A media plan in advertising is a crucial document that outlines all necessary data for executing an advertising campaign effectively. This comprehensive guide helps in strategizing and allocating resources efficiently. The structure and components of a media plan can differ based on the advertiser’s needs and the planner’s expertise. However, there are several fundamental elements that every media plan must include to be effective. These cornerstone elements ensure that the campaign reaches its target audience and achieves its objectives.

What is a media plan in advertising

A media plan is a document that contains all the data that may be needed during an advertising campaign.

The structure and components of a media plan may vary depending on the needs of the advertiser and the expertise of the plan maker. But there are several cornerstone elements that must be present in a media plan to be considered as such:

1. KPI of the campaign, the measurable result that should be achieved by the campaign as a whole and its individual elements for different target audiences.
2. A strategy that meets the set KPIs (formats, targeting, advertising buying method, etc.).
3. A forecast of the main indicators of the media plan (prices, budgets, coverage, KPIs, etc.).
4. Description of the target audience, based on the conducted analysis, which is used to propose a specific set of targeting to achieve the goals and reach the target audience.
5. A selection of all messages, creatives, texts, and links that will be used in the campaign.

All of these elements can be written in a note on the phone, and this will be an adequate media plan, if, for example, it is the first Instagram advertising campaign for a coffee shop. But when an advertiser aims to reach tens and hundreds of thousands of viewers, the campaign needs a thorough approach.

How to make a media plan

In this article, we will share our own approach to media planning, exploring what happens in media planning within a media planning advertising agency. We’ll delve into the intricacies of media planning in advertising and provide insights into our unique strategies.

Preparation for creating a media plan

The media plan is a logical extension of the marketing strategy and the strategy of the advertising campaign. Accordingly, they need to be drawn up before planing specific actions for the campaign. If you apply for a media plan to an agency, you will also be asked to fill out a brief — tell about the company and specify the result you want to get. For in-house teams, the briefing is optional, but not superfluous. If you create an internal brief in the company, it will help to collect the wishes of the people involved in the task and determine the correct vector of the team’s work from the very beginning.

Input data analysis and marketing research

At newage. work on the media plan begins with the analysis of data provided by the client and our own marketing research. Our analysts review previous activities in the client’s advertising accounts, examine information in their Google Analytics, browse the site, and read information about the company’s products, etc.

After that, we collect additional information. This may include:

• data from the State Statistics Service (or similar organizations in other countries),
• sociological reports,
• market research from leading companies,
• statistics from international organizations,
• search data and trends, etc.

A person who knows statistics can easily tell, for example, the number of young vegetarians in a particular country based on open data. Adding information about the income of the population, it is highly likely to determine the number of potential buyers of premium segment vegan products. And information about competitors already operating in the target market will clarify the analysis.

In this way, we explore anything that may be needed to create an advertising campaign plan.

Formation of an advertising campaign concept

Based on the previous information, we create a plan structure. At this stage, we choose the parameters that meet the set goals:

• which formats to use
• which geotargets are most appropriate,
• what will be the target audience of the campaign,
• how to segment the target audience, etc.

We also select specific audiences and targeting in the advertising accounts that can be useful for a specific campaign.

How to segment the target audience

The approach is individual for each campaign, but we mostly use the See-Think-Do-Care approach. It divides the audience into levels depending on the intention to convert. In a media campaign, this can be a division of audiences into:

• hot — remarketing, customer match, search campaigns, custom intent, etc.;
• warm — audience of interested buyers, special audience based on interests, audience based on specific interests, etc.;
• cold – anyone who matches the portrait by interests, life events, YouTube channels, URLs, etc.

We use different targets for each segment, depending on the client’s profile. The portrait can be based on data from the brief, or on what we see in advertising accounts and web analytics. For example, if a client sees men as their target audience, but the data shows that it is appropriate to show ads regardless of gender, we argue our point so that the client can make an informed decision.

We usually do not change the client’s portrait, but only specify it. In the article “How to Find Your Target Audience And Not Waste Your Advertising Budget”, we described how to find your target audience and make the best use of your advertising budget.

Forecast formation

This is the main stage of planning. Here we work with the main predictive parameters of the media plan:

• budget,
• prices,
• frequency,
• CTR,
• share of video viewed to the end,
• conversion rate, etc.

These are the basic parameters that are required for any media plan of each client.

How to plan advertising costs

To predict how much a particular impression will cost a client, we rely on data from several sources. The first is the previous advertising activities of this client. If there are none, or they are irrelevant (for example, the client did not use a certain tool, or did not advertise a certain product category), a combination of methods is required.

1. Expert evaluation. It is based on the specialist’s knowledge of the market. This can be data from other clients, competitors’ cases, information on the cost of advertising similar products, etc.
2. Predictive indicators of advertising offices. They indicate a reference point, but have certain errors; the price of real advertising in most cases differs from the forecast in the ad account. You can take the forecast as a guideline, but not trust it 100%.

Bid forecasting requires detailed study because the cost even within the same audience can vary depending on geotargeting, ad format, season, and many parameters that must be taken into account. We check all of them and make an offer on what bid to set.

We use this approach not only for bids, but also for other indicators that we have to forecast.

How to plan a budget for advertising tools?

This question is individual and has no universal answer. The distribution depends on:

• campaign goals,
• the total budget,
• positions among competitors,
• seasonality,
• client’s wishes.

Sometimes the last criterion goes against all the others, and we propose changes to the campaign.

When we analyze the client’s wishes and his brief, we critically evaluate the realism of the desired. For example, if a client wants a performance campaign with a sales result, but insists on video advertising, we offer more appropriate tools that are better suited for sales (search advertising and Performance Max). And if the video ad is already ready, we recommend using it as a secondary format with conversions optimization — for example, Video Action on Google, or a campaign with conversions optimization on Meta, etc.

How to choose ad formats

When choosing advertising formats, we focus primarily on KPIs and the brand’s market position.

When choosing a platform, we focus on the campaign goal and the availability of a relevant audience for the client. B2B advertising is more likely to find a business owner on Linkedin than on Spotify.

Strategy Description

This point is important for us as an advertising agency because we have to present our work to the client to agree on further implementation. But in-house marketers should not ignore this point either.

Advertising campaigns that require a media plan usually involve many people to whom it is necessary to explain what they are going to do. Therefore, preparing to present the media plan to the team, it will help.

What tools do we use to create a media plan?

When collecting data about the audience, we focus on official sources of authorities and international organizations. It is desirable to check them – to compare information from different sources and, if it differs, to find out where it is true.

Since we have worked a lot with Ukrainian clients until 2022, we have our own calculator for the number of audiences in Ukraine. In it, an analyst can select demographic parameters (gender, age, region of residence) and see the number of people who match the query. Our calculator is based on data from state statistics, TNS, GDE, and FB, which we are currently refining with information about the impact of the war.

We also have a selection of all available audiences on Google, Bing, TikTok, and Meta. Thanks to such automation, our analysts can choose to target faster than specialists who enter each office separately.

Conclusion

1. A media plan is one of the most important documents in the preparation of an advertising campaign. It describes the KPIs, strategy, target audience, and specific steps to be taken to execute the plan.
2. Preparing a media plan is a complex process that requires collecting a significant amount of data, analyzing it, and predicting the effect that the planned campaign will have.
3. The main stages of preparing a media plan at our agency are the following:
   • briefing and data collection,
   • analysis of information about the client, market, competitors, etc.,
   • formation of the concept and strategy of the advertising campaign,
   • forecasting the effect of the campaign,
   • planning the cost of advertising and allocating budgets between tools,
   • description of specific advertising formats.