.

Media Buying for ROI

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Wed, 5/29/2013

Media buying on behalf of your business can be a challenging task, to say the least. While you should definitely know all the options available to you, depending on the size of the business and the scope of what you are trying to accomplish, you may not be able to do everything!

I was just talking with a prospective client who asked for a package based on $3,000, spread over a three month period. He then went on to tell me that in addition to cable TV, he was also going to be doing radio, billboards, and online advertising. I asked and he told me that his overall budget was $20,000, again spread over three months.

Once I explained to him the investment needed for one billboard for one month, as well as radio for a three month period, he understood that he needed to make some choices, and that he couldn’t be doing everything.

The critical choices then are to make sure what you select all reach your target market, that they complement each other, and that they can be sustained for the life of your campaign. Buying one billboard for one month, newspaper ads for two months and cable TV for another two months will not provide the results you are looking for over a three month period of time.

Although most small businesses do not have the budget of big advertisers, they can still develop a campaign that reaches their target customers effectively. It may be that over the first three months you utilize one combination of media and over another three month period you use another combination. Possibly you can then rotate the two schedules until you decide which is more effectively providing you with results.

What are your challenges when it comes to media buying? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…