The nature of your message
Your ability to track and measure results
Understanding the strengths and limitations of each channel allows you to create a media plan that maximises your reach while making the most of your budget. In the next section, we'll look at how to measure the success of your media planning and buying efforts.
How to measure success
It's important to track your media plan results to see if you're getting value for your money. This helps you decide where to spend your budget in the future.
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are indicators that measure progress toward specific business goals, while metrics are tactical indicators that provide context for specific business activities. When selecting KPIs for your media campaigns, focus on those that align with your overall business objectives.
Some essential KPIs to track include:
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS shows exactly how much revenue the business earns for every pound spent on advertising and is one of the most important KPIs for evaluating paid media success. For example, a ROAS of 4:1 means you're generating £4 for every £1 spent on advertising.
Return on Investment (ROI): Generally calculated as ROI % = ((Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment)/Cost of Investment) x 100, ROI offers a broader perspective on profitability across all business activities.
Cost Per Lead (CPL): This measures how much you're spending to acquire each new lead through your advertising campaigns.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who complete a desired action after engaging with your ad, such as filling out a form or making a purchase.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it, indicating how compelling your creative and messaging are.
Channel-specific metrics
Different media channels have their own metrics that help evaluate their specific performance:
Traditional media metrics:
Reach and frequency
Gross rating points (GRPs)
Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)
Brand recall and awareness studies
Digital media metrics:
Social media metrics:
Engagement rate, which divides all engagement a post receives (likes, comments, saves, shares) by total followers, showing how engaging your content is on average
Follower growth
Share of voice
Audience demographics
Setting up measurement systems
Implement these measurement practices to track these metrics:
Establish baseline measurements before launching campaigns to provide comparison points
Use tracking tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics platforms, and media-specific measurement tools
Set up proper attribution models to understand how different touchpoints contribute to conversions
Create regular reporting cadences to monitor performance and make timely adjustments
Conduct post-campaign analysis to identify learnings for future campaigns
Connecting metrics to business outcomes
You might decide to look at influence on revenue more than anything. Just because a lead didn't come in through marketing, they may have had multiple marketing touch points that influenced them along the buying journey.
This highlights the importance of looking beyond surface-level metrics to understand how your media activities contribute to actual business results. Consider implementing:
Multi-touch attribution models to track the customer journey
Customer lifetime value calculations to understand long-term impact
Brand health studies to measure perception changes
A/B testing to compare different approaches
Establishing clear measurement frameworks and regularly analysing performance data means you can continue to refine your media planning and buying strategy to deliver better results and demonstrate the value of your marketing investments.
Time to get your media plan in motion
Media planning and buying doesn't need to be complex. With a clear understanding of your audience and the right mix of channels, you can create campaigns that reach the right people at the right time. Start planning today and watch your marketing investments deliver real results.
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