Media buying is not an easy task. According to the data released by the World Association of Newspapers based in Paris, there are more than 18,000 newspapers worldwide. Not to forget, scores of news channels and radio stations. With so many options available at your disposal, media buying is a complicated process for startups and small businesses simply because it is tough to determine where to put your limited money.
In this article, we will focus on low-cost media buying strategies that can help you achieve the required outcome at reduced costs. But before we do that, let’s understand what media buying is.
What is Media Buying?
Media buying is a secondary process by which an agency or individual builds upon the insights delivered by the media planner and works on them to frame and negotiate ad buying processes across various channels. A media buying process can be done manually or automatically depending on your budget, audience, objectives, and preferences.
Low-Cost Media Buying Strategies For Startups
Identify Your Target Audience
Identifying your target audience is the first and foremost step. Here are a few questions that will help you recognize and evaluate the audiences you are targeting:
- Who is the ideal consumer of your products or services?
- Are they male or female?
- What is the ideal age group of your customers?
- What is the average salary of your customers?
- Where do they live?
Why does it save you money? You can buy fewer impressions due to target users more precisely. Conversion numbers might be almost the same, yet the conversion rate much higher.
Define Your Purpose And Goal
Before you move ahead and strategize, it is essential to analyze your purpose and goal. What is it that you want from your media buying strategy? Here are a few questions that need answering:
- What is your main goal behind buying media? Do you want to create awareness? Or do you want to drive sales? Or capture leads?
- You might want to redirect your customers to your website. Or encourage them to sign-up for a service or download an app.
To make the most out of your digital advertising campaign, you can choose to set different objectives for different media buys. To further optimize your campaign, you can track the performance across media to track the performance of each media and make necessary tweaks as per the need.
Why does it save you money? Having only one goal in your media buying plan, you invest money in a priority objective instead of running many campaigns aimed at different purposes.
Conduct Market Research
When you have identified your target audiences and analyzed the main goal behind your campaign, it is time to conduct market research. Next, determine the best mode to reach your target audiences. Here are a few questions that will help you find the correct answers:
- Do they like reading magazines and newspapers?
- Do they spend time online? If yes, what kind of activities do they do? What is their online behavior like?
- Do they watch television? What are their favorite shows, and what does that speak about their personality?
- How are your competitors targeting their audiences? What strategies are they following, and what can you do differently to reach out to them?
The key here is to conduct in-depth research and weigh your options. You can also choose to go with the already completed analysis provided by media buying agencies.
Why does it save you money? Testing multiple channels is good, but if your funds are scarce, you might not have the resources for that. Picking only one or two will save you a fortune.
Budget Appropriately
It is essential not just to advertise your brand but also to allocate funds cost-effectively. Keeping within budget is not the only area of focus, but you should also understand how well you spend the budget. For example, do you plan to put 50% in mobile ads, 25% in social media, 10% on billboards, and the rest in radio?
This call can be taken by your media buying agency or you, but it is essential to make a calculated move in either case.
Execution
Once you are past the planning stage, it is time to execute the strategy well. Allocate your budget to digital advertising, and look for ways to make the most out of it. To begin with, write down your goals, and establish ways through which you can achieve them.
Based on your budget and goals, identify media outlets and publications that can help you in your endeavor. Next, list the objectives that you would like to achieve with the help of these media outlets. Also, keep a close eye on the estimated amount you will have to spend to achieve these objectives. The trick is to maximize your returns on investment.
Your Turn
So, this is how you can create a media buying strategy to take your business to new heights. It is highly recommended to organize the information in a file or computer. This data can serve as a good starting point for future media buying campaigns. In addition to saving your research time, this plan will also help you with flawless execution with optimal results.
