Media planning is the process of determining how, when, and to what audience a branding or advertising message will be delivered. A media planner analyzes how a message is intended to support a marketing or advertising strategy and then develops tactics to share that message in the right places with the right people.
At an advertising or marketing agency, the duties of a media planner might be assigned to a content director, marketing manager, account manager, or combination of people with knowledge of media, budgeting, content creation, and other areas of expertise related to marketing.
No matter who is responsible for development, the process requires a deep understanding of the components of a media plan, the platforms that can deliver the message, and the factors that go into an effective plan.
The Components of Media Planning
Before developing a plan, the media planner must fill in the blanks on specific components. Trying to make a media plan without first understanding its components would be like riding a bicycle blindfolded.
The component checklist serves as a foundation for the plan and should take into account:
- Audience: Whom is the message targeting? Why is the message relevant to them? How is the message serving them?
- Marketing budget: How much is available to spend on delivering the message?
- Conversion goals: What action should the message encourage the audience to take? How will that action support the strategy?
- Definition of success: What key performance indicators should be tracked? How do they support the strategy? How will they be measured and reported? What is the anticipated return on investment?
- Message frequency: How often should the message be shared? How much is too much?
- Message reach: How many people should receive the message? Where do they live? Is the message platform scalable? How reach is measured depends on the platform being used to deliver the message. It is important for media planners to understand the nature, uses, and usefulness of every available form of media.
The Forms of Media
Marketing and advertising content takes the form that best conveys the message and achieves the desired action on the part of the consumer. Digital media includes all the assets a consumer finds on the internet: paid ads on search engines (pay per click), banner ads associated with targeted remarketing, videos and static ads on social media, website development, and more.
In 2019, for the first time, digital advertising spending surpassed traditional advertising spending. According to digital marketing publication eMarketer, digital marketing spend was estimated to account for 54.2% of total U.S. advertising spending in 2019.
In traditional and digital media, efforts to spread messaging can be categorized as:
- Owned media: Owned media consists of original assets, such as blog posts and videos, published directly on platforms owned and operated by the organization attempting to spread the message. The ultimate goal of owned media assets is to go viral — a nice-to-have but unpredictable state that should never be considered the linchpin of any media plan.
- Earned media: Earned media are assets that share the organization’s message but are created by separate parties, such as news stories or profiles in a newspaper or online news site. This typically is a function of public relations or media relations.
- Paid media: These are assets associated with ad spending, such as social media advertisements, paid search ads, paid commercials on TV or radio, or the paid placement of an asset such as a guest blog post on a news website.
No type of media can be dismissed as unimportant. The type of media used could make or break a campaign, which is just one of several factors that determine a media plan’s potential effectiveness.
The Factors of Effective Media Planning
The three pillars of an effective media plan — purpose, audience, and reach — are interconnected but must be considered separately during the early stages of plan formation. Here is an overview of the factors of effective media planning.
- Purpose: What is the goal or objective of the campaign? Is it to generate brand awareness? Encourage a user to share contact information or to fill out a form? How does the asset support the larger marketing strategy? All of these questions must be answered very early in the planning process.
- Audience: Who is the targeted consumer? Who will benefit from watching, listening, or reading the piece of content? Who is likely to buy the service or product or to develop a long-term relationship with the brand? The purpose and the audience go hand in hand.
- Reach: How many people are targeted by a particular media platform, and at what frequency? Reach and frequency — the number of times a potential customer is offered the chance to read, watch, or listen to the asset — are related. Not every potential audience member consumes media at the same rate. The more often a video or ad is shared, the more likely it is to be seen.
