Development of a media plan for the company. How to create a media plan: step-by-step instructions with examples. Why can't you take someone else's plan?

The media planning process begins with studying the initial data - description of the product or service, audience, budget, deadlines, goals, etc. After this, the media plan itself is developed, which includes a number of documents. At the next stage, the media plan is optimized. Then the media plan is coordinated with the creative part of the advertising campaign. Next, the media plan is implemented, analyzed and adjusted in the context of continuing the current or new advertising campaign.

Thus, the media planning process can be represented as the following diagram:

Studying the source data

Typically, the initial data is formulated in the form of a brief - a short description of the technical specifications for the contractor. A media planner begins his work by studying this document. It analyzes the product (or service) presented, its target audience, budget, advertising period, as well as the goals to be achieved.

Thus, based on the information contained in the brief, all subsequent work will be carried out - the choice of advertising media, the number and size of advertising, specific dates and time periods.

Development of a media plan

When developing a media plan, they solve problems aimed at achieving their goals. Select the medium, place and time of advertising that allows you to reach the required number of target audiences a given number of times within a certain budget.

The media can be both traditional media and advertising media such as transit advertising, the Internet, etc.

When choosing an advertising medium, you also have to decide the issue of advertising placement: on television and radio - in a program or in an advertising block between programs; in the press - on a thematic or specific page, among editorial materials or in an advertising block, etc.

The location, size, time, number of repetitions, and intensity of advertising publications in specific media are determined separately, since each media has specific approaches to reaching the audience.

In order to imagine the entire complex of planned solutions as clearly as possible, they are drawn up in the form of a block diagram.

The media plan may include several documents, such as a brief, rationale for the media strategy, schedule, flow chart.

In addition to the main media plan, alternative ones can also be presented, calculated on the basis of other media, using a different media strategy, or with a reasonable deviation from the budget down or up.

In the process of media planning, the characteristics of an advertising medium (for example, television or newspaper) should be matched to the characteristics of a potential buyer of a product or service. The advertising medium’s audience should contain as many potential buyers as possible, while the cost of reaching them should be minimal.

In the process of choosing the best media, advertising distribution media are ranked according to the size of the target audience and the cost of advertising in them. In this case, you have to focus on the budget. The company simply cannot afford the best advertising medium.

The choice of media can be influenced by the specifics of the goals and objectives set for the media planner. There may be cases when the most effective advertising media in terms of reaching the target audience cannot provide the required frequency, influence potential buyers at a certain time, etc.

When choosing an advertising medium, sometimes you have to sacrifice the most suitable advertising medium due to the high activity of competitors. If it is not possible to compete with them, it is better to choose a medium where advertising will not be “killed” or crushed by competitors. But, of course, it is best to take a leading position.

It is important to pay attention not only to direct competition, but also to the so-called “noise” of a particular advertising medium. In a certain media, there may be so many advertising messages per unit of time or area that the new one will simply “drown” in the general noise. It is better to choose a medium with the lowest concentration of advertising.

Other factors may also influence the choice of advertising medium. Such, for example, as restrictions on advertising of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products in the media. Due to legal regulations, you may have to use less than effective advertising media or advertise on them at the wrong time.

When choosing an advertising medium, you cannot rely only on existing data on a particular medium. New advertising media are constantly appearing on the market. They may not be studied, but they are still very effective. In this case, you have to rely only on experience, intuition, and any indirect data.

In order to select the most suitable advertising media during the media planning process, it is necessary to know their specific features, disadvantages and advantages, and features of use, both separately and jointly, since modern so-called “mix campaigns” usually involve several advertising media at once.

It is important to understand that choosing even the most suitable media does not automatically lead to advertising success. Thus, there are at least five “different consumer characteristics that influence the effectiveness of advertising. These characteristics are of great value both for practical research and for developing a theory of the effects of advertising.

1. Attitudes in relation to the means of information transmission.

2. Features of using the means of information transmission.

3. Involvement while using the medium of information transmission.

4. State of mind when using a means of transmitting information.

5. The degree of interactivity of the information transmission medium.

Thus, the effectiveness of advertising in the media depends largely on the person himself: on his mental and physical condition, emotional state, predisposition to comprehend the information received, knowledge, experience, etc. The specific characteristics of each person determine the individuality of his reaction to the advertising information received.

Back in the 1960s, several sociologists conducted a famous study of the spread of a new drug (tetracycline): “They found the usual 5-shaped adoption pattern, but were intrigued by the short, compared to the adoption of hybrid corn in Iowa, period (17 months) of full adoption. adoption of innovation. The researchers found that interpersonal connections among physicians were more important to adoption rates than media messages such as pharmaceutical company brochures and medical journals. Doctors learned about the new medicine and some of its properties from the media. However, most of them used the new drug to treat patients only after talking with another doctor who had already used it successfully.”

reaching potential buyers;
ensuring the required frequency;
speed of target audience accumulation;
controllability of advertising display;
media value;
competition policy;
legal restrictions;
cost of advertising.

Reaching potential buyers

Obviously, the medium must provide advertising coverage in the same territory where the company's product is sold. At the same time, information should be conveyed to as many potential buyers as possible. Each advertising medium has its own level of coverage, while none of them can influence 100% of the audience.

An important coverage indicator is audience selectivity(audience selectivity). It indicates the ability of the medium to convey information to the target group of consumers with minimal coverage of the non-target audience (minimum “empty delivery”).

Also taken into account geographical flexibility media coverage (geographic flexibility). This indicator reflects the carrier's ability to cover certain regions where potential buyers are located.

When choosing geographic coverage, the problem often arises: which media to prefer - local (local) or national/network. It is believed that if you need to cover less than 10 cities, then local advertising placement will be more cost-effective. If there are more than ten cities, then national/network.

It is very important to have an idea of what type of audience rotation, those. how easy it is to “get” advertising into the same group of potential consumers.

Providing the required frequency

The advertising medium must be able to provide the required frequency of exposure to the consumer. For some advertisers, contacts within one day will be important, for others - within a week, for others - within a month.

For example, a weekly newspaper will not be able to provide several contacts with the target audience during the week, and a daily newspaper will not be able to provide several contacts during the day. Television, radio and outdoor advertising can reach the same audience several times during the day.

Target audience accumulation speed

An important indicator when choosing a media is its audience accumulation speed(speed of audience accumulation). The advertiser needs to know how quickly he will achieve the desired result with a particular medium, plus how much time and repetitions it will take to reach his entire potential audience.

For example, newspapers quickly gain an audience, magazines, on the contrary, very slowly.

When choosing an advertising medium, you should consider controllability of advertising display(advertising exposure control). This indicator determines whether the time at which a consumer sees/hears an advertising message in a particular medium can be controlled. On television and radio, for example, it is known when the video will contact the audience. But it is difficult to say when a person will read an advertisement in the newspaper.

Quality of information perception

Product characteristics may require a significant amount of information in advertising and, accordingly, consumer attention. The medium must be suitable for the type of information - rational (detailed) or emotional. Television and radio are more emotional, the press is rational. If on television you give a lot of complex detailed information in a short commercial, then it will be poorly perceived.

The quality of perception is affected by the saturation of the media with advertising and advertising “noise”. In those media where there is more advertising, it is more difficult to stand out. The indicator of advertising “noise” is called media clutter(media clutter). It represents the average number of advertisements an audience sees over a given period of time. The more ads, the more noise and the less effective each ad is.

Russian television viewers watched an average of 411 commercials per week in 2008.

Interestingly, advertising noise affects the advertising effectiveness of small and large companies differently. Thus, category leaders should be grateful to advertising noise, since it acts as their main ally. Dr. Robert Kent of the University of Delaware conducted a study of advertising noise and found that competing commercials reduced consumer brand recall by 25%, and the figure was even greater for lesser-known brands.

Competition policy

When choosing media, you can focus on those where competitors are already advertising. Apparently, there are definitely consumers there, and to a certain extent they have already been “processed” by specialized advertising. However, you will have to compete.

Where there are no competitors, you don’t need to spend so much money. But are there enough potential customers in these media?

When assessing competition policy, attention should be paid to the fact that a company may own an advertising medium or have some kind of business relationship with it, which determines the placement of its advertising in this particular medium.

Legal restrictions

When choosing advertising media, it is important to have an idea of what and where you can or cannot advertise. For example, according to the Russian Law “On Advertising” on television, the use of “creeping line”, the volume of advertising per hour, the interruption of certain programs by advertising are limited, the space in outdoor advertising is limited, for all media there are restrictions when advertising alcohol and tobacco products, etc. .d.

In addition to federal restrictions, local ones may also be introduced. Also, advertising carriers themselves can set their own rules. Thus, certain advertising messages that are recognized by the media as unreliable or misleading to consumers are often rejected. For example, some Internet sites limit the speed of changing images on a banner. Some media, even in the absence of a legal ban, do not publish advertising of alcohol, tobacco, or goods sent by mail at all. The media planner has to refuse such media, even if they have the most suitable audience.

In practice, a means that is often cheap in terms of reaching one client turns out to be inaccessible to the advertiser due to its overall high cost, i.e. I have to buy a lot of contacts at once.

When comparing costs, it is important to consider the discounts provided by carriers. Sometimes they can reach up to several tens of percent of the original price. Accordingly, the difference in cost will be very noticeable.

coverage - transnational, national, regional, local;
audience selectivity - low, high;
geographical flexibility - low, high;
audience rotation - low, high;
time of contact with the audience - constant, limited;
speed of accumulation of the target audience - low, high;
controllability of advertising display - controlled, uncontrolled;
quality of information perception;
attitude towards advertising - positive, negative, neutral;
perception of advertising - emotional, rational;
advertising “noise” - low, high;
competitive presence - high, low;
advertising cost - total cost, cost of contact with the consumer;
rating cost;
existing experience of effectiveness - your own, other advertisers.

Using all selected media with a large number of repetitions can achieve the main goal: “Ensure maximum audience coverage with an average frequency of contact with the advertising message of 3+.” If the budget does not allow achieving the required frequency, then you will have to abandon the most expensive (or expensive) media.

Selecting the main parameters of the media plan

It is also necessary to select the number and intensity of publications that allow you to achieve the established media planning goals.

The location, size, time, number of repetitions, and intensity of advertising publications in different types of media are determined separately, since each media has specific approaches to reaching the audience. So, when using television, to ensure the required frequency of contacts with the target audience, more repetitions are needed than in the press, etc.

Based on the selected parameters, perform media calculation of the plan(calculation of effectiveness), which evaluates how well the goals are achieved.

Planning large advertising campaigns, making decisions on the choice of media, coverage values, frequency, etc. - a very complex process. There are always many different options, huge amounts of information on advertising media (quantitative and qualitative composition of the audience, its rotation, duplication, cost, etc.). In addition to choosing parameters, it is always advisable to have a choice of several media plan options.

Due to the objective difficulties that arise when planning large advertising campaigns, specialists use special computer programs that significantly facilitate media planning.

Work on programs for media planning has been carried out since the early 60s of the 20th century. With the increase in the computing power of computers, more and more new parameters were taken into account. In the 90s, it became possible to model the market situation taking into account the influence of a wide range of marketing factors on sales volume. For example, the consulting service Media Marketing Assessment (MMA) takes into account the following data to analyze the activities of its clients:

weekly GRPs sorted by time of day and ad size;
product distribution channels;
the number of stores in which the product is sold;
the price of the product and similar products of competitors;
weekly GRP of main competitors;
dates and characteristics of sales promotions (this also includes various coupons, discounts, etc.);
weather report (average weekly temperature) if this affects the sale of the product;
seasonal trends."

Such models make it possible to predict market behavior depending on the volume of advertising and its saturation, and to “test” the market more quickly and economically. This eliminates the need for lengthy and expensive marketing testing.

For each media, you can use a separate program that takes into account its specifics.

As a rule, each program has its own database and cannot effectively calculate media mix plans.

Computer software, which includes the program itself and updated data, is quite expensive - tens of thousands of dollars. Naturally, not all advertisers can afford such amounts. In Russia, only leading advertising structures are equipped with modern computer media planning programs.

It is important that the data used is accurate. However, today in Russia the circulation of many publications is not audited, and data on media audiences in a number of regions of the country is simply not available.

To work with complex programs, specialists of the appropriate level are needed. In many regions they simply do not exist.

But when there are both programs and specialists working with them, it is important that workers who are passionate about computer technology do not forget about common sense, which, unfortunately, happens.

Plotting a graph

Based on the selected parameters, an advertising schedule is drawn up: exact dates are indicated, and on television and radio, also hours and minutes. Accordingly, a separate advertising schedule is built for each medium.

The placement time must be justified and correspond to the specifics of sales of the product (service), the specifics of the perception of advertising by the target audience, as well as the specifics of a particular advertising medium.

The graph allows you to more accurately see the distribution of advertising over time, both for individual media and for all media together.

Creating a Flowchart

In order to imagine the entire complex of planned solutions as clearly as possible, they are drawn up in the form of a block diagram. It also allows for further optimization of various interrelated parameters.

The flowchart may include:

media names;
size of the target audience;
placement schedule by dates;
placement schedule by day of the week;
placement schedule by time of day;
message size;
cost of messages;
discount;
discounted price;
total number of messages;
total cost of the campaign;
total number of contacts;
reach received;
average frequency;
cost of contacts with the target audience (CPT);
media rating;
transmission rating;
overall composite rating (GRP), etc.

Rationale for media strategy

You can achieve your goals in different ways: using certain advertising media, one or another frequency of advertising, one or another message size. Of course, each approach in each situation will have different results. The best result is achieved with the most effective choice of media strategy - a comprehensive choice of advertising medium, frequency, intensity, size and time of advertising.

When choosing a media strategy, it is important to rely on common sense and remember that media planning is not a science in the full sense of the word. There is too little data to refer to when trying to find the best solution. Most strategies called “best” cannot be objectively called such: they can only be considered best in relation to a specific situation. However, strategists talk about this so much with great conviction that their words are taken at face value. On the other hand, many experts know from experience what works best and use this knowledge when making decisions. In these cases, they use their experience as a form of research.

The choice of a particular media strategy must be justified. The media plan must justify:

budget distribution by time and advertising media;
choice of advertising media;
number and intensity of advertising placements;
time of placement of each advertising message;
advertising size, etc.

Factors in choosing one medium or another may include:

compliance with the advertising strategy (rational, emotional);
compliance with the creative strategy (color, shape, dynamics, etc.);
specifics of consumption of a product or service (seasonality, cyclicality, life cycle);
budget;
quantitative and qualitative indicators of the audience of the advertising medium;
cost of advertising;
competitive indicators, etc.

In addition to the selected media, the justification may also include a list of those rejected for one reason or another. This document may also contain answers to questions that may arise from those approving the media plan, as well as those taking part in its discussion and decision.

A media strategy is developed over a long period of time in accordance with the overall advertising and marketing strategies. Based on it, plans for individual advertising campaigns or individual stages are developed (flights) advertising campaign. The development of media solutions for each individual period of an advertising campaign is part of tactical media planning.

On the one hand, the rationale for a media strategy is a document that, by definition, should be rich in digital data; on the other hand, this is a document that should be understandable to the customer of the media plan - a person who is not a specialist in the field of media planning.

Making a media plan

The media plan may include several documents, for example:

brief;
justification of the media strategy;
schedule;
block diagram.

Media plan optimization

After the first version of the media plan has been prepared, it is reviewed to determine compliance with established goals and objectives. It may be possible to increase advertising effectiveness by changing the number of outlets, advertising sizes, etc. In addition, the same reach and frequency metrics can often be achieved in different ways.

Coordination

After the media plan itself is ready, it must be coordinated with the creative part of the advertising campaign. Perhaps copywriters, designers and other creative workers, in the process of creating visuals and text for selected media, will offer winning advertising options that will require changes in the media plan. For example, the duration of videos, the size of the original layout for the press, the form of transit advertising, etc. will change.

Implementation of the media plan

A fully prepared media plan is handed over to advertising placement specialists, the advertising space procurement service, partner organizations that purchase advertising space, or directly to the appropriate media.

There are several ways to purchase advertising space - media buying. They are largely determined by the specifics of sales of specific media - television, radio, newspapers, etc. Thus, the media themselves can sell advertising opportunities using their own advertising service (internal media sellers), and specialized advertising agencies (external media sellers). A combined scheme of internal and external media selling is also possible.

Media sellers can own full, exclusive rights, only advertising without sponsorship, only sponsorship, limited rights to advertising in certain types of programs.

Media sellers can receive payment for their services on a fixed, commission or combined basis. With a fixed payment, the seller pays the carrier a certain amount and keeps everything that he receives additionally, in addition to what was agreed upon, for himself. In unstable markets, this scheme is usually disadvantageous for one of the parties. If the advertising market grows, then the carrier receives less; if it falls, then the seller suffers losses.

With a commission payment, the seller receives a certain percentage of each sale of advertising space.

In the case of using a combined scheme, the seller assumes obligations to sell a certain minimum of space, and can receive not only a percentage, but also bonus amounts when sales volume increases.

When selling through an external media seller, the medium, as a rule, uses a more qualified workforce, reduces sales costs, and has the opportunity to sell its services in a package with other channels (or publications, etc.), which benefits advertisers.

However, none of the external sellers knows the capabilities of the advertising medium as well as internal sellers. When selling through an external seller, a certain efficiency and flexibility, including organizational and technological, are lost.

In order to conduct media planning and media placement most effectively, many advertising companies hire special employees to purchase advertising space - media buyers. These people know all the nuances of working with advertising sellers; they can do a lot simply through personal connections with representatives of advertising carriers. Companies with internal specialists save money, receive more up-to-date information, have a certain flexibility in decisions, and reduce the time it takes for financial flows to pass through.

The use of external media buyers can be profitable due to the very large discounts that a specialized agency receives from the media it represents. External media buyers may also have more information about new media. As a rule, the best professional personnel work in companies that are external media buyers.

You can reduce the price by purchasing space in new media, which are usually undervalued due to the lack of accurate data, as well as in new programs, in new services of old media, which may gain good ratings. You can reduce the cost by purchasing a large volume of advertising and receiving discounts. You can use barter schemes, sponsorship, exchange, when, after purchasing a large volume, part of the advertising is exchanged with other advertisers.

The media buying process itself is quite complex and lengthy. Often, though, “a lot of people think it’s all about going to fancy restaurants to negotiate multimillion-dollar deals,” Claggett complains. “In fact, buying requires detailed study and planning.” At Ralston Purina, the media buying process begins in January with an analysis of market conditions and, according to Claggett, includes the following steps:

Preparatory phase

Analysis of market conditions and price forecast.
Notifying the brand team and agency of deadlines for brand needs.
Formulation of goals and objectives for efficiency.
Systematization of brand requirements.
Estimation of general corporate TV budgets by parts of the day.
Systematization of the total requirements for the desired package.
Loading assessment data on the target audience into the computer.
Establishment of criteria for qualitative assessments.

Research phase

Discussing new pilot scripts with major Hollywood producers and network programming directors from the West Coast.
Discussion of available research results and feedback on new programs.
Checking possible schedules.
Marking of shares of past impressions by time period, by week.
Communicate general requirements to each network.
Establishing a time schedule for negotiations.

Programming Evaluation Phase

Attending the meetings that each network holds to announce its program.
View all footage of new pilot projects.
Discussion of future storylines with employees from the network's program editorial offices.
Discussion of possible changes to the schedule.
Meets with Ralston's major network agencies to develop corporate share estimates for each quarter.
Loading estimated time shares and viewer data into the computer.
Determining the best gear combinations by analyzing all possible or available packages based on expected cost.

Offer and bargaining phase

Informing networks about desired software and price packages.
Receiving price offers from networks.
Identify recent schedule changes.
Computer analysis of quantitative and qualitative aspects of each plan.
Evaluate packages against original objectives.

Negotiation completion phase

Informing networks of plan weaknesses.
Evaluating networks' revised proposals.
Making amendments to the time period and placement schedule in its final desired version.
Receiving final price offers from networks.
Discussion of different budget plans in each network.
Final assessment and final decision on the overall corporate package.
Determination of contract terms with each network.
Signing of finalized packages on each network.

Analysis of the implemented media plan

After the implementation of the media plan, the client is provided with a media report, which documents the facts of the release of advertising messages. Accordingly, you must have:

on-air certificates from TV channels and radio stations about the release of advertising messages;
copies of printed media with advertising placed in them (newspapers, magazines, etc.);
photographs of transit advertising objects indicating the date of shooting, certificates from the owners of objects (boards, cars, etc.) with the start and end dates of placement, etc.

The media report also includes an analysis of the implemented media plan (post campaign), assessing the extent to which it was possible to implement the plan:

goals;
objectives (coverage, frequency, cost per thousand, etc.);
scheduling evaluation;
media efficiency;
other indicators.

The media report should be as complete and clear as possible, describing both successfully solved problems and those not solved completely or partially solved. The reasons for the discrepancy between the media plan and the results should be clearly explained.

Creating a media report may require some time, since the advertising campaign can be quite long. However, intermediate media reports can be created that analyze the progress of the advertising campaign on a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual basis.

The speed of creating a media report largely depends on the ability to monitor the output of advertising messages in certain media. Results of the effectiveness of a media plan can be obtained from both standard and special studies.

Both the fully completed media plan and its tested part can be analyzed. Post-analysis of media placement gives the advertiser the opportunity to find recurring factors in order to further establish general trends and principles, as well as “points”, by acting on which the effectiveness of advertising can be further enhanced. Analyzing the test results after publication, the advertiser comes to an understanding of what he needs to change: the advertisement itself or the advertising medium in which it was placed.

In order to know exactly what to do in a given situation, an advertiser, using “post-testing,” must receive answers to questions similar to the following:

how much has the number of people with greater awareness of the product, service or company itself increased after advertising;
how much has the number of people who understand the properties, advantages and benefits of the product increased;
how much has the number of people predisposed to purchasing a product increased;
how much has the number of people contacting us about the product increased;
how much the number of people who bought the product increased;
other.

If there is a lack of information, the advertiser makes up for it using various surveys and tests. Thus, you can find out how much the memorability of a product brand or company name has increased by interviewing representatives of your target audience. Questions can be very different - both direct and indirect, but such that the answers to them can be used to judge the effectiveness of advertising.

An example of similar questions from a company selling computers:
1. Have you heard anything about computers that are delivered to your office or home the next day after ordering?
2. Where can I order such computers?
3. Are there any guarantees for the use of such computers?
4. Which computers are best in terms of price-quality ratio?
5. Which company sells computers that are delivered the next day after ordering?
6. Are there any additional benefits from purchasing these computers?
7. Will residents of our city order such computers? Why?

You can use specially conducted research to determine the results of an advertising campaign. Standard research conducted by specialized companies on an ongoing basis will also be useful.

Firms can also analyze results based on their own data. Thus, in search of answers to pressing questions, it is advisable for an advertiser to collect, summarize and consider data on the number of visitors to his store (office, etc.), the number of customers, cash turnover (daily, weekly, monthly, annual), etc. .; compare several of your advertising campaigns with each other, your ads with competitors’ ads, advertising of a certain type of product from the current year with the same advertising from last year, etc.

For example, an advertiser, having settled on several publications as a result of preliminary selection, advertises in each of them if possible. Then he compares the results (taking into account the possible influence of any additional factors) and only then, simultaneously using third-party data and his own experience, makes the final choice of publication for a specific advertising campaign.

In order to obtain information about the direct impact of advertising on people, which led to a visit to the store (office), advertisers usually resort to analyzing requests for a product after advertising. In this case, each seller or distributor of the product is usually given a copy of the published advertisement and a customer log. The copy of the advertisement indicates the date of its publication and the publication in which it was published. When publishing several advertisements, each of them is assigned its own serial number.

Or advertisement U1 was published on April 14 in the newspaper "Morning", advertisement U2 - on April 20 in the newspaper "Morning", B1 - on April 16 in the magazine "Business", B1 - on April 18 in the newspaper "Evening", B2 - on April 21 in the newspaper " Evening”, B3 - April 25 in the newspaper “Evening”. Etc.

All information regarding the client who contacted the seller is entered into the customer log:

name and profile of the company (name, type of activity, age of the individual) or other information from which you can get at least a first idea about the buyer;
the name of the product or service in which the buyer is interested;
source of information (from which advertisement in which publication).

The subsequent very simple analysis of the customer log will show which ad in which publication received what kind of requests and from what type of buyers.

It is just as easy to collect information using coupons distributed through the press or direct mail. In this case, publications publish advertisements with coupons that encourage potential buyers to fill them out and send them to the advertiser.

You can sort coupons cut from different publications by the different addresses indicated in them, as well as by special illustrations or special codes.

Testing in some publications is often used for subsequent placement in others. Thus, advertising can be tested in local inexpensive newspapers and, having chosen the most effective option, placed in national ones. Or test an ad in one publication and, using the most effective option as a basis, place advertisements in several newspapers in the future.

Testing on the Internet has its own specifics. Log files are a good starting point for determining where to test banner ads. Log files keep a record of every visit to the site, and you can access them through your own server. Use them to find domains and sites that are currently providing you with traffic. It is logical to assume that the best of these sites will be suitable for placing an advertising banner for your organization.

Selecting sites can be accompanied by certain difficulties. Start by testing those sites that attract your target audience the most and offer a lower cost per thousand clicks. Once you know which sites are the top performers, you can expand your testing to include both the “first stage winners” and a number of other files from the categories that the top-performing sites belong to.

All of these fairly simple testing techniques can be available to relatively small advertisers. Even the smallest retailer can assign one of its employees to interview customers, sort coupons, or consolidate customer log information.

Larger advertisers often resort to testing based on studying not just one indicator, but several. For example, they immediately analyze the number of customer requests after advertising, the number of those who remembered the brand of the product, and the number of those who remembered it positively, etc.

But even the most expensive post-market research and advertising testing has its limitations. For example, people often unknowingly distort data: they name the wrong message about which they are asked, or indicate the wrong advertising medium in which the ad appeared. At the same time, they are sure that they are telling the truth - this is how the information is fixed in their minds. Therefore, it is not uncommon for buyers to name a publication or channel as a source of information in which a certain advertisement has never been placed at all.

When testing, you can use a control market. To do this, two approximately identical markets are selected: one advertises, but the other (control) does not. After placement, the sales results are compared, thus establishing whether the advertisement influences them.

Very complex testing systems are often used: Alvin Achenbaum proposed using the so-called chess technology. It includes three main elements.

1. Division of the entire economic space into separate groups of markets. These markets are randomly selected and must be equal in size (for example, three groups of broadcasters from the 10 regions described by Nielsen).

2. Using different strategies when working with groups. For example, the level of investment in one group will be 80% of current costs, in another - 100%, and in a third - 120%. Ekhenbaum also suggests using local media - newspapers, local television and magazines - as advertising media for testing. Thus, there will be three media plans for each spending level.

3. With the help of appropriate audit services, results are monitored throughout the year. The keys to the success of this plan are representativeness, tight controls, and ease of evaluation (since Nielsen-specified regions are used).

It is believed that the optimal number of markets to be tested is at least five to six per region. Some advertisers prefer to use the largest markets in testing, while others consider advertising in medium-sized markets sufficient, especially since testing in large markets is too expensive. However, it is easier to estimate sales volumes in a large region than in a few isolated markets.

The tested market should represent not only a certain composition of the audience, but also the information preferences corresponding to it, both in terms of channels for obtaining information and in terms of the time of its receipt.

There should not be a monopoly of the tested media in the tested market. It is believed that the minimum number of speakers present is the average market number for the country.

The tested market must be sufficiently isolated from neighboring ones, from which advertising “leakage” may occur. It may affect consumers and skew test results. In order to counter the “leakage”, advertising is placed in local media in programs or sections with a clearly local informational character.

According to experts, to test the market it is necessary to ensure 95% coverage of its territory.

It is important to understand that when testing on control markets, there is still no guarantee that the target market will react in the same way - there are too many different interrelated factors.

When choosing tests, it should be borne in mind that many researchers do not find an obvious connection, for example, between measures of memorability and persuasiveness, between memorability and sales. Therefore, you cannot rely on one single result - all tests must be comprehensive.

Using the average values of not one, but several placements will help reduce the risk of distortion of test results. And the advertiser should always compare the results obtained with common sense.

Media plan correction

After analyzing the implemented media plan, its correction is carried out, aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the remaining part of the advertising campaign or for a future advertising campaign with similar initial data and parameters.

For example, the media plan provided for achieving 50% coverage of the target audience, but only 40% was reached. The analysis showed that the reason for the failure to complete the task was an incorrect approach to the selection of media. The future media plan will be adjusted accordingly.

1 William Claggett is vice president and director of marketing and advertising services for Ralston Purina.

Very few business owners understand the importance of advertising in the development of a company. Some of them are planning steps to place information about their own company, thinking about where and for what period to do this and how much such advertising will cost.

And not every marketer is able to tell the manager that these important steps need to be taken for successful business development. You need to have not only rough sketches, but also a full-fledged media plan. We will consider an example of such a development in this article.

The concept of a media plan

A document containing detailed information about what activities a company is going to take for its own advertising is called a media plan. This kind of “schedule” necessarily indicates such data as the number of shows and their dates, channels for broadcast, expected costs and estimated results, and methods of advertising. The objects of media placement are radio, television, press, and the Internet.

The example of a company's media plan, which is given below, and any other, is based on the results of media planning - making forecasts based on research and calculations.

In this context, it is necessary to mention such a term as strategic media planning. This is a global calculation of an integrated approach, focused on the overall management of the process and obtaining effective advertising with the desired result - attracting as many consumers as possible to purchase a product or service.

The history of media planning began in 1964. Then the American advertising specialist Roger Barton tracked and proved that advertising campaigns clearly planned according to certain steps give more effective results than those done “from the shoulder.”

Everything is in order

Don't think that creating your own example of a media plan for an advertising campaign is an easy and quick process. On the contrary, it is labor-intensive and time-consuming work. It is quite possible that its development will require several specialists and a couple of days, since about a dozen consecutive stages will have to be considered. Missing even one of them can be an irreparable mistake.

To get started, you need to create a table in which all known and available advertising channels are entered, as well as methods suitable for a specific company (first column). This advertising example of a media plan will become a reference book in the future that will have to be consulted systematically. Ideally, of course, such a table should necessarily include a list of about 100 advertising channels and methods.

Next, planned indicators are entered into the columns, which are analyzed during the advertising campaign. Later, the actual results obtained are entered here, and then the effectiveness is analyzed and operational adjustments are made.

What does a table plan look like?

advertising channels with the desired target audience;
format in which advertising materials will be placed on resources;
coverage - reach - the estimated number of people who will see the advertisement at the planned cost;
CPT - cost per thousand - the sum of the cost of contacts per thousand people;
frequency - the number of contacts of advertising materials with one person during the entire campaign;
cost - the amount of money that will have to be paid for the planned advertising;
priority - an icon that determines the potential for a company of one or another type of selected advertising.

This is just an example of how to write a media plan. The number of columns in the table can be expanded at the discretion of the advertising campaign planner, if this data will help its effective management. Information is never superfluous.

Why can't you take someone else's plan?

Many may think that it is not worth the trouble and spending money on a staff of advertising specialists. You can simply take an example of a media plan for someone else’s business and start applying it to your own. But such apparent simplicity is critically deceptive and most likely such a would-be businessman will only lose the funds invested in advertising. Why?

Because each business has its own specifics and those options that work for some companies turn out to be completely useless for others. Depending on the focus of the company's activities, there are different target audiences, and different methods and means of advertising. Therefore, you can use someone else’s product only to understand how to create a media plan, look at an example, and learn how to design it. And then apply this knowledge at the stage of creating your strategy.

For example, it is practically useless to advertise the launch of a new cryptocurrency in a newspaper about gardening. It is unlikely that a large number of readers of this publication will be interested in a digital coin.

Simulation of the situation

Before you start planning an advertising strategy, you need to model the current situation and conduct a market analysis, look at examples of advertising media plans from similar companies. You need to understand that the driving force of business is competition. Therefore, the company whose approach in the fight for the client will be better and more effective will win.

As a result of the analysis, the following is determined:

what product is in short supply;
why the market is oversaturated;
what the client needs from a particular company;
what competitors offer in this segment;
in which direction the market is moving;
which proposals are in priority.

In addition, at this step you need to analyze your example of a media plan - the company and the product that it offers to the client. These may include delivery conditions and speed, internal content, technical specifications, sales methods, and more. Thus, this stage is a fundamental point for developing further plans.

Setting goals

At the next stage, they determine for what purpose the media plan currently being developed is needed specifically by this company. Many business owners are surprised to note at this step that their goal is not to attract new customers, but to retain old ones or return departed ones. As an example, an event media plan will look completely different than a sales promotion advertising plan.

But any goal contains subgoals, and they also need to be defined - discount coupons or cards, loyalty programs and more. In the future, this will help to specify the points of the media plan.

In order for setting goals not to be useless, their results must be expressed in specific indicators, which then need to be strived for. That is, you need to plan not to attract new customers, but to get an additional fifty buyers of the product. Such a specific task will oblige you to achieve the planned result and it will be clear what you need to move towards.

Search for target audience

Any specialist understands that for an advertising campaign to be effective, it must be seen and heard by the target audience. And for this you need to make a portrait of her - gender, age, interests and more.

If it is difficult to reach the maximum necessary clientele, then you should limit yourself to describing the most profitable buyer for the company. This will cost a little less, but will also be less effective.

Advertising costs and sales strategy

When planning your advertising budget, you need to take into account market prices for various services. For each goal and its subgoals, possible costs are outlined approximately six months in advance and monthly - for this, various advertising platforms are explored. This will help you decide on possible expenses. Example: a media plan for contextual advertising, due to its specifics, will cost several times more than the same advertising, but in print. It's all about goals.

As for sales, the larger the territory covered, the more funds will be required. This is due to different consumer demands in different areas, which should also be taken into account by the media planning strategy.

There are two approaches here:

offensive - the product is launched into a new territory or competitors’ area;
defensive - the proposal is promoted in already conquered areas.

The second option is used most often, as it is considered guaranteed and less risky.

Strategies and timing of impact

An important component for promoting any product is the impact on the client and his response. There are three strategies in this regard:

Constant - systematic intensive advertising over a long period of time without sudden dips or surges. It is planned for a period of three to six months.
Pulsating - constantly broadcast, but with varying intensity (for example, in the case of a seasonal offer). Usually ordered for one month.
Focal - periodically occurring spasmodic advertising.

The most widely used is the focal strategy, since short-term plans are easier to make. But the most effective is constant - it allows you to evaluate the results and make optimal decisions.

Advertising channels

The effectiveness of an ongoing advertising campaign largely depends on the advertising channel. His choice is made not on the basis of personal preferences or other criteria, but on the basis of an analysis of his target audience, the competition existing there and price.

When developing a sample media plan, both offline and online channels are considered.

It is also necessary to think through slogans and speech or visual messages - something that will make the client come as quickly as possible. It is desirable that they be different for different sites. The easiest way is to form them from subgoals and goals.

Release of advertising materials, analysis

This is the final stage towards creating a media plan. It includes the definition:

duration of the advertising campaign as a whole;
duration of broadcast on each channel separately;
the frequency with which materials will be published;
channel connection order;
the duration of one story.

If it is clear that a channel does not bring the expected result, then a decision is made to close it, even if it is in the plans for the next six months. Or it replaces the advertised offer, and then the effect is analyzed again.

Conclusion

It is important to remember that a well-planned advertising campaign is effective. It will allow you not only to assess your financial capabilities, but also to clearly understand what goal you should move towards.

When calculating a media plan, you need to take into account all possible advertising channels and the audience for which they work. This will help you clearly determine where and what offers should be broadcast in order to achieve the greatest effectiveness in attracting customers, which is the main goal of strategic media planning.

Having created an advertising campaign, you cannot leave it to chance; you must constantly monitor its results. Since the market is not a frozen substance, but is constantly moving according to its own laws, advertising campaigns need to be optimized to achieve the planned goals.

A media plan is a forecast of results for paid advertising tools. The plan can be made by sources, types of campaigns, categories, advertising formats, and so on. The detail depends on the goals that the specialist faces.

For example, my goal is to achieve payback for Google Advertising, and there is no point in making a media plan by category. You need to break down the tools you use. If the goal is to make $2,000 in profit from the Dresses category and $3,000 from the Children's Boots category (with different margins and conversion rates for each category), then you need to drill down by category.

The media plan shows how the specialist wants to distribute the budget between sources/categories, how much traffic is forecast to be received, and its cost. Plus - in numbers, which KPIs will most likely be achieved.

A media plan is drawn up for the client so that he can see how and where his money will be spent, and what the expected result is. The client pays in advance and wants to ensure that he has made the right choice and budgets will not be wasted. The specialist draws up a plan for himself to understand the approximate results he is likely to achieve and sell his work to the client.

The main postulate of media planning is that the media plan should not be perceived as 100% truth. It's just a plan.

The final result depends on many factors:

changes in search competition;
real volume of search demand;
differences between actual and forecast rates;
the amount of traffic for low-frequency keywords that Google Ads Keyword Planner does not show and more.

Therefore, it is impossible to clearly predict the amount of traffic received, the price, the number of transactions, and income.

Why is there no universal method for media planning?

There are many reasons why it is difficult to predict the results of your work.

First and foremost is the lack of data. Google Advertising and Yandex.Direct do not disclose information about who participates in the auction, what share of traffic is purchased, at what CPC and in what niche.

In addition, the PPC specialist does not know the plans of the client’s direct competitors. Imagine, tomorrow a major player comes to the auction, he has a large budget, and he places high bids on keywords. The auction is heating up - the cost per click is rising. The opposite is also true: if a major player withdraws from the auction, the cost per click will decrease sharply.

Google Advertising in the Keyword Planner provides statistics on search queries, but in exact accordance. Although campaigns typically use broad match with a modifier. Therefore, in order to understand how much traffic there will be in the end, you have to calculate the coefficients. But there is no guarantee that this coefficient will be correct.

An example of how to make a media plan

We decide what our promotion goal is. Based on it, we derive our KPIs.

If the goal is to receive 20,000 hryvnia in income and keep ROMI over 100%, then our KPIs are the number of transactions, income and ROMI.

When it comes to branding, our KPIs are reach and impressions. Important: the list of KPIs is not complete, it is given as an example.

We determine the detail. Do we and the client have enough information on sources or do we still need to clarify the types of campaigns? Perhaps break it down into categories? We always start with the right goal.

If your goal is branding and sales, make two tables - you will have different KPIs and, accordingly, indicators that you will demonstrate to the client.

We define indicators. There is no universal solution here. I share those that I use in my media plans. But you can change these columns as you wish. The main thing is that they display the existing funnel: how many users went to the site, how many achieved the set KPIs.

In my example, the goal is to make a profit and here are the indicators I use to calculate how much I achieved the goal:

Indicators I use when my goal is branding:

Decide which column you will count from. If you know your goal is profit, forecast and ask for a budget. In this case, start with the last column of indicators. If you were given a specific budget, but did not give a specific goal, then start with the first one (budget).

There is no wrong way. There are known and unknown variables.

Let's look at an example. The initial condition of the media plan is a budget of $2000. The client wants to know what profit he can expect ( We take the calculation of the first table as a basis).

We determine which variables are fully visible to us: the transaction ratio and the average bill. We see the data in the analytics system and estimate what indicators we can achieve.

Let's move on to the analytics system. For most projects this is Google Analytics. True, large clients have their own characteristics, and they may use other analytics systems.

Let's check what data we have on these indicators. It’s better to look at the dynamics by month, since we need to track the trend: whether the conversion rate and average bill is growing or falling. If there are no statistics on the context or there are few of them, you can focus on similar channels. For example, when analyzing the search context - for organic content. True, then the accuracy of the forecast decreases.

When performing a comparative analysis of channels, we must take into account data in the context of a specific region. The fact is that in this case we can launch contextual advertising only in Kyiv, and the data on the “organic” channel will be from all regions of Ukraine. We also look at specific categories - often contextual advertising is launched only for part of the categories. In general, we look and compare channels under equal operating conditions.

We looked at the indicators, found out the trends, and draw a conclusion. Let’s say that contextual indicators take exactly six months. The context practically does not generate income, since a number of mistakes were made during setup. This means that for the first month you need to take the conversion rate value a little higher than it is, but less than in organic.

It’s hardly worth expecting a wow effect in the first month of work. Campaigns cannot be launched perfectly right away; they need to be optimized and improved. But there are exceptions. We take the coefficient of 0.40% as the value, and the average check is $30.

We return to the table and begin to fill it out.

*Predicted CPC (cost per click, or cost per click) - historical data for an existing account. If we need to achieve a reduction, then we reduce it by the required percentage.

**The client names the margin; if he cannot provide such information, then there can be no talk of calculating ROMI.

Just don’t set sky-high goals, since the decline in indicators will occur in several stages over the months, and not immediately in one month. Break achievement of certain indicators into periods. Let's say we want to reduce the CPC to $0.20. This means that this month we plan to receive a CPC of $0.40, next month $0.30, and in the third month it will already be $0.20.

It all depends on how much you need to reduce and how this can be achieved. Each niche is different and, alas, there is no universal solution. There is only intuition and conclusions from the practice of a specialist. Next, we make three options for the media plan:

Optimistic, where everything is fine and we achieve our goals.
Pessimistic, where it is difficult to achieve real results.
We derive something average and from here we get the optimal plan.

It is usually difficult to immediately make an optimal media plan, since you always want to inflate the numbers and show a beautiful picture. There is also a temptation to underestimate the numbers in order to ultimately please yourself and the client.

The finished media plan can be given to the client: either the optimal option, or three at once. The choice is at the discretion of the specialist.

Important: I built a plan for a project that has at least some historical data. What to do with clients that have never run a context? Take data on the topic based on your experience. But the accuracy of such a media plan is low - there are many unknown variables. After all, we don’t know the behavior of users on the site and how it will convert.

I told you how I make my media plans. They're not perfect. The downside is that this method is not suitable for cooperation with clients who do not have any statistics. But I hope even this not ideal method will help you in your work.

conclusions

A media plan is a forecast of results for paid advertising tools. The detail of this plan depends on the goals that the specialist faces.
A media plan is made for both the client and the specialist. The client sees what he pays for. The specialist draws it up to show a plan with approximate results for the client and to see certain guidelines in the work himself.
The media plan should not be taken as 100% truth. It's just a plan. It is impossible to predict the exact amount of traffic received, transactions, income and other indicators.
It is impossible to develop a universal methodology for creating accurate media plans, since specialists do not have complete information. Some are hidden by advertising systems and anonymous, some are external factors in the form of the arrival or departure of large competitors from the auction.
I recommend making three options for a media plan: optimistic, pessimistic and optimal. And give the client either only the optimal option, or all three.
A media plan based on historical data will be much more accurate than a media plan for a project without statistics.

An example of a media plan developed by Mosoblreklama specialists: we create a file in Power Point and attach separate calculations for each advertising channel to it in a letter. The media plan reflects general numbers and coverage.

The effectiveness of an advertising campaign depends on the correctness of the media plan. Media plan includes:

selection of advertising media, for example, outdoor advertising objects, banners, billboards, etc.; publications in the press, articles on the Internet, creating your own websites, releasing commercials on television, audio advertising on radio, etc.;
selection of the most successful places and times for displaying advertising materials for each specific organization;
information submission forms;
budget that can be spent on an advertising campaign

First, you need to create a clear structure of the media plan. This will be a list of all advertising media, a schedule for posting videos, articles, airing advertisements, and installing outdoor advertising objects. Then you need to describe each of the stages in detail so as not to lose sight of important details.

Adjusting the finished media plan

The approximate media plan must be adjusted taking into account specific organizations, regions, the type of goods being advertised, the goals that need to be achieved during the advertising campaign, and the budget allocated for this procedure.

Media planning should answer the following questions:

how many people are planned to be reached during the promotion;
In which publications will advertising materials be placed?
In what period of time will launching advertising have the greatest effect (for example, when selling soft drinks, you need to launch advertising before the hot season);
How long will the advertisement last and how often will it be repeated?
How will advertising media intersect with each other, in what order will they be issued;
In which areas should advertising be shown?
How much do you plan to spend on each type of advertising?

A media plan is a completed document that defines all stages of an advertising campaign.

Example of preparing a media plan

Suppose you want to conduct a comprehensive advertising campaign, involving both outdoor advertising and your own PR service. Let's consider an example of a media plan that supports publications in the press during the period of placement of the main advertising message on billboards:

When choosing a publication, you should take into account that the larger the audience, the higher the coverage. It is best to choose specialized magazines and newspapers that are relevant to your activities. Which journalists will agree to cover the advertising campaign itself (provided it is original), who needs an additional informational occasion into which you need to “fit” your creative.

Evaluate the format of the publication, frequency of publication, circulation, social characteristics of the audience, consumer preferences, cost of the magazine or newspaper, quality of printing, reviews of the effectiveness of advertising in this publication.

Having thought through all these details, you need to create a table that will indicate

amounts,
publication time
ad display timing
counting the target audience that is expected to see your ad

You should leave a column indicating the results after publication, reflecting an increase in the influx of buyers, a neutral attitude towards this type of advertising, or a decline in consumer activity. If there are not many publications, you can conduct monitoring yourself. If there are a lot of publications or you are lucky and the advertising campaign has gone viral, then you can order a one-time study using the professional service "Medialogy"

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