Digital media buying is the process of purchasing online ads to reach a brand’s target audience. This can be done through a variety of platforms, such as ad exchanges or DSPs.
Professional media buyers have established long-standing relationships with different vendors, which allows them to get great deals on inventory. This can make a huge difference when it comes to cost and ad placement.
1. Targeted Audience
A primary benefit of digital media buying is its ability to target a specific audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. This allows businesses to reach more relevant customers, which in turn results in higher conversion rates and better ROI.
Digital media buyers are also responsible for tracking campaign performance and optimizing ads for better results. They can offer predictions about the potential cost of a campaign and help you set a budget that is appropriate for your promotional goals.
Because they bring a high volume of business to vendors, digital media buyers are able to negotiate better pricing for their clients. They may even be able to get you some extra media in the form of a discount or bonus.
2. Real-Time Bidding
Real-time bidding (RTB) is a type of programmatic digital display advertising. RTB takes place on a demand-side platform (DSP) or supply-side platform (SSP), and it allows buyers to bid on available ad impressions in real-time.
If a fashion company wants its ads to appear on beauty-related websites, it signals this intent to its DSP. In a split second, the system evaluates ad inventory on multiple exchanges and notifies the winner.
Using this strategy, marketing agencies can plan media buys in a proactive manner. They can secure ad inventory across a wide range of platforms, including desktop, mobile, and tablet, as well as formats like video and display. This enables them to reach the right audience at the best time and with the most relevant message.
3. Self-Serve
Digital media buyers help businesses understand their target audience and how to reach them. They also have the technical knowledge to optimize campaigns for improved performance.
With the advent of automated digital ad buying, it has become possible for media buyers to analyze campaign results in real-time and make adjustments accordingly. This allows them to deliver highly targeted messages to custom audiences and maximize their budget.
Media buyers often have a network of relationships that they can leverage to obtain value-added deals with vendors. They know how to negotiate rates and terms, and they’ve been in the business long enough to have a solid understanding of common industry standards. They’re able to get things like extra ad space or additional impressions that they wouldn’t be able to obtain through self-serve channels.
4. Automation
Digital media buyers work with agencies to help determine the best ways to reach their target audience. They often have a deep understanding of a brand’s promotional goals and are able to set a budget that will help them achieve those objectives.
They are also able to negotiate with vendors to get value added on top of what they’re paying for. Media buyers bring a high volume of business to their vendors so they are able to secure advertising inventory at a more competitive rate and often have the ability to tack on extra time or impressions to their agreement.
With programmatic buying, this negotiation process is automated through real-time bidding on a demand-side platform (DSP). This reduces the back-and-forth that was common with direct or manual buys.
5. Data
As media buyers work to plan and execute campaigns for their clients, they are also responsible for collecting data on the results. This information can then be used to optimize the campaign and improve the chances of it being successful.
Digital media buying allows marketers to track and measure the performance of their ads in real-time. This gives them a clear picture of how much revenue their ads are creating, compared to how much they’re spending.
This data can also help digital media buyers establish the right budget for their campaigns. They can then ensure that the ad appears at the right frequency, in front of the correct audience, and within the right context. By doing this, they can maximize the return on investment for their client’s advertising spend.
