Media Planning 101: A Beginner’s Guide

Strategic media planning is one of the most important parts of a company’s marketing and advertising systems. We live in an age of more marketing channels than ever before, and knowing how to best optimize your advertising resources is key to seeing the traction your organization needs.

But what is media planning, anyway? Keep reading to dive into the basics you need to know for success.

What Is Media Planning?

Media planning is the process of determining the best method of delivering messaging to an audience for optimal impact and ROI. This includes selecting the right communication channels, strategizing timing and frequency of output, and managing budget allocation across channels.

Media planners analyze audiences, advertising platforms, messaging, and competitors to ensure a company is operating with the most effective marketing plan for their unique offering.

Types of Media Planning

A comprehensive media strategy covers three key categories: earned media, owned media, and paid media. Here’s what each area entails and why it matters.

1. Earned Media

Earned media is the most trusted exposure you can get as a brand. It’s essentially free publicity, and comes from customer reviews, social media mentions, unpaid media coverage, and word-of-mouth.

In an ad-driven world, consumers trust real-world experience. If people are willing to vouch for your product or services outside of the traditional ad space, it naturally builds brand trust.

The numbers speak for themselves: 92% of consumers trust earned media over paid ads.

2. Owned Media

Owned media is a favorite for marketers because it’s the most in your control of the different media types. The channels that your business controls such as your website, blog, and social media are all considered to be owned media.

Your owned media is the space to distinctly establish your unique brand voice. It highly impacts and influences how you’re perceived by potential customers, as your owned media is where they go to learn more about who you are, what you do, and what your core values are.

3. Paid Media

Paid media is exactly what it sounds like—any form of advertising in which you pay to get your message in front of potential clients and customers. This includes out-of-home (OOH) advertising, paid social media ads, programmatic advertising, display ads, and more.

When trying to reach a new audience, companies turn to paid media to widen their brand awareness and target specific demographics.

Types of Media Channels

Within these types of media planning, there are a wide number of different media channels to choose from. These channels fall into two categories:

Online Media

Digital marketing channels are a popular choice for their flexibility and real-time analytics. Popular online media channels include:

• Social Media: From Facebook and Instagram to TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube, social media has a high cultural impact, with over 5.79 billion users worldwide.
• Paid Search: Google processes roughly 16.4 billion searches per day, and advertisers can put their business at the forefront of targeted searches with sponsored ads through Google or Bing.
• Digital Publications: Websites, blogs, and online magazines are best when landed as earned media, but can still provide high value as paid media.

Offline Media

Offline media takes your message into the real world—where customers are paying more attention, aren’t distracted by ads, and build trust through repetition and familiarity. Popular offline media channels include:

• Out-of-Home Advertising: Encompassing billboards, wallscapes, street furniture, transit ads, digital billboards, and more, OOH advertising provides the highest levels of ROI and consumer retention when compared to other types of advertising.
• TV: Despite the streaming era, TV remains a solid ad source for local and national brands alike.
• Print Publications: Who said print was dead? 87% of American adults still regularly read and engage with magazines, making them a tangible way to advertise to targeted demographics.

What Are the Biggest Challenges in Media Planning?

Media planning is important work—but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Media planners face high levels of pressure, as much of a company’s advertising success depends on the effectiveness of their roadmap. Some of the biggest challenges include:

Audience Fragmentation

Having a wide number of marketing channels to choose from is a great thing—until it splits your audience. In today’s market, there are more marketing channels available than ever, making it tricky to determine where your customers really are. Today’s media landscape is complex, and it doesn’t make marketer’s jobs easy.

Ad Fatigue

Let’s face it—today’s consumers are sick of ads. The average person is exposed to up to 5,000 ads per day, and as advertisers, we’re seeing the effects of that. Digital burnout is at an all-time high, and consumers are tired of feeling like everything they see is secretly an ad. It’s never been more important to build true, authentic trust as a brand.

Budget Issues

Media planners are trying to prioritize numerous channels at once, which can be tricky when managing an ad budget. It can be difficult to determine which paid ads to invest the most money in, and paying attention to your ROI is key to moving forward well.

Ultimately, a successful media plan rides on strategic advertising channel selection, strong marketing assets, and an ability to react to analytics and adjust in a timely manner when needed.

Top Media Planning Tips

Building out a media plan? Here are a few key things to keep in mind.

(If you’re planning out a billboard campaign, be sure to check out our 10 Billboard Mistakes to Avoid!)

1. Conduct Market Research

Here’s the thing: your ad will never land if you don’t have a comprehensive understanding of who you’re trying to reach. That’s where market research comes in. By taking the time to understand not only who your audience is, but what market gaps they need you to fill, you’re able to stand out against your competitors and make a real impact on your market.

2. Set Clear Objectives

A plan without clear objectives is just an optimistic idea. You need straightforward, tangible ways to measure success. That could look like:

• Increasing website visits by 20% over the next three months
• Selling out your upcoming event
• Achieving a specific number of inquiries from your social media
• Increasing foot traffic in-store by 30%

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Change Course

There is no one “perfect” media plan. Each business and organization has its own unique set of variables: industry, audience, budget, platforms, etc. All of these variables factor into your plan, and determining the plan that works best for your brand often takes time, effort, and experimentation.

If you aren’t seeing the results that you’d hoped for from your current media plan, don’t be afraid to shift. By building a media plan, you aren’t locked in for life—you’re just learning what works best.

Build the Most Effective Media Plan for Your Business With Alluvit Media

At Alluvit Media, we support businesses through OOH advertising. We’re passionate about partnering with you to bring your offline media plan to life, and our expert Media Coordinators are here to guide you through each step of the process. We’ve helped thousands of brands reach their target audience through billboard advertising, and we want to be a part of your success story.

Ready to learn more? Contact us today for your free proposal.

FAQs

How can I best map out my customer journey?

We recommend utilizing the AIDA model. The AIDA model carries marketers through each step of the customer journey, from Awareness to Interest to Desire to Action.

Does outdoor advertising just include billboards?

No, OOH advertising encompasses a number of different types of ads, including cinema advertising, airport advertising, and truck advertising.

Are billboard ads expensive?

Not always. The cost of your billboard ad depends on the ad’s location, size, and runtime. While major metro ads can cost up to $25,000 for a four-week run, smaller market boards can cost as little as $1,000 per month.