What is a media buyer in digital marketing?

As the internet becomes an increasing presence in our lives, digital marketing is a great technique to promote your company in a measurable way. Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, media buying is an effective way to broaden your reach and increase exposure for your brand. Don’t know where to begin? We’re here to help!

Overview

Media buying, in the simplest terms, is the process of buying ad space on various platforms to promote your company. Even better, ad buying doesn’t have to break the bank. Media buyers don’t purchase ad space randomly; they strategically target channels that reach people with similar demographics as their target audience. This is crucial to ensure their advertising reaches potential clients in the most cost-effective way possible. By utilizing a variety of media buying outlets, you can further your marketing reach by increasing brand exposure and ultimately driving revenue. Even better, there are a number of both print and digital platforms that your company can utilize.

Types of Media Buying

Media buying has been popular long before the era of the digital world and the expansion of network media. Digital marketing has only increased the number of ad buying platforms for companies looking to reach their target audience, but print marketing remains a prosperous outlet.

Print: Local Ads

Before digital marketing, media buying was popular in local newspapers and magazines. While there is an increasing presence of ads in the digital world, local advertisements are an ad-buying technique that is still beneficial today.

A great way to engage in media buying is through local advertisements in magazines. Many big-name print magazines offer discounts to companies looking to run local advertisements. This is an affordable way to advertise your company in print publications that reach people who match your target audience. Even better, the majority of magazine readers are paid subscribers, increasing the chance that readers will see and engage with your advertisement.

Digital: Website Advertising

As highlighted earlier, digital media buying is a great way to market your company without dipping too far into your advertising budget. Website advertising is just one example of a great way to take your marketing digital, and there are a few ways to be successful. The key is buying ad space on websites your target audience frequently visits to connect with them. Start by creating a relationship with your media buyer, and review the critical sectors of your marketing campaign: who is your target audience, how long do you want to run the ad for, how much are you willing to spend, etc. From there, you can look into the digital tactics used to advertise on the internet, such as programmatic buys, or direct buys. Again, it’s important to strategize and communicate with your team and media buyer to run the most effective campaign possible. Media buying, when done right, has the potential to take your company to the next level.

Importance of Media Buying

Media buying is crucial to marketing your business successfully; it’s also important to do it right. Amazon Ads highlights how “strategically purchased media can impact a campaign’s success” and that “ads must be placed in the right locations and at the right times and frequencies so that the right audiences see the ad.” Therefore, it’s essential to identify your target audience and work closely with your media buyer to craft the perfect campaign and get the most value for your ad. When this happens, your company can gain exposure and drive sales.

What is a Media Buyer?

Similar Job Titles:

Media Planner

Print, radio, television, film and the internet are the most obvious media platforms where products and services are sold. These various different types of media are media buyers do there work.

Media Buyers help drive growth and success for organizations on digital platforms. Their role is important as it is an integral part of the development and management of having an effective digital strategy as well as effective media buying.

What does a Media Buyer do, typically?

The main job of media buyers is to buy media space. They watch various media channels, assess how advertisements are performing on different platforms and media channels. Then, they make the important decisions about where to place specific advertisements and campaigns. Their daily responsibilities may include:

• Working cross-departmentally to align campaign strategies and goals across the organization
• Providing ongoing actionable insights into campaign performance to relevant stakeholders
• Defining, measuring, and evaluating relevant media KPIs
• Building out media buys for various ad platforms and overseeing the day-to-day execution of media
• Overseeing and managing the overall budget for paid media
• Conducting in-depth keyword and website research, ad grouping and audience targeting
• Maintaining knowledge of industry best practices and new technologies

A Media Buyer is not:

A Media Planner

Media buyers are heavily involved in research and identifying the right target demographic for specific campaigns. Media Buyers work closely with media planners to devise media buying strategies which will achieve the right level of coverage.

Important metrics for a Media Buyer:

• ROI
• On-site conversions
• Cost & click performance
• Impressions/total reach
• Website traffic

Media Buyer Salary

US Based, employer-reported data for a Media Buyer:

• 25th Percentile $55.7K
• Average $69.1K
• 75th Percentile $83.3K

Bonus copy for your Media Buyer job description or job ad!

Copy the following text and paste it into your own job description, or, into our downloadable template in the section that looks like this: <INSERT JOB DESCRIPTION COPY FROM BLOG POST HERE>

As a Media Buyer at <company XXX>, you will get to do more than decide which platforms should be used for advertisements and campaigns. You work closely with Media Planners and marketers while contributing to the growth of the company via media strategies. More specifically, you’ll get to:

• Work cross-departmentally to align campaign strategies and goals across the organization
• Provide ongoing actionable insights into campaign performance to relevant stakeholders
• Define, measure, and evaluate relevant media KPIs
• Build out media buys for various ad platforms and oversee the day-to-day execution of media
• Oversee and manage overall paid media budget
• Conduct in-depth keyword and website research, ad grouping and audience targeting
• Maintain knowledge of industry best practices and new technologies

Visit The Ultimate Guide to Hiring Digital Talent page for more digital job descriptions!

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