Imagine this: you’ve already got an awesome product or service. You’ve built a shiny new website and you’re actually getting traffic– but it’s not translating into actual sales yet. Instead of waiting for something to happen, consider investing in a classic ad strategy: media buying.
What is Media Buying?
Media buying is simply purchasing ad space to get your message in front of potential customers. It’s like renting billboards, only instead of physical space on the side of the highway, you’re buying digital real estate on websites, social media, search engines, mobile apps – basically any channel where your target audience hangs out online.
The goal of media buying is to get your ads seen by the right people, in the right place, at the right time to drive results for your business, whether that’s more web traffic, leads, sales, app downloads, or whatever other action you want people to take.
Media buying follows a pretty standard process:
- Set your media strategy: What are your goals? Who’s your target audience? What’s your budget? Figuring this out upfront guides the whole media buying process.
- Plan your media mix: Based on your goals and audience, choose the best channels to reach them, whether that’s particular websites, social platforms, etc. Decide what types of ads you’ll run on each channel.
- Purchase ad space: Negotiate with publishers and ad networks or use platforms to automatically bid on ad inventory in real-time called programmatic buying.
- Run ads and gather data: Once your campaign is live, your ad platform collects info on how it’s performing – impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.
- Analyze and optimize: Slice and dice that data to see what’s working and what’s not. Make tweaks to your targeting, bids, or creatives to get the best bang for your buck.
So, how can you get started with media buying? You’ve got a few options:
- Work with a San Diego advertising agency who will handle the whole process for you.
- Use self-serve ad platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads if you want more control.
- For the pros, license a white-label platform to run sophisticated campaigns in-house.
Now, it may sound simple, but effective media buying is difficult to get right. You have to be part Sherlock Holmes and part used car salesman – sniffing out where your audience is hiding, then negotiating the best possible deal on that space to maximize your budget. DIY-ing it without the right media connections and experience is like flushing money down the drain.
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When you nail it, media buying is one of the best ways to maximize your ad dollars, regardless of your business. It’s especially powerful when backed by solid market research, on-point creatives, and other details that make for an exceptional ad campaign.
Media buying is one of our specialties here at CMC and we can help you decide whether it’s the right option for your business. If not, we can also recommend other creative media advertising methods that’ll fit your marketing goals better. Let’s talk – book a free consultation by calling 619-337-8088 or messaging us today.
