Buying in advertising: how the purchase of media placements works

In modern marketing, it is important not only to come up with a bright creative, but also to competently bring it to people. Buying in advertising is a managed purchase of impressions and advertising spaces on different sites, which helps the brand get the maximum result from each budget. This approach combines analytics, negotiations and accurate planning, and in many agencies it is called the international term media buying.

The word "buying" means a set of actions to choose sites, calculate the cost of contact and conclude agreements with media owners. The specialist’s task is not just to buy out the impressions, but to assemble a working system from them, which leads to an increase in sales and recognition.

Several key tasks are solved through baing:

• Achieving the necessary coverage among the target audience
• Contact frequency control
• Price reduction for display and for action
• Traffic quality control and compliance with deadlines for the output of materials

Without such a system, the campaign turns into a set of scattered placements, where it is difficult to understand which channel brought the result, and which one only spent money.

In large brands and agencies, individual teams are engaged in procurement. Their composition includes media planners, analysts and managers in charge of negotiations. It is on their side that there is market expertise, knowledge of formats and inventory volumes.

A separate role is given to the buying direction: the buying division analyzes the offers of sites, checks statistics and helps to choose the best conditions for the brand. This is especially noticeable in large markets such as Moscow, where competition for users' attention is high, and the cost of a mistake in budgets is significant.

In order for the procurement to be transparent and predictable, it must be built step by step. The typical structure looks like this.

• Data preparation and analysis. At this stage, statistics of past campaigns are collected, the audience’s media habits are studied, and possible channels are evaluated. It is here that it is determined which formats and places of showings are suitable for the objectives of the brand
• Planning and media strategy. The team will agree on goals, budget and period, distribute it between online channels and offline, think over a calendar of launches
• Negotiations and procurement. Specialists discuss prices, discounts, bonus impressions, agree on technical requirements and book a net. At this step, there is a key purchase of inventory from selected sites
• Placement and control. When the campaign starts, it is important to check the compliance with the plan: volume, audience quality, tracking correctness. If necessary, the media plan is promptly adjusted
• Summing up. After the end of the media wave, the actual indicators are analyzed: coverage, cost of contact, contribution of each channel to applications and revenue

This step-by-step scheme allows you to understand in advance how many contacts will be obtained during this period and what results are expected from each block.

Modern baing is based on a wide range of media. Depending on the brand’s objectives, the following are used:

• Banners and special projects on the Internet
• Videos in online cinemas and social networks
• Advertising blocks in mobile applications
• Outdoor digital screens and  classic shields
• Integration in thematic projects and content

Through this combination of placement, the brand can simultaneously work with  different levels of the funnel: from the formation of knowledge to the stimulation of a specific action.

Media planning determines the strategy and overall set of channels. Creative develops visual images and texts. Baying is also responsible for ensuring that these elements appear at the selected sites and in the declared volume at the necessary time.

That is why the description of campaigns is often divided into three blocks:

• Strategy and goals
• Creation of materials
• Professional procurement and screening management

Without the last block, even the strongest creative may not reveal the potential: it simply will not often enough to get to the right people.

A competently built buying gives the brand several tangible advantages:

• Budget savings at the expense of favorable conditions and specific volume planning
• The ability to quickly transfer impressions between channels and strengthen strong platforms
• Transparent reporting on each campaign and an understandable contribution of advertising activities to sales
• Accumulation of an experimental base that simplifies the launch of the next waves

In practice, this means that the company receives a managed tool for working with media, and not one-time transactions on individual resources. Thanks to this, buying becomes an important part of the marketing infrastructure and helps the business to confidently scale communications in advertising.