By mbretous@hubspot.com (Martina Bretous)

Ever wonder who is behind those banner ads on the sites you visit the most? Or the Super Bowl ads we talk about for weeks after they’ve aired? The answer is media buyers.

When a brand gets a marketing budget, a portion of that typically goes to paid advertising. That’s where media buying comes in.

It doesn’t get much buzz in the marketing industry, but this process is responsible for the targeted ads we see today.

Let’s dive into this process of which so many of us are on the receiving end.

Whether they’re watching a TV show or scrolling through a website, media buyers get brands in front of their target market.

It’s not like social media where users come and find you. It’s an outbound strategy that is only effective if you have a well thought-out strategy. Rex Gelb, director of advertising and analytics at HubSpot, says one of the biggest mistakes brands make is not thinking through their marketing goals.

“Some ad placements might be good for one set of goals, but bad for another. Let’s say you’re an airline and your focus is impressions and awareness, rather than an immediate sale, you can buy a placement that is known to get cheap impressions,” he said.

Gelb continued,”Now, let’s say you’re a CEO who wants to promote a ‘letter to our customers.’ In this instance, what you’ll care about is cheap clicks. Buying cheap impressions, which made sense in the previous example, no longer helps you accomplish your goal.”

That’s why media planning is such an important step, as it helps you get the most out of your ads.

Nowadays, media buying is done in one of two ways:

• Direct buy – Media buyers forge relationships with publishers to negotiate ad inventory, e.g., working with a newspaper to have an ad placed in the upcoming issue.
• Programmatic buy – The buying process is done using automated technology.

Media Buying vs. Media Planning

Media buying and media planning fall into the same category but are two different processes. While media buying focuses on getting the most impressions from the right audience at the lowest cost, media planning focuses on the strategy behind the campaign.

During the planning phase, you determine what media will be most effective to reach a particular audience. So once media planning is complete, media buying follows. It’s also important to note that media planning isn’t solely for advertising, it’s for any media a brand puts out there.

However, in a small to medium-sized business, the job may be done by the same person or team.

How Digital Media Buying Works

With digital media buying, or programmatic buying, buying impressions is automated. The negotiation still technically happens but it’s done at a much quicker rate through open and private marketplaces.

The traditional approach, on the other hand, involves negotiations and relationship building with publishers.

There are three components to this automated buying structure:

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Source:: HubSpot Blog