So you’ve produced the perfect creative assets, but now you have to figure out where the ads will run. The Remnant Agency is an experienced media buying agency, focusing on TV, radio, billboards, and digital media buying.
While it may seem like a straightforward task, selecting the right media platforms, the right audiences, and the right timing all at the right price is both an art and a science. If done incorrectly, you could allocate too much budget to the wrong areas or not enough budget to the right areas, resulting in a dismal ROI.
Media buying involves identifying and purchasing ad space on channels relevant to the target audience and publishing ads during a time that best resonates with consumers. Media buyers can purchase advertising space from many sources, including TV, radio, print, billboards, and online sources, such as websites and social media.
Media buying is a critical part of any successful marketing campaign, and at The Remnant Agency, media buying is what we do best. We are an ROI-focused media buying agency that creates massive returns for our clients by buying unsold ad inventory. When media platforms have unsold ad slots, they will sell these opportunities at a fraction of the regular price to not miss out on any profits. In short, you can purchase considerably more impressions with the same budget.
Traditional media buying involves buying cable or broadcast media inventory on TV and radio as well as other real-world inventory like billboards and print media. Unlike digital media buyers, traditional media buyers can build relationships and negotiate with media reps to secure the best prices for their content.
As an experienced media buying agency, we have the experience, the relationships, and the insights necessary to establish a media buying plan that will put your brand in front of an engaged audience and produce a strong ROI for your campaign.
Through our industry relationships and remnant media strategy, we secure ad inventory for our clients at significantly lower costs. We have bought traditional media on some of the top channels and platforms, including:
Digital media buying is similar to traditional media buying but focuses entirely on digital platforms like CTV, streaming services, online radio, social media channels, search engines, websites, blogs, and more. While the two forms of media buying are similar, there are some significant differences.
One of the most significant ways digital media differs from traditional media buying is how ad costs are calculated. You are paying a fixed price for the ad space with traditional media. In contrast, the costs will fluctuate with digital media depending on various factors, including competition, optimization, and targeting.
We optimize campaigns towards your company’s unique KPIs, often focusing on metrics like t CPMs and CPAs when we buy both traditional and digital media. We excel at selecting the most suitable digital platforms to connect with your target audience at the lowest prices possible.
There are several different models that an advertiser or brand may choose to utilize when it comes to media buying. Here are a few of the more popular media buying models.
Full-service, also commonly referred to as managed service, is when a brand or creative agency engages a media buying agency to manage all aspects of the media buying. Full-service media buying appeals to companies that may not have time or resources to handle media buying internally. It’s also great for creative service businesses that are inexperienced with programmatic advertising or the media buying process in general.
In a self-service media campaign, the brand or creative agency maintains complete control over the entire process. The media selection, buying, and campaign management are all handled in-house. Typically, the media buyer will use one or multiple media platforms like Freewheel. Some larger companies prefer a self-service option because it can be more cost-effective than keeping an agency on retainer and offers greater transparency. Even so, some of the largest brands in the country rely on The Remnant Agency despite having multiple media buyers in-house. This is purely due to the rate structure and efficiency of remnant media. Oftentimes, we can get the same or similar inventory that a company is already buying for 30%, 50%, or even 70% cheaper than they are currently paying.
Direct media buying is the traditional option that involves directly reaching out to publishers, negotiating a price for ad inventory, and reviewing running times with the publisher. For example, reaching out directly to a magazine or website to secure ad placement would be an example of direct media buying. As it is relevant to Connected TV advertising, this would be buying inventory directly from the station, publisher, or provider rather than buying on a Demand Side Platform (DSP) like DV360 or The Trade Desk.
Programmatic media buying is when the buyer utilizes digital platforms and tools to purchase ad inventory. For example, when you run ads on the Facebook Audience Network, you are buying media programmatically.
Programmatic media buying software uses AI technology and algorithms that allow for features like real-time bidding, ongoing optimization, and enhanced tracking and metrics. Companies can bid on advertising space based on search terms, audience personas, audience interests, and more.
Programmatic media buying is advantageous in circumstances where the additional cost of hyper-targeting is tempered by increased results, like higher conversion rates or lower costs to acquire a customer. Additionally, programmatic media buying often makes ad serving simpler by allowing an advertiser to plan, execute, and place in one software program.
However, that simplicity and the increased audience targeting comes at a cost. First, there is no negotiating on advertising inventory space, which speeds up the process but gives less cost control. In fact, you are bidding against all other advertisers, which results in higher bids necessary to secure inventory.
Second, there are high costs associated with those additional data points. We often see advertisers get WAY too targeted, eliminating the possibility for scale. Finally, purchasing directly from publishers allows advertisers to save costs by eliminating the “technology fees” associated with buying programmatically.
Our media buying process takes place after careful planning and intensive strategizing. While our approach may change a bit for every brand we work with, this is the typical approach we take to media buying.
The most crucial part of any advertising campaign is having a clear, concise description of who your target audience is. Simply blasting your brand message across as many channels as possible is a great way to burn through your budget and produce less than stellar results. When an audience is clearly defined, you can strategically determine the best way to engage with it.
Once we identify a brand’s target audience, we can develop a strategy to ensure the brand message is placed in front of this audience in the places they’re most likely to consume content. We draw on a wealth of experience to determine the best channel or combination of traditional and digital media channels to bring your message to your audience.
After establishing our media buying strategy, we allocate your available budget across the channels. We can secure much lower rates through our relationships and remnant ad buying strategies, which allows our clients to reach more people and receive a higher return on investment.
Once we’ve allocated your budget and launched your campaigns, we measure and optimize your campaign performance. We continue to monitor factors like click-through rate, CPM, and cost per conversion to find the ads and the audience that works best for your brand.
We also continue to measure the success of your traditional media buys and will re-allocate budgets and discontinue any specific placements as necessary. As we do not have the same type of real-time reporting for these campaigns, optimization takes place over a more extended period.
After spending some time optimizing your campaign and budget allocation, it’s time to pour gasoline on the fire and scale. Once your ideal audience, ideal messaging, and ideal placements are locked in, we then begin to scale up your budget with the intent of scaling your ROI along with it.
It is common for people to use the terms “media buying” and “media planning” interchangeably; however, they’re not quite the same thing.
Media planning is the precursor to media buying, or the strategic process in which advertisers determine where, why, and how to launch an advertising campaign. When planning a media buy, you’re typically less focused on budget and allocation and more on audiences and channels.
Some companies work with media planners to determine the best platforms to pursue in a marketing campaign. They perform intensive research to determine how to achieve the goals outlined by the clients, meet campaign objectives, and determine how to spread the budget across various sectors.
Once a media plan is established, it is handed off to a media buyer. The media buyer is then responsible for allocating the budget and securing the ad inventory at the lowest cost possible. Usually, expert media buyers have built relationships with vendors and have an in-depth understanding of the marketplace.
There is no shortcut to effective media buying, and in most cases, it makes the most sense to engage an experienced media buying agency. We have worked with countless brands and businesses to increase brand awareness, drive conversions, and improve ROI through effective remnant media buying strategies and execution.
If you’re interested in learning more about our media buying services or how we buy remnant media, contact us today to schedule a free consultation.
The scale of traditional media is unrivaled across any other marketing channel. Experience that reach, ROI, and scale at a fraction of rate card pricing. We look forward to meeting you.
Remnant Media Buyers And Advertising Experts
The Remnant Agency is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt Agency.
