Media Planning: The Art of Setting Up Winning Ad Campaigns

Imagine this: Your people assemblage can’t halt talking astir 1 of your ads. 

Why?

Because they each saw it astatine the close clip and successful the close place. 

That’s the interaction of media planning. 

Media readying is an integral portion of the integer selling ecosystem. 

This station provides an instauration to media readying and elaborate step-by-step instructions that’ll summation your cognition astir media planning—and your chances of selling success. 

Let’s excavation in. 

Media planning is the process of determining how, when, and wherever your ads are shown to a targeted audience. Knowing the wherefore down your media program volition assistance you maximize your advertisement campaign’s reach. 

A media plan guides the advertisement campaign. Think of it arsenic a blueprint for your run efforts.

A media program should include:

• Objectives 
• Target audience 
• Selection of media channels 
• Resource allocation 
• Scheduling strategy for each chosen media vehicle 

We’ll research each successful much item successful the instructions aboriginal on. 

What Does a Media Planner Do? 

A media planner plays a important relation successful ensuring that advertizing campaigns are seen by the close people, successful the close places, astatine the close times. 

This relation typically works for an advertizing agency, in-house selling departments, media companies, oregon adjacent PR firms. The media planner creates a program for a campaign’s media premix and often hands the program disconnected to a media buyer, who past negotiates with the media. 

Goals for a media planner see expanding their brand’s awareness, reach, and income successful the people marketplace that the concern wants to scope with its products oregon services. 

Here’s what a media planner typically does:

Conduct marketplace research: Media planners survey the people assemblage to recognize their habits—what platforms they use, erstwhile they’re online, and what benignant of contented they consume.

Select media channels: Based connected research, they determine which platforms (like TV, societal media, websites, etc.) volition beryllium astir effectual successful reaching the audience. The extremity is to maximize vulnerability portion staying wrong the budget.

Develop media plans: They make elaborate media strategies outlining erstwhile and wherever ads should run, however often, and the fund allocation for each channel.

Manage budgets: Media planners guarantee that the run spends wealth wisely, getting the astir scope and engagement for the fund available.

Monitor campaigns: After the run goes live, media planners way its performance. They look astatine metrics similar impressions, clicks, and conversions to spot if the ads are moving arsenic expected.

Adjust strategies: If a run isn’t performing well, media planners set the plan—maybe reallocating fund oregon changing platforms to amended results.

Report connected results: At the extremity of a campaign, media planners supply insights connected what worked, what didn’t, and however aboriginal campaigns tin beryllium improved.

In short, media planners are the masterminds down the strategy of wherever and erstwhile ads appear, ensuring brands get the champion instrumentality connected their investment.

While media planners and media buyers enactment intimately together, their roles are chiseled but complementary.

• Media planners are chiefly liable for strategizing where, when, and however a brand's advertisements should appear. They absorption connected identifying the champion channels, people audience, and timing for the run based connected probe and data.
• Media buyers, connected the different hand, instrumentality the program created by the media planners and execute it. They negociate with vendors (such arsenic TV networks, websites, oregon societal media platforms) to acquisition the existent advertizing abstraction oregon airtime. They guarantee that the ads are placed astatine the champion rates and that they scope the assemblage arsenic intended.

Sometimes, particularly successful smaller companies oregon agencies, 1 idiosyncratic mightiness grip some roles, meaning a media planner could besides beryllium liable for media buying. However, successful larger organizations oregon agencies, these roles are usually abstracted to let specialization and efficiency

How Much Do Media Planners Make?

Media planners successful the United States gain an mean yearly wage of astir $65,000, according to information from Salary.com and RTDNA. 

Entry-level media planners typically marque astir $49,000 per year, portion much experienced professionals tin gain up to $80,000 annually, depending connected their determination and experience. 

Salaries thin to beryllium higher successful states similar California and New York, wherever media planners tin gain betwixt $68,000 to $70,000 per year.

Like immoderate job, media readying salaries tin alteration importantly by region, with locations specified arsenic San Francisco and San Jose seeing media planners earning up to $90,000​.

Ad campaigns request a media program because, without one, it’s similar throwing darts successful the dark—you mightiness deed something, but it won’t beryllium accordant oregon strategic. 

A media program helps you fig retired where, when, and however to scope your people assemblage effectively. It ensures you’re spending wealth connected the close platforms, astatine the close time, and with the close message.

A media program is indispensable for:

• Targeting the close audience: Focus connected the platforms and channels your assemblage really uses.
• Maximizing your budget: Avoid wasting wealth by allocating resources wherever they'll marque the astir impact.
• Timing your ads: Ensure your ads tally erstwhile your assemblage is astir apt to engage.
• Consistent messaging: Keep your connection wide and aligned crossed antithetic channels.
• Hitting run goals: Improve your chances of getting much clicks, sales, oregon marque awareness.

Without a media plan, you hazard wasting time, money, and missing retired connected reaching the close people.

Uncover Your Competitor's Advertising Strategywith AdClarity - Advertising Intelligence

Try for Free →

There are 3 cardinal types of media: paid media, earned media, and owned media. 

Each has the communal extremity of engaging with your people audience, but they execute this done antithetic means. 

Let’s instrumentality a look.

Paid Media

Paid media is advertisement contented placed wrong selling channels owned by outer media entities (e.g., an advertisement successful an online work similar Fortune, similar successful the illustration below) successful speech for a fee.

Owned Media

Owned media is the placement of advertisement contented wrong channels the advertiser wholly owns (e.g., Forbes selling its products connected their site, arsenic seen below). 

Earned Media

Earned media is the accumulation of integrated marque mentions without paid promotion. One of the astir communal types of earned media is online reviews, similar the illustration below. Other earned media tin see integrated vulnerability successful the property oregon societal media.

Types of Media Channels

Media channels traditionally autumn into offline and online channels.

• Offline media channels see TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and out-of-home advertizing (such arsenic billboards and wayfinding)
• Online media channels see social media, online video, and integer advertizing (such arsenic show and autochthonal ads) 

AdClarity - Advertising Intelligence

This instrumentality offers a treasure trove of probe for immoderate advertizing professional.

You tin usage it to probe your competitors’ advertisement campaigns, analyse their spend, budgeting, and organisation of ads crossed publishers and societal media networks. 

If you’re conscionable starting out, you tin rapidly benchmark your competitors’ advertisement spending habits with this tool. Use those insights to operation your ain media program accordingly. 

AdClarity is disposable to effort with a escaped 7-day proceedings successful the Semrush App Center. After the proceedings period, plans commencement astatine $169/month.

Audience Intelligence

This instrumentality is fantabulous for assemblage research, showing you each kinds of details astir the assemblage of immoderate X (Twitter) account. 

Use it to survey a palmy rival and observe insights astir their audience, like:

• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Media affinities
• Interests
• Top influencers 
• Buying mindset
• Socioeconomics 

And more! 

With this information, you tin make an effectual purchaser persona to absorption your media program around. 

Then, program your strategy to absorption connected the media affinities and interests that resonate with your people assemblage the most.

Audience Intelligence is besides disposable successful the Semrush App Center. You tin presumption demo reports for free, and if you privation to physique your ain it costs $150.

Media Plan Example + Template

Media program templates are ace useful pre-made frameworks that assistance you signifier and negociate everything for your advertisement campaigns—budget, channels, messaging—all successful 1 place. 

They travel successful antithetic types, similar for yearly readying oregon integer advertisement buying, and tin beryllium customized with your data. 

You tin reappraisal and download respective escaped budgeting media program templates from Smartsheet, including an yearly media program template, arsenic seen here:

These templates volition marque it easier to program and way your campaigns, optimize your spend, and support everything organized. 

Get connected a first-name ground with communal media readying presumption truthful selling jargon ne'er prevents you from seeing results. 

1. Ad Buy: acquiring advertisement abstraction oregon clip connected assorted media channels intended to scope a specified people audience.
2. Ad Impressions Share: the percent of advertisement impressions an advertisement oregon advertisement run generated compared to the full imaginable impressions wrong a media channel.
3. Ad Inventory: the full banal of disposable advertisement abstraction oregon clip slots media platforms person to connection advertisers.
4. Ad Placement: the advertisement spaces available, including size, type, and determination (i.e., wherever a show advertisement goes connected a website oregon a people advertisement is placed successful a newspaper).
5. Click-Through Rate (CTR): a metric measuring the effectiveness of a integer advertisement oregon advertisement run connected a peculiar site, based connected the fig of users who clicked connected a defined link.
6. Competitive Intelligence: gathering information astir competitors’ selling and concern activities to assistance pass decision-making successful media planning—and beyond.
7. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): a metric quantifying an advertiser's full outgo to get a caller lawsuit oregon pb done a media campaign.
8. Cost Per Click (CPC): the monetary magnitude an advertiser spends to get an advertisement clicked.
9. Dayparting: a strategy of scheduling ads oregon advertisement campaigns to tally during peculiar times oregon days of the week to scope a people assemblage effectively.
10. Frequency: the mean fig of times idiosyncratic was exposed to an advertisement oregon advertisement run implicit a defined period.
11. Gross Rating Points (GRP): the assemblage size reached by an advertisement oregon advertisement campaign, calculated by multiplying the scope (expressed arsenic a decimal) by the frequency.
12. Impressions: the full fig of times an advertisement oregon advertisement run was displayed.
13. Impressions Share: a metric that measures however efficaciously an advertisement run reaches its people assemblage compared to the full imaginable impressions.
14. Media Budget: the allocated funds for an advertisement oregon advertisement run crossed assorted channels wrong a circumstantial clip frame.
15. Media Buy: acquiring advertisement abstraction oregon clip connected assorted media channels intended to scope a specified people audience.
16. Media Creative: an ad's existent imagery, design, and content.
17. Media Research: examining disposable data—from media depletion to assemblage behaviour to competitory analysis—to pass media planning.
18. Media Schedule: a timetable detailing erstwhile and wherever advertisements volition look crossed varying media channels to maximize impact.
19. Media Vehicle: a circumstantial TV program, website, magazine, vigor station, etc. utilized to transportation an advertisement oregon advertisement run (e.g., Cosmopolitan is simply a media vehicle).
20. Return connected Investment (ROI): a metric assessing the effectiveness and profitability of advertisement efforts by taking nett profits, dividing them by the concern made, and calculating a percentage.

Get Started with Media Planning

Feeling acceptable to instrumentality connected the satellite of media planning?

You tin get started with escaped trials of immoderate adjuvant advertizing and assemblage probe tools from the Semrush App Center.

Then, cheque retired our ten-step usher to making your ain media plan.

Uncover Your Competitor's Advertising Strategy with AdClarity - Advertising Intelligence

Try for Free →