The Complete Guide to Media Buying and Advertising

Let’s face it, Advertising/media buying can get pretty complicated.

After all, advertising is a multi-faceted practice. It can take many forms, covering multiple mediums yet the goals are the same. Media buying, as advertising is also known, is typically there to attract leads and or make sales.

It’s there to get the conversation started.

There are hundreds, if not thousands (maybe even millions) of unique demographics out there. Which is why it’s essential that you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

So let’s make sure you’re totally clued up on advertising before you go off on your own. And who knows, maybe the perfect ad campaign will present itself on the other side!

Every noteworthy business will run advertising, be it digital, audio, print, televised or a mix of all four. It’s an outbound tactic used to capture the interest of those looking on.

So, what is media buying?

It’s the means of getting your name out there to grow your base, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

In this post we’ll be covering everything there is to know about media buying. This includes the various types of advertising available, advertising vs marketing, the history of advertising up to the present day, and so much more!

What Is Advertising/Media Buying?

Advertising is a communication tool at its core – a promotional activity that carries brand values to audiences around the globe.

The size of your audience can range in size. Some companies have thousands of eyes on their products and/or services. International companies, in particular, will run ads in countless languages across multiple markets.

Others operate on a local level, and are more interested in attracting people who live in close proximity – such as bakeries and garages.

When choosing the right advertising path, it’s important to understand the various avenues a company/brand can take.

Here’s a quick rundown:

• Digital Advertising
• Traditional Advertising
• TV Advertising
• Radio Advertising

Understand that advertising is constantly evolving. Businesses and brands continue to find new and innovative ways to showcase their products and services.

We’re more connected now than we’ve ever been, which could be seen as a positive and a negative. From a general advertising standpoint, it couldn’t be better!

Your ads can travel a lot further and you have the ability to track all of them using the power of the internet and the various advertising tools you now have at your disposal.

The term ‘media buying’ is pretty self-explanatory. It refers to the purchase of buying ads in the above mentioned mediums.

Advertising Vs Marketing

The differences between advertising and marketing aren’t as clear as you might think. It’s partly why many of you will be glued to this next section.

Lines between the two are often blurred. However, both share common ground in that they share the same goal: to generate interest in specific markets.

To make this advertising vs marketing a fair fight, we first need to talk about marketing.

So, what is marketing?

Marketing is all about identifying, predicting and meeting customer needs head-on. An effective marketing strategy can pave the way for future growth, maximising revenue in the process.

There are two different types of marketing:

• Business To Business (B2B)
• Business To Consumer (B2C)

Like advertising, marketing uses various communication tools to convey messages.

In the past, marketing relied heavily on mail, television, print and the simple telephone to spread the word.

Somewhere along the way, technology came in and changed everything – digital advertising changed marketing for the better.

Two-way communication became the norm, allowing marketing heads to track their work in real-time (something we’ll cover in our history of advertising section)!

This was only amplified with the debut of social media.

If advertising is the action, then marketing is the methodology behind that action.

You see, advertising is actually a major part of marketing – whereas marketing doesn’t need advertising to thrive and be successful!

Advertising, for example, is usually limited to paid media. It’s a lot quicker out of the gate compared to marketing, but this also means it has the potential to fizzle out faster too.

Marketing, on the other hand, impacts paid, owned and earned media. An effective marketing strategy could benefit all avenues at the same time.

Let’s take a quick look at the differences between the three:

• Paid Media – With paid media, a company would typically pay a publisher to run communications. This covers most of the digital advertising opportunities we’ve touched on above (i.e. digital advertising and social media advertising).
• Owned Media – Owned media covers the various channels owned by a brand or business. This includes blogs, corporate social media pages and general PR.
• Earned Media – This type of media is different in that it revolves around external communications via interactions with a third-party. Reviews in magazines, or tags/references through social media are all examples of this.

Marketing controls how a company advertising their products or services through paid media. It dictates how a business communicates through media it owns. And finally, it affects how a business interacts with third-party entities.

In short, advertising is a one track practice, and it needs marketing to be utilised effectively. Furthermore, advertising typically requires help from a host or service. With marketing a lot of what you can do can be done from the comfort of your own site!

So, who is the victor in the big marketing vs advertising match?

As a content marketing company ourselves, we’d probably lean more towards marketing. The convincing power of free marketing techniques through social media and SEO have proven more than useful to brands looking to get out there.

If you’d like to learn more about our way of thinking, and how we can help you be a major player in your industry with the right content, speak to Canny.

For startups, you ideally want to put a marketing strategy in place before you go advertising anything, so there’s that.

These companies could go bust before they even get off the ground by running ads with no marketing foresight behind it.

Still, the answer depends on the type of business you are.

History of Media Buying/Advertising

To appreciate how far we’ve come, let’s take a quick look back at the history of advertising.

You can date back the history of advertising to 4000 BCE. Yep, it really goes back that far. The tradition of painting on walls wasn’t just to tell stories.

Advertising on something known as papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. In fact, some of the earliest ads known to man where left on this makeshift paper.

A far cry from the digital advertising of today.

Bamboo flutes were used in Ancient China to sell sweets – some would call it candy – to people of all ages. This was back in the 11th century. Later, signboards featuring simple calligraphy were used to promote a variety of goods.

Europe had a similar glow up in an advertising sense.

In the middle ages a lot of people couldn’t read. To remedy this, town criers would announce where you could buy fresh fruit and advertise a variety of other services.

You can find a compilation of some of the earliest town crier advertising in Les Crieries de Paris, a poem written by Guillaume de la Villeneuve in the thirteenth century.

Trademarks only came to being around 4,000 years ago. Clay seals bearing unique images were found in India, dating back to around 1,300 BCE. Sigils and other hallmarks were applied to various high-value goods in medieval times.

The timeline of the history of advertising is vast. Although, if we’re looking at the origins of media buying as we see it today, we need to travel back to the 1830s.

News back then was considered a luxury item, bought by the fortunate despite being around four pages in length. In New York City, a newspaper would cost 6 cents an issue. That was, until Benjamin Day started selling his own newspaper for a single penny.

He made the majority of his money by selling ad space inside his newspapers. Back then, this idea would be considered novel. In the 21st century, newspapers are full to the brim with advertising!

Some even place ads on the front page for maximum visibility.

And the magazine advertising lane is pretty much the same.

Radio Advertising Changed The Game

We can’t talk about the history of advertising without mentioning the influence of radio advertising in the 1900s.

Prior to the 1920s, people had very little in the way of entertainment. Phonographs and movie theatres only appeared towards the end of the 20s, and with it, came a whole other level of media buying.

Radio and radio advertising blew up by the 1920s, following the launch of the first commercial radio station. Sales of radios actually tripled by 1924, mainly due to the fact that the content you heard over the airwaves was 100% free.

Not even president Herbert Hoover could stop the rise of advertising via radio:

“It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service, for news, for entertainment, for education, and for vital commercial purposes to be drowned out in advertising chatter.”

Little did he know that this was only the beginning.

The Advertising Boom Of The 50s

The 1950s arrived, and with it came the rise of television. TV advertising changed the game forever when it was introduced. Adding a visual element to media buying only increased its convincing power and reach.

In 1951 alone TV advertising had already earned $41 million in revenue. And by the early 1960s, around 90% of households had a TV in the living room. This only caused revenues to jump even higher.

Marketing firms went through what can only be described as a golden age of advertising during this period. A period known for popular ad campaigns from the likes of Polaroid, Coca Cola and countless tobacco companies.

The self-titled ‘Mad Men’ of Madison Avenue benefited greatly from this sudden shock to the system. More so when television switched from black and white to colour fully.

The end of World War II almost definitely played a part in this shift to TV advertising. Thrift-based consumerism was over, replaced by advertisers pushing customers to buy, buy and buy again.

This boom would set in motion the current media buying space as we know it today. TV advertising continues to be one of the main lanes for selling products and services in the modern day, seen by millions!

The Modern State of Media Buying

Information sharing would receive yet another boost following January 1st 1983, the recognised birthday of the internet. Computers back then were blocky, heavy and could barely string a sentence together when ‘talking’ to other systems.

Fast-forward to 1994, the year that a new company by the name of Yahoo! invented something known as ‘the search engine.’ Digital advertising took off, starting with banner ads that would run down the sides of webpages.

Clicking on these banner ads would take users directly to the product site. Ads like this are second nature to those born in the internet age. But in the early 00s, this was seen as a technological marvel.

It was slow to load back then, sure, but the ability to run advertisements on a computer screen 24/7 had aspiring advertisers more than excited.

Digital advertising in the modern day is a lot more sophisticated. It’s a lot clearer today, in more ways than one. In the literal sense, digital ads are a lot smoother thanks to state-of-the-art graphics.

It’s also clearer for advertisers from a backend perspective, given they can measure responses in an instant using certain programs. Media buying in the modern day is a lot more data-driven compared to the 1950s, generally.

There’s a lot more money going towards media buying too. Last year, the US spent around $240 billion on advertising.

For context, ad spend in the 1950s was a lot lower. A 1-minute TV ad would cost between $10,000 to $20,000. Today, businesses spend up to $120,000. Some even pay a lot more depending on the time the ad runs and the programs it’s situated around.

The Influence of Albert Lasker

Many consider Albert Lasker the greatest ad man of all time. Not to mention a founder of modern advertising/media buying.

The man introduced the idea of salesmanship in print advertising. A concept that has stuck around ever since, shaping the foundations of advertising in other areas.

And print was only the beginning.

Lasker was always intrigued by the methodology behind advertising. It was only when he met John E. Kennedy, that he began to see it as an exercise in competition. He would actually hire Kennedy, a former policeman, as his main copywriter.

“The product that will not sell without advertising, will not sell profitably with advertising.”
– Albert Lasker, Advertiser’s Digest, Volumes 12-13 (1947)

The two would apply this principle to their first project (The 1900 Waser Co. project). Within four months of running their first ad their advertising budget doubled. Six months later, the two were part of one of the largest advertising firms in the US.

It wasn’t just print advertising he had a hand in crafting either. In 1926, Lasker applied his feelings towards the practice in radio advertising, ushering in a new era of media buying.

Albert Lasker plays a big part in the history of advertising. He’s also one of the main reasons why Americans love orange juice, thanks to his work on the Sunkist Growers account in 1910.

The man had a mind for advertising, and should be considered a founding father of sorts.

Neuromarketing

If you’re an advertiser yourself, the odds of you knowing about neuromarketing are pretty high. After all, neuromarketing can be found just about everywhere in the modern media buying space.

Companies like Hyundai, PayPal and Cheetos have all dabbled in neuroscience marketing techniques in the past.

But what is neuromarketing exactly? Neuromarketing is a brain-based approach to how marketers can target specific demographics in their campaigns.

In other words, marketers use neuroscience to study how our brains work and how we make decisions in everyday life.

Many refer to neuroscience as neuromarketing as it tends to cover modern evaluating tools compared to those used by early practitioners. In the past, EEG and fMRI tools were used to measure brain activity when exposed to certain stimuli.

Modern neuromarketing tools can examine everything from facial coding to eye-tracking to identify trends in human behaviour.

Francisco Muñoz-Leiva, Janet Hernández-Méndez and Diego Gómez-Carmonac, through neuromarketing, found that a tourism ad received more attention on Facebook compared to other sites.

Their study took the same ad and placed it on a hotel blog, TripAdvisor and Facebook. Using eye-tracking technology, the study found that consumers spent more time focusing on the ad on the popular social network as the site was a lot less complex than the others design-wise.

It could seem manipulative, but some have an alternate perspective. Roger Dooley, author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing and an expert in the field says:

“Neuromarketing isn’t inherently manipulative, rather, it is about understanding people’s real needs and wants. With that knowledge, marketers can develop better products and less wasteful advertising campaigns.”

It’s like we said, modern media buying is a lot more data driven. Only neuromarketing does take it to another level.

Media Buying: Standing Out Is Difficult

The internet has brought consumers and brands closer together. Unfortunately, this has led to an oversaturated market where businesses are forced to compete with one another for the attention of customers.

Think about it. You could create a company tomorrow and compete with other equal-sized brands in the space.

Simple, right?

Well, not really when you consider how hard it is to stand out, especially when entering markets with established names sitting at the top of the mountain.

Navigating a crowded market in a media buying sense has never been more difficult. Modern advertisers all have their own approach, but emotion appears to be what sells in the internet age.

Studies have shown that consumers have stronger connections with the brands they interact with. Consumer Thermometer found that 64% of women and 69% of men have felt an emotional connection with a brand.

In a way, the brands they buy from are an extension of themselves in line with who they are as people.

Emotion sells, which is why you see so many TV advertisements come from an angle that merges real-life situations with real-life solutions.

In other words, media buying done right!

Brands lean on this heavily when structuring advertising. Tone of voice, imagery and branding all play a part in this emotional journey.

Apple showcases emotion in most of its advertising. The branding itself is overtly simplified and it tends to blend perfectly with the lifestyle of its customer base.

Modern brands have transcended.

They’ve become an extension of our identity, which is something you need to keep in mind when creating ads of your own – depending on the type of company you are, that is.

We’ve touched on what advertising is and how far it’s come over the years. Now we’re going to look at the wonderful types of advertising you can utilise when creating ads for you and your business!

What are the Different Types of Media Buying?

Advertising has come a long way since its initial inception. Variety is the spice of the media buying life, it would seem.

Traditionally, advertising is split into four unique branches. With these branches there are individual subcategories that cover different areas of note.

These branches aren’t set either. Technology continues to push the boundaries of what is/isn’t possible with advertising.

You’ll know what we mean in a moment.

Below we’ll cover each branch of the media buying tree in great detail.

Let’s dive in.

Digital Advertising

Advertising on a digital platform is easily one of the best ways to get your work seen. This is because digital advertising is everywhere. Just anywhere with a screen, basically.

Billboards and bus stops now have a digital edge, too, acting as a slideshow of sorts – flicking through multiple ads every 20 seconds or so.

Here are the subcategories of digital advertising:

• Display – Display advertising usually appears on third-party websites, in the form of banners and squares. There are multiple types of display ads. Remarketing ads, otherwise known as retargeting ads. Personalised ads that target specific demographics. And Contextually targeted ads that tend to rely on keywords to function.
• Social Media – Running ads on social media has been known to appeal to larger sections of people – those that fit in your particular demographic. Influencer marketing is technically a part of social media advertising, too, as it involves paying someone to promote your product or service.
• Native – Native advertising blurs the lines a lot when it comes to digital advertising. Native were designed to blend in amongst standard content, mostly on social media (Instagram and Facebook, in particular). Native ads are often pitted against display ads as opposite ends of the ad spectrum.
• Search – What is search advertising exactly? In internet marketing, search advertising involves running spots on search engines. Type anything into Google or any other search engine and you’re more than likely going to see ads appear at the top of the page. Search ads can also appear on web pages.
• Video – Video marketing is a very popular subsection of digital advertising – maybe even the most popular. Advertising via video has been known to boost conversion/engagement rates, and it encourages users to share content on their own pages when posted on social media.
• Email – Email marketing is one of the oldest tricks in the book for advertisers. With email marketing, businesses can send ads/messages to a dedicated group of individuals via newsletters and other retention marketing strategies. You can use it to promote content, or use it as an outright sales tool.

Unlike some of the other advertising branches, digital advertising will continue to evolve as time goes on. Virtual reality is looming, and with it comes a brave new world tied to media buying.

Remember, Facebook owns Oculus, so there’s no telling what sorts of advertising opportunities will present themselves at a later date!

Traditional Advertising

Otherwise known as physical media buying, traditional advertising covers everything you see in the real world and can touch – think print media.

Digital advertising, although it looks real from your phone, still doesn’t exist in a real setting, unfortunately.

Traditional advertising is what started it all. Some would argue that it’s been replaced by its digital counterpart.

Still, there’s certainly a place for it as people aren’t spending all of their time indoors at a computer/phone screen!

Here are the subcategories of physical advertising:

• Newspapers/Magazines – Running ads in newspapers and magazines is not a new concept, but it works! Typically, ads used in a magazine or newspaper are only a column wide. However, in some, advertising can cover an entire page. For example, fashion advertising in stylish magazines will take up dozens of pages.
• Flyers – A great promotional tool for highlighting events and so much more. Flyers come in a range of sizes. Some actually fold to add additional information. Flyers can draw attention to everything from events to products.
• Billboards – Billboards are great at directing attention to onlooking drivers. Many appear in cities, although some can be found on motorways. We should mention that physical billboards are changing, as we’ve mentioned in our digital advertising section. Many are going digital, especially in Europe.
• Car Wrapping/Vehicle Wraps – Ads seen on the sides of vans and buses allow you to advertise on-the-go. Company cars are, technically, promotional tools in and of themselves. Buses tend to be a lot more expensive, which is why most advertise movies or other high-end products/services.

We should also point out that celebrity endorsements are also a part of physical advertising in a way.

Sure, you could be viewing them through a screen as they endorse it, but that celebrity is still promoting your product or service in the real world before sharing it with their fans/followers online.

TV Advertising

The foundations put in place by TV advertising allowed other avenues to grow. That’s not to say there isn’t a place for media buying via television either.

It’s still one of the best lanes brands/businesses can take when sharing their work and/or services to the world.

As a visual medium, it has a lot of potential, especially when selling products to consumers – or just showing how it works in a bid to grab your audience’s curiosity.

In the US, the Super Bowl is considered a hot ticket for various advertisers. The 2021 Super Bowl was seen by 96.4 million people, which was actually the lowest it’s been since 2007 despite being in the millions.

Running a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl alone costs $5,600,000. This price increases every year.

This is but one example of televised advertising. You could apply the same rule to a majority of movies you watch through your TV – or phone, or tablet.

It’s technically not television, but we’re considering it a subcategory of TV advertising anyway:

Cinema Advertising

Before you get to the trailers, cinemas run the types of advertising you might find on TV.

The dimensions are a little different in order to fit on the screen, but cinema advertising is a great way to advertise to a specific audience. Advertisers can tailor ads around genres of film, age ratings and more!

Product placement is one extension of cinema advertising – and TV advertising to be fair. Just look at 007 for the perfect example.

We know the James Bond franchise exists outside of the real world in film, but some ads take clips from the movies and splice them with product footage. The result of which is seamless – most won’t even know they’ve seen an advert thinking of it more as a trailer.

James Bond wears a Barbour jacket, drives an Aston Martin, and has an Omega watch. All of which act as one giant ad for each of these respective brands, simply by association.

Brands pay big money to have their products featured in these movies via marketing deals, as you can imagine.

Daniel Craig even said the following in 2012 when making Skyfall: “The simple fact is that, without [product placement], we couldn’t do it.”

You could say our 007 example from above is an example of cinema advertising, although, most Bond films do end up on the television eventually.

Radio Advertising

Ads over the airwaves go all the way back to the early 1900s. Only in today’s current ad climate, podcasting has appeared and is just as viable, if not more.

Again, this will depend on your target audience and their listening habits.

Here are the subcategories of radio advertising:

• Radio Advertising – Radio advertising is a great way to target your audience directly. After all, every radio station has its own demographics, audiences that crossover with yours. Taking the radio advertising route can be an expensive process, depending on how many ads you pay to be in circulation.
• Podcast Advertising – The power of podcasting has forever changed the advertising space, similar to social media. Podcast advertising is different from radio advertising in that some podcasts have a video version alongside an audio one. This gives listeners/viewers the best of both worlds from an ad sense.
• Streaming Advertising – Streaming services such as Spotify and Google Play Music give brands and businesses the option to advertise via audio or through digital advertising. Listeners who take advantage of the free version of these services will often hear ads between songs, audiobooks, or podcasts.

As of June 2021, Spotify had around 200 million ad-supported listeners. That’s 200 million people that could be listening to your advertisements on-the-move or at home!

Audio-based media buying is nearly as old as time, so seeing it still have a place in your current advertising options is always great to see (or hear, in this case).

So, now that you have a better understanding of your media buying options, which route will you take? Or, if you have the time, budget and need, maybe multiple avenues could be taken?

Often, a hybrid approach to advertising is most effective.

Which Media Buying Avenue Should I Choose?

Having a basic understanding of advertising pathways is one thing. It’s another to create one or several advertising campaigns, for real.

In this section we’ll be breaking down each media buying avenue, looking at the different types of advertising mediums. We’ll provide an overview of each, look at how to budget, and identify the pros and cons.

Making the right decisions now can have a huge impact on your business. Choosing the cheapest option won’t always yield the best results.

Trust us.

Digital Advertising: An Overview

As mentioned, digital advertising covers display, social media, native, search video and email-based marketing. Running digital ads is particularly great for attracting a certain type of audience.

One that spends a lot of time online and is likely to see the advertisements you create.

In other words, digital advertising is perfect for expanding your potential reach. This in turn could lead to more leads and more engagements online!

That being said, digital advertising doesn’t work quite as well when marketing towards certain demographics.

For example, tech savvy people tend to understand how to navigate sites and pay little to no attention to what ads might be displayed in front of them.

The same can be said for those who barely know how to work a phone or desktop. Tech illiterate types might not recognise a digital ad when they see it.

Or maybe they do but lack the experience/knowledge to engage with it?

Budgeting for Digital Advertising

Digital advertising can be an expensive process, again, this depends on the types of ads you want to produce and how long you want them to run for.

Google Ads is one of the marque online advertising platforms, allowing users to craft various ads that vary in delivery.

Pay per click (PPC), is one option – otherwise known as cost per click (CPC) which applies to search-based digital marketing. With PPC, you’re only billed when your ad is clicked on.

The average cost per click does range in size. Cost per click determines how much advertisers pay outright. Google Ads charge you anywhere from 48p to £1.95 per click on average.

This sum is determined by a unique equation that balances bidding (how much an advertiser is willing to pay) with the quality of your site (keywords, relevancy, etc.).

In the case of social media marketing, you set your own budgets, as long as you spend a minimum of £1 a day (this is how much you’ll need to pay per day on platforms like Facebook).

The longer you run an ad, the more money you’ll need to spend for it to find the right people. You could call this a golden rule for all types of media buying – digital or otherwise.

TikTok ad pricing is a lot more expensive. Although, advertisers do have multiple packages available. The cheapest (in-feed ads) will cost £6.30 per CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

Another option – one that puts your company in the Trending section of the Discover tab for 10 days – can cost between £19,500 to £62,200. The most expensive option (Branded Hashtag Challenges) is priced at a heavy £77,700.

TikTok won’t be for every brand or business, but there’s no denying its appeal. Why else would these prices be so high?

Email marketing can cost you up to £1,800. Remember, this cost will vary as some prefer to do it in-house. Seeking the help of an agency could drastically lower the cost and provide a better return on investment.

Agencies will often provide packages for you to pick and choose from.

Cheaper packages often come with little to no analysis or insight. This is something you’ll need to consider if you’re looking to capitalise on effective email marketing.

Creating a video-based ad is a completely different ballgame. Check out our complete guide to corporate video to find out more.

Digital Advertising Pros and Cons

So we understand the various branches of digital advertising and have an idea of how much it costs. Now we’re going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each, to help you make an educated decision.

Will digital advertising work for you and your business?

Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pros of Digital Advertising

• Global Reach – Advertising over the internet increases your overall reach and visibility to certain demographics. The internet covers every continent on earth – there’s no telling who could be watching.
• Consistency – Running ads in a digital format is a lot more consistent at spreading the word and attracting new customers/leads. You can also schedule ads ahead of time or edit them if needed.
• Trackable – With digital advertising, you can measure the success/failure of your campaigns based on the data gathered. Conversion rates and other important information are all there for you to see.
• Hybrid – Digital marketing could be considered interruptive and non-interruptive at the same time. PPC, for example, is paid to exist in such results (interruptive), despite it being in line with what you were searching for to begin with (non-interruptive).
• Targeted – Every ad you run can be personalised to target a specific demographic based on hobbies, interests and general personality traits. You can also target set locations for maximum effectiveness.
• Highly Accessible – Anyone with a working phone or laptop has the capacity to see your adverts. Creative ad campaigns can also go viral if executed correctly which could see you becoming a household name.
• Intelligence Based – Some digital ads have the capacity to course correct and learn the longer it remains active. For example, Facebook ads go through a learning phase where it tries out ads to certain people to get a better idea of who to show it too.

Cons of Digital Advertising

• Conversion Rates – Getting your ads seen is one thing, it’s another to have users click on it or engage with it. SEO and traditional content marketing is a lot stronger – something we’re experts in here at Canny.
• Expensive – The price of TikTok alone should give you an idea of how expensive digital advertising can be. Companies could spend six figures on media buying in a digital space and not generate enough conversions to warrant this much spending.
• Audience Limitations – Computer-conscious audiences should have no issues interacting with digital ads. But what about those who have never used one before? Specifically those in a 60+ age bracket.

Traditional Advertising: An Overview

One of the oldest forms of media buying, still going strong.

Newspapers/magazines, flyers, banners and vehicle wraps all sit under the flag of traditional advertising.

Traditional advertising continues to shine out in the open, despite what some say. You’ve more than likely heard that “print is dead,” which couldn’t be any further from the truth when you consider how much money goes into print advertising annually.

In 2020, roughly £1.3 billion was spent on print ads. However, that number is drastically decreasing over time. That figure was sitting at the £1.65 billion mark towards the end of 2017.

Each year the ad costs associated with print drop a few million advertisers entertain new areas of marketing.

If physical advertising is something you need help with, why not talk to Canny?

We can help design effective physical advertising that will get you noticed. The kind that stands out from all the rest. We have the evidence to prove it too. Just take a look at some of our previous work.

You’ll see.

Budgeting for Traditional Advertising

You should always look at the costs associated with traditional advertising on a case by case basis. After all, not every company will be able to afford vehicle wraps or feel the need to employ this type of media buying strategy to begin with.

Vehicle ads – especially those on the sides of buses – can cost anywhere from £450 for the small size panels, to £6,700 for around four weeks before it’s taken out of circulation.

Taxis fall into a similar bracket, more so in major areas like London. It’s a great way of getting your product or service seen. It just won’t be for everyone.

Billboards are what instantly come to mind when talking about physical advertising. How much should I budget to run a billboard ad?

To run ads on billboards you usually need to set aside around £2,500 to £3,000 on average – depending on how long you’re wanting to keep the ad up. Some cost as little as £70 a day.

Still, these ads are usually situated in areas where most won’t see them. You need to spend more for a better spot, one that has a lot of traffic passing by it.

Other billboard costs to consider include how much you’re willing to spend on printing, and how much it will cost to design.

Flyers are the polar opposite of billboards from a price standpoint. Price will depend entirely on how many flyers you’re looking to print, obviously.

Traditional Advertising Pros and Cons

Traditional advertising isn’t as outdated as it might seem on the surface. Digital isn’t the only way forward when it comes to media buying. Sometimes looking back can help you look forward.

Will traditional advertising work for you and your business?

Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pros of Traditional Advertising

• Attention-Grabbing – Advertising in a physical sense is very difficult to ignore – billboards especially. Brand exposure is key in generating new leads and getting your name out there.
• Immediate Impact – Physical advertising can pack a serious punch, and could stick in the heads of viewers. Placing your ad in the right location will be the difference maker. For example, placing a billboard promoting an energy drink near a supermarket could encourage people to buy one right then and there!
• Generally Cheaper – Print advertising is generally a lot cheaper to set up and distribute. Flyers are easily the best example of this. Vehicle wraps and billboards are somewhat expensive, but are nothing compared to some digital marketing campaigns.

Cons of Traditional Advertising

• It’s Static – Static means fixed in place. Once something is printed, it can’t then be changed. If the copy used on an ad isn’t delivering the results you want, you can’t then change it. Spelling mistakes (it happens) can have a negative affect on your brand.
• Targeting Issues – With physical advertising, you don’t have the ability to target a sub-segment of people. Sure, you could place an ad/distribute an ad in locations near your target demo, but digital does it better in an advertising sense.
• Some See It As Junk – Let’s face it. Most don’t even look at a flyer completely before throwing it in the bin. They’ve taken it to be kind not because they’re interested in what you’re selling them.

TV Advertising: An Overview

You should have a pretty good idea of what TV advertising is if you’ve been following along up until this point.

It’s the means of selling a product or service during periods between programming. The goal is to excite, inspire and convey information in a way that generates interest in your business and what it does.

It’s a visual-based style of advertising. One that relies more on memorability/relatability if it’s to succeed in its intended purpose.

“TV has been at the foundation of driving the transformation and reinvigoration of our brand. It is a mainstay of our communications strategy and plays a fundamental role in driving awareness of our key brand assets and the most important medium for driving long-term emotional connection with our brands.”
– Sarah Koppens, UK Marketing Director, Birds Eye

TV could soon be replaced by streaming services from an ad point of view. HBO Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock have already begun to implement media buying amongst it’s not-so regularly scheduled programming.

Traditional television has also dabbled in video on demand advertising in the past. For example, the ITV Hub – the on-demand channel from ITV in the UK – run VOD advertising before and in between shows.

Budgeting for TV Advertising

You can split the costs of running an ad on TV into two separate categories:

• Price of Production – How much it’s going to cost to create
• Price of Spots – How much it’s going to cost to run

Budgeting for a high quality TV advertisement can cost you a lot of money when you factor these two elements together. This is especially true if you’re selling something that is expensive and want the ad to reflect the brand fully.

Some brands and companies will opt to do everything in house to make it cheaper, although the quality could dip. You’ll still need to hire all the equipment (unless you already own equipment), and find a location to shoot it in too.

Not to mention storyboarding, which can take a while to plan out.

And that’s before you’ve even hired actors, or thought about paying for TV spots. Some companies will pay over £250,000 to produce a television ad.

The production costs tied to cinema advertising tend to be on the higher end of the scale, too.

Promoting your business on a smaller channel during off peak hours is the cheapest way to get your ad on the television. This could cost you up to £150 in the daytime and up to £300 for a peak slot.

Understand that this cost changes dramatically when looking at the big channels. In the UK, one ad slot can cost between £3,000 to £4,000.

All of the following dictate how much a channel will charge you for spots:

• The Current Season
• Advertiser Demand
• Length of Ad
• Time of Day
• Regionality

TV Advertising Pros and Cons

As mentioned, video on demand is giving advertisers a lot more to think about. And that’s not to say traditional TV ads don’t have any appeal. Running ads during marquee sporting events wouldn’t be so lucrative otherwise.

Will TV advertising work for you and your business?

Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pros of TV Advertising

• Video-Based – Television is a visual medium, as mentioned. Videos allow companies to showcase their products and how they work in a very clear and helpful way. People usually remember visual content a lot more too.
• Creativity – Advertisers are encouraged to let loose in the creativity department when it comes to crafting effective ads for television. The more creative the better in most cases. Just look at any Cadbury ad from the past two decades to see that up close.
• Targeted – TV advertising allows advertisers to target a huge audience that align with the people they want buying their products or using their services. Moreover, you can target specific audiences by running ads during specific programs. For example, running an ad for a beauty product when Love Island is on will likely net you better results.
• Grabs Attention – Like print ads, promotional material shared on TV have the power to really grab someone’s attention when done right. People are more likely to talk about “an ad they saw on TV last night” with their friends compared to other media buying mediums. TV ads are mini events that you either catch or miss out on.

Cons of TV Advertising

• Production Costs – Creating an ad and paying for expensive ad slots can drain your marketing budget very quickly. The price of air time fluctuates every week it seems. You may need to ask for more budget to run ads during the slots you want.
• Costly Reshoots – It’s next to impossible to reshoot an ad or make changes to it once it’s live. You can pull the ad but parts will need to be shot again which will cost you even more money to sort.
• Frequency – Not everyone you’re marketing to will see your ad the first time around. Frequency is required to increase the number of people your advertisement reaches. More ads equals more costs, unfortunately. More ads tell viewers they can trust you. It’s expensive, but this is how you establish yourself as a household name.

Radio Advertising: An Overview

Radio advertising is where it all began for advertising on a nationwide scale. In the present day, radio is accompanied by podcasting and music streaming as far as media buying opportunities go.

Local radio is a great way of tapping into regional markets. An ideal lane to take if you specialise in services that are limited to one area (i.e. hairdressers and construction companies).

A 30 second radio ad could change a lot for you and your business.

Podcasting is also fairly targeted in its own right. There are currently over 2,000,000 podcasts out there at the moment, each documenting various different topics, complete with dedicated listeners that are just waiting to hear what you have to advertise.

The same goes for advertising through Spotify and Google Play.

Budgeting for Radio Advertising

Getting your business messages heard over the radio isn’t that expensive compared to some of the other costs we’ve touched on.

Again, brands should come at this from a case by case basis. Most radio channels set unique rates, different to others. In the UK, you can work out how much an average radio spot is by looking at standard rates.

Most charge the equivalent of approximately £2 per thousand listeners at any given time. In other words, if a show has around 100,000 listeners at 9am, then buying ad space in that spot will cost you £200 more or less.

A later slot would be significantly cheaper versus the one tied to the morning rush. Keep in mind that you need to run ads frequently for it to make headway.

Local radio stations might be able to set up deals if you’re a repeat customer. Cost-wise, you could be paying around £1,000 a week minimum to run ads over the airwaves.

Podcasting is similar to radio from a cost standpoint in that most podcasts are run by individuals who handle business enquiries themselves. This means they set the rates which makes it difficult for us to say how much you’re required to pay for podcast advertising.

Again the cost is usually determined by the number of listeners – or in this case, subscribers – that a podcast has. A 60 second mid-roll can cost around £19 per thousand listeners.

A podcast with hundreds of thousands of subscribers will cost a lot more to advertise with compared to those just starting out. Podcasts that offer niche content – aka, content that doesn’t attract a lot of attention either online, or in general – will be a lot cheaper.

Spotify allows brands and or businesses to run audio ads on the platform as one of its premium services for clients. Price-wise, this can cost thousands, depending on how long you want the ad to run for and if you want to add a video element to it.

Radio Advertising Pros and Cons

A lot, and we mean a lot, of people are listening to podcasts and other audio-based media. It’s a prime opportunity for brands to really market themselves using only sound (unless you’re watching podcasts on video, that is).

Radio advertising and media buying have a long and storied relationship, as you now know.

Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pros of Radio Advertising

• Subliminal – Similar to TV advertising, promoting a product or service over the radio doesn’t require a person’s full attention. All it takes is a few plays of your radio ad for it to stick with the listener.
• Targeted – Finding the right podcast, radio station or music streaming service will allow you to target the right people at the right time. Morning slots are a great way of promoting evergreen products/services to commuters. Late night slots, despite having less listeners, attract a different type of audience.
• Supported Medium – Radio, podcasts and music streaming services are heavily supported by social media pages and websites. All continue to attract new listeners that could hear your ads and want to buy your products or use your services.

Cons of Radio Advertising

• Lost in Translation – Unfortunately, audio can go over the head of some listeners if something isn’t explained well enough, or is too complicated to understand over audio. This is why it’s important to identify the best way to advertise your product or service.
• Clutter – The last thing some listeners want when listening to their favourite songs or podcasts is an ad in the middle of it. Hearing your ad again and again could have a negative effect on your brand image.

Still can’t decide? Maybe this will help – just follow the path to find out which advertising route might be best for your project!

So… It’s all well and good understanding the various types of media buying, and the pros and cons of each. But there’s still more to learn, surely?

In the next section we’ll be looking at inbound marketing vs outbound marketing. Understanding the difference between the two will help you structure an effective marketing strategy.

It will also help boost your understanding of the subcategories you see above. And give you a better idea of how to apply them in a marketing sense.

Inbound Marketing Vs Outbound Marketing

Inbound and outbound marketing are different sides of the same coin.

One is looking to bring more people to a site and/or webpage, and the other is looking to capture consumer attention and sell products and/or services.

That’s the gist. Still, there is a lot more to it than that.

Knowing the difference between the two is very important, especially for marketers/advertisers when coming up with a refreshed ad plan.

Think of it as a starting block in the media buying tower. One you build on top of.

We’ll begin with inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing Meaning

What does inbound mean?

The meaning of inbound marketing is simple – very easy to remember if you consider yourself clued-up in the ever-expanding world of content marketing.

Inbound marketing is a lot more focused, in that you’re constantly looking to target specific audiences directly.

Using online marketing, such as blogging, infographics and social media posts are but a few examples of effective inbound marketing. Content that looks to bring more people to you and your site.

SEO is probably the biggest example of inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing Examples

Inbound marketing is specified content, meaning you need to ensure that your content answers niche questions, or satisfies their needs in some way or other.

And here’s the best thing: you don’t have to rely on paid advertising to do it.

Here are some examples of inbound marketing:

• Blogs
• Video
• Events
• SEO
• Social Media
• Infographics

As you can see, digital-based advertising is used a lot in correlation with inbound marketing. After all, digital marketing is one of the best ways to reach your target audience and encourage them to learn more.

The fact that your messaging covers multiple channels does allow you to experiment a little more, too.

Let’s say a brand is looking for help with building a better, more consistent logo for its sports-based business and want to see what else is out there. Typing in “sports branding” on Google would link you to our post: ‘17 Winning Examples of Sports Branding.’

This post is insightful, well written, entertaining and the perfect example of inbound marketing. Here we’re appealing to a set type of demographic. One that could read this feature and want to work alongside an expert in the field of inbound marketing.

In this case, that site belongs to us here at Canny, but you can do the exact same thing with the right help.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing

The benefits of inbound marketing are vast. With the right inbound marketing plan, you can increase leads and, in turn, grow your business!

What does inbound mean? It means you get ahead of your competitors as your work demonstrates closer attention to detail and is a lot more memorable in contrast to certain media buying options.

Here are the benefits that come with inbound marketing:

• Quantifiable – Since inbound marketing is mostly digital-based, it allows you to monitor the progress of your content in real-time. You can even apply changes to help your content reach more people, or ride on top of trends (when applicable).
• Non-Invasive – People are well aware that they’re being sold to, and some don’t like that. Inbound marketing is a non-invasive way to generate new leads as content is created to be read whenever and doesn’t have to be so sales-heavy.
• Educational – Providing your base with clear/quality content is one of the best ways to tell them you mean business. It’s also designed for each stage of the sales funnel, so it’s always building towards something.

Downsides of Inbound Marketing

We’ll admit it, inbound marketing can be tough to pull off. More so if you have never delved into this type of strategy before. Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for example, might struggle here.

Remember, inbound marketing is there to fulfil a need or solve a problem. It can’t be too broad. This is what most seem to forget.

Here are the downsides that come with inbound marketing:

• Repeat Maintenance – With inbound marketing you need to keep on top of your content. You’ll need to evolve your content over time so that it aligns with trends in your market. This can take time as it requires a certain level of care and attention.
• Time Consuming – You can spend hours, even days, putting together inbound marketing content. Still, it doesn’t have to be such a struggle if you have someone like Canny helping you out. We can handle the content marketing side for you!

Outbound Marketing Meaning

Now that you understand the meaning of inbound marketing, it shouldn’t be too hard to decipher the meaning behind outbound marketing.

The hint is in the name.

So, what is outbound marketing?

Outbound marketing is often likened to traditional marketing in that the goal is to appeal to the most people possible. That being said, pay-per-click advertising was considered outbound marketing at one point.

It’s not nearly as targeted as inbound marketing, but it works in grabbing the attention of those who see you.

Outbound marketing is a very linear way of marketing in that you are limited by the number of channels you can use to spread the word.

This could be seen as a detriment, although it does have its advantages which we’ll get to in a moment.

Outbound Marketing Examples

One of the best things about outbound marketing is that it exposes a wide range of people to your brand. They might not know what you do exactly, but you’ll generate immediate results if awareness was your main goal.

Whether or not these results are helpful in generating leads – or provide a higher ROI – will depend on what you do exactly, and what you hope to achieve via this marketing strategy.

If your goal is to get as many eyes on you and your brand as possible, then outbound marketing will be your friend. However, it does have its limitations, if we’re being totally honest.

Here are some examples of outbound marketing:

• TV Advertising
• Billboards
• Direct Mail
• Radio
• PPC (Hybrid)
• Spam Emails

Again, outbound marketing will take you offline and online as you look to gain traction. Volume is key with outbound marketing, although tracking your progress is a lot more difficult in the great inbound vs outbound marketing debate.

After all, a lot of outbound marketing is physical, making it a lot harder to track. Pay-per-click, on the other hand, was an exception to the rule for the longest time, before marketers began using it to generate inbound traffic.

In fact, it’s technically a hybrid of the two.

PPC is digital-based and very targeted in its current form. It involves using specific keywords in order to drive traffic to specific posts on your website.

For example, say we create an informative e book for you – a resource that serves as the perfect lead magnet. Applying PPC to this content would boost the traction of said resource and generate you new business in return!

Benefits of Outbound Marketing

Now that you have a better understanding of the meaning behind outbound, it’s time we highlighted why you should consider this strategy.

SMEs could benefit greatly from an outbound strategy. After all, it’s a great way of making a statement and generating a surge of immediate interest.

Here are the benefits that come with outbound marketing:

• Awareness – The meaning behind outbound marketing is to increase awareness. With this method you can reach hundreds upon thousands of potential customers. Placing a billboard in a populated area, for example, could really get your name out there.
• Immediate Results – With outbound marketing you’re given instant results. What people see is usually what they get. Radio, direct marketing and TV advertising are all great ways of sending messages at scale.
• Familiarity – Some demographics are accustomed to outbound marketing. After all, traditional advertising/marketing has been around since the 1950s. People might trust a physical ad over a digital one, or just not know how to interact with it.

Downsides of Outbound Marketing

Don’t get it twisted. Outbound marketing is very good at generating a lot of buzz. Only, it can be quite difficult to get right.

The inbound vs outbound marketing debate is pretty one-sided. A study in various marketing tactics found that 84% of marketers found that outbound marketing didn’t give them a higher ROI. Consider that when thinking about media buying!

Here are the downsides that come with outbound marketing:

• Lack of Interest – Outbound marketing has the power to captivate thousands. Still, not all of them will be giving you your full attention. TVs can be muted or left on in the background and emails can be flagged as spam.
• Difficult to Measure – Getting an advertisement out there is easy. The hard part is how you measure the effectiveness of things like billboards and other static imagery. And on the other hand you have inbound marketing that is heavily influenced by data.
• Costly Strategy – The cost of TV advertising and billboards aren’t as cheap as you might think. Some startups won’t be able to afford most outbound marketing strategies, unfortunately for this very reason.

Inbound vs Outbound Marketing: Which is Better?

The end goal of inbound and outbound marketing is to generate leads, plain and simple. Inbound vs outbound marketing, which does this better?

In recent years, inbound marketing has emerged as the premier marketing tactic. Its non-invasive approach to advertising as an extension of marketing, has given brands the opportunity to deliver quality content and convert interest into business.

Outbound marketing is loud in the sense that it puts your name in people’s minds, but whether or not they act on it (seek your services/buy your products) is another question entirely.

So, inbound vs outbound marketing, which is better?

We’d have to give it to inbound marketing. Studies have shown that inbound practices produce 54% more leads compared to outbound methods.

Try not to forget about pay-per-click, by the way. This is the one instance where outbound and inbound cross over as PPC is technically a hybrid of the two.

Canny can help you plan and execute a successful marketing strategy if you’re struggling with how to move forwards. We can also help you with PPC, generating even more leads/sales/traffic for you and your business!

Don’t let effective content fall by the wayside.

Let’s talk.

How to Create an Advertising Budget

We’ve touched on how much you’d be expected to pay for various forms of media buying – everything from radio advertising to digital advertising.

Still, there’s a lot more to learn in an advertising budget sense. In this section, we’ll be looking at how you can create an effective advertising budget.

But wait, there’s more.

We’ve also included a marketing report template that you, yourself can use to help manage your advertising spend (look to the bottom left of the page for that).

This is one of many templates we’ve made in the past to help you guys out. We’ve also created templates for writing branding briefs, marketing briefs, design briefs and so much more!

Be sure to check out those, but for now, let’s get back on topic – back on how to create an advertising budget.

We’ll be moving in steps to make digesting it all a little easier!

Benefits of a Media Buying Budget

If your current media buying strategy isn’t doing your brand justice, or you’re just starting out with little to no advertising experience, then you’re going to need a budget.

An ad spend budget will ensure you work within your means – it could also highlight where you’ve gone wrong in the past. In other words, looking at your brand or business from an outside perspective could give you a better understanding of everything, overall.

Also, if you come to the conclusion that your advertising isn’t cutting it, and you’d like to seek the help of an agency like Canny Creative.

Well, we kind of need to know the details first…

Sharing your advertising spend with us is just as important as sharing your expectations and ambitions.

Outline Your Advertising Goals

Before you run, you need to learn how to walk. And before you go spending money on media buying, you first need to ask yourself what you want to get out of it.

Do you want to generate traffic to your website? Do you want to promote a service or sell a new product? Or is the goal simply to flex in a bid to grab people’s attention?

Knowing what you want to achieve is the first step for obvious reasons. As we’ve already proven, the costs associated with advertising do vary. Some are a lot more expensive than others.

Identifying what you hope to achieve will allow you to eliminate some media buying paths. This will make it easier to map out the right campaign.

For example, a local tech store, usually, wouldn’t advertise on the TV. This tells the owner he/she doesn’t need to budget for that.

Goals will vary from business to business of course. And remember, some brands like to experiment a lot with its advertising techniques.

The more out there the better in some cases – as long as they can afford it.

Media Buying Budget: How Much to Spend?

Revenue will typically go towards advertising budgets.

Many brands use the ‘70-20-10’ rule when coming up with an effective marketing budget. This rough guideline suggests that you spend 70% of your budget on the here and now, 20% of time and money on what comes next, and 10% on experimenting.

Larger companies typically spend between 7-10% of their overall revenue, putting it back into marketing in order to gather more leads and generate more interest.

Smaller businesses (and startups) might want to dedicate more spending to digital advertising, if they have the funds to do so.

Most stick to around 12%, but there’s nothing stopping you from spending more if you think it would be beneficial. Ensure you have the capital to do such a thing, as some brands have a habit of overspending.

This is why it’s important to create an advertising budget.

Remember, how much your company earns will typically dictate how big your budgets are. Smaller companies might have a lot less wiggle room compared to the big players.

Still, marketers/advertisers can find a way to get the most out of their budgets by making smart, educated decisions. Inbound marketing has already shown how simple it is to generate traffic/attention to you and your brand in an organic way.

This is significantly cheaper than paid advertising most of the time with the potential to get you results.

Separate Ad Spend Into Categories

This is technically a part of outlining your advertising goals. Still, it’s worth its own section regardless given how many brands go for a hybrid approach to media buying.

You see, these days, brands aren’t limiting themselves to one particular channel. Successful ad campaigns exist across countless mediums at the same time.

Sure, the assets used could be the same (videos, for example), but brands could target multiple unique demographics across channels.

This is something you need to bear in mind if you’re working out how much money you’d like to put towards advertising.

Our advice would be to round up how much you’re likely to spend in total, separating costs into unique categories.

Let’s say you want to advertise on social media, utilise PPC, and allocate spend to blog writing. You would then create a spreadsheet of some kind – a master sheet.

This would look a little something like this:

• Social Media: £2,500
• Pay-Per-Click: £15,000
• Blog Writing: £5,500
• Total: £23,000

Having the costs split up this way will keep you in check. It will also allow you to course correct if needed.

If your grand total is £23,000 and you’re getting more leads through PPC, you could pull funds from social media marketing without needing to ask for more marketing budget!

Using the attached advertising budget template is a great way to outline your costs with little to no fuss.

ROI and Advertising

Your decisions surrounding advertising spend should take into consideration ROI (return on investment). In other words, how much are you going to get vs how much you’re spending, and is it all worth it?

ROI is one of the most effective ways of evaluating the success or failure of an ad. And you should be thinking about it during the ad spend/budgeting stage.

To calculate ROI on media buying, do the following: take the revenue generated by your ads, subtract your overall costs, and then divide by your overall costs.

Here’s how this should look:

ROI = (Revenue – Cost of the Advertisement) ÷ Overall Costs

Return on investment doesn’t have to be tied to money either. You can use it to measure things such as click-through rates for digital advertising and engagements on social media advertising.

Again, what metric you deem most important will come down to the reason behind your ads in the first place. Cost-associated ROI should be high on your list of priorities, given how connected it is to ad spend.

Media buying comes with a lot of risks, meaning you need to pick and choose your spots. This is especially true with brands that want to experiment with its advertising.

Experimentation is good (when it works). Your ROI could be affected if you try something and it fails. Speaking, and even pitching your ideas to Canny could ensure that you’re on the right track.

Advertising can feel like a minefield. More so when you’re spending a lot of money and time on something that might fall flat.

Other Ad Spend Considerations

Try to remember that ad spend is not limited to the ad itself, but the production of the advertisement too. This cost should be factored in as it’s 100% a part of your ad spend.

If you’re looking to produce a TV advertisement – or any type of high-end video content – you’ll find that the production costs, perhaps, outweigh the costs of running the ads themselves.

That being said, the cost to run advertising on television does fluctuate depending on the season/time slot.

Some TV ads cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce. The most expensive TV advert ever made in the UK was directed by Baz Luhrmann, for Chanel No. 5. It cost an estimated £18 million and featured Nicole Kidman.

We should mention, some digital advertising/marketing methods are a marathon, not a sprint. Search-based digital advertising (like PPC) and social media advertising can take weeks if not months to build a head of steam.

Media buying – in its many forms – is a waiting game. So try not to get too flustered if you’re not seeing immediate results.

Again, advertising, be it digital or physical, on the web or on social media, isn’t something you have to approach alone. Canny Creative has helped many businesses grow into the brands they were meant to become.

By partnering with us, we can help you get the most out of your advertising, ensuring you get the most out of your ad spend.

We’re a content marketing agency that gets advertising.

That’s the difference.

Media Buying: How to Buy Advertising Space

Now that you have your budget sorted, it’s time we looked at how to buy advertising space specifically.

The steps you need to take vary from platform to platform to get your ads running. For the most part, simply reaching out to advertisers directly will be enough. Although, certain processes do require bidding to get what you want.

Publishers purposely designate space on sites for the use of advertising. So you should have no trouble finding sites interested in hosting your ads.

Google Ads, in particular, is seen as one of the main platforms for getting your ads out there. Ads here go on the likes of Google Search and on non-search sites, mobile apps and videos.

That’s not to say that there aren’t other ad services out there either because it feels like there’s hundreds!

Physical advertising hasn’t changed all that much in terms of how you buy it. Only now, traditional advertising is coupled with digital advertising and offered as a package (depending on the ad route you take).

That’s right, some service providers offer advertising packages to help with the cost.

How to Buy Digital Advertising

Digital advertising has become impossible to ignore.

Still, how you go about buying advertising in the digital space could be considered confusing – more so for brands that have never ran an ad before.

In the digital age, you can either sell ads programmatically, through an affiliate, or directly to advertisers/publishers.

Programmatic Advertising

If you’ve looked into buying digital advertising in the past, then you’ve probably heard of programmatic advertising.

Programmatic advertising is defined as: automation in the buying/selling of media. In other words, intelligent software uses algorithms and data to help advertisers buy ads in a digital space.

Brands compete in a digital advertising space, controlled by computerised auctions that handle the sale and placement of the ad. Real-time bidding (RTB) is one type of programmatic advertising where advertisers can bid for individual impressions.

An impression is a metric used to measure the number of views/engagements a piece of content receives. In a digital advertising sense, impressions are often used to measure the success or failure of an ad.

It’s a lot more targeted than simply bulk-buying ads. With advanced tracking methods, programmatic advertising ensures that your ads are placed in front of the right audience at all times.

This form of advertising can cover everything from display to digital in the street to television advertising.

It’s one of the smarter ways to advertise online, which explains why 65% of European and UK brands are using programmatic advertising!

To get started with programmatic advertising, you first need to outline the type of ad campaign you’d like to run – be it video, native or in-app. From there you should sign up to the right demand-side platform (DSP).

DSP is software that automates media buying via RTB technology. There are dozens of DSP platforms out there. Make sure you find software that has the following:

• No Initial Platform Fee
• Standard Targeting Options
• Offers Real-Time Analytics
• Has a Live Chat Feature

Affiliate Marketing

One of the fastest and easiest ways to start earning money is by becoming an affiliate publisher by joining a program.

This program connects publishers, blog owners and businesses, allowing them to promote a product or service for commission.

Typically, website owners will place affiliate links to send organic traffic elsewhere – to the pages associated with the ads themselves.

The best thing about affiliate marketing is that any brand or business with a website can take part. All these sites need to do is ensure that they have the following:

• An Original Domain Name
• A Linked Email
• An Ad-Supported Website

Affiliate networks such as Amazon Associates and eBay are both perfect examples. Some pages on Facebook will be a part of affiliate advertising networks too, and are great opportunities to capitalise on pages that generate a lot of buzz.

We should mention that this form of digital advertising is performance-based. Meaning publisher profits come from generating clicks, leads or sales.

Direct to Publishers

Your other option is to simply sell directly to publishers. You’re cutting out the middleman here as you’d be approaching the sites you want to work with.

Publishers make a lot more money vs going with an affiliate network as they make 100% of the revenue back. There are some bloggers out there making a living wage off the back of influencer revenue!

Selling ads to them is one of the best ways of targeting a niche as there are blogs dedicated to every topic known to man these days.

Sites that should have a similar audience if your advertising is to be successful.

This method is a lot more time consuming in comparison to the other methods. It requires a lot of patience as you will need to negotiate with publishers directly. You’ll need to discuss cost, length and a whole lot more.

Blogs and sites tend to have an advertising page, serving as a media kit that should tell you everything you need to know. This page should include a contact form or contact email.

It shouldn’t take brands or businesses too long to fill in, given they should have an idea of their budget and the ads they’d like to run.

How to Buy Traditional Advertising

Traditional advertising is a lot less complicated than digital advertising in terms of setting it up.

Usually, all you need to do is place a call with an advertising agency and they handle the rest. This covers everything from billboards to flyers, more or less.

Of course, you’ll first need to create artwork. Some do this in-house. Another option would be to seek the help of an agency like Canny Creative so that we can handle that for you.

We work extensively with clients to bring even the wildest advertising ideas to market. The kind that will get you noticed and promote your products/services in the best way possible!

Advertising in Magazines/Newspapers

When advertising in print, you can go one of two ways. You can either go through an agency that will look for ad spots for you – based on your target market and size.

Or, you can go at it solo, and go directly to the newspapers and magazines you think would benefit your brand and go from there.

In the case of newspapers, some are a lot more expensive to advertise in than others. Regional newspapers like the Daily Mail and The Guardian are rather expensive to advertise in.

Also, where the ad appears does affect price. Advertising near the front of a newspaper – or on the right side pages – are a lot more expensive.

Advertising in local newspapers is a lot cheaper in comparison, and it narrows down who you’re advertising towards since it’s distributed differently. Some newspapers are free (Metro, for example). These papers make the majority of its money through advertising.

The size of the ad you choose will dictate how much you pay for the ad. Advertising in some magazines can cost quite a lot.

Running an ad in Vogue can cost up to £4,500!

Buying Digital Billboards/Ads

The process of setting up digital advertising is the same as it’s always been. To buy real-world digital advertising all you do is speak with the right companies.

Speaking with companies like Clear Channel and JCDecaux will help place your ads in areas across the UK. The latter is actually one of the largest outdoor advertising corporations in the world.

You’ll find its logo dotted across the UK and other parts of the world.

Outdoor digital advertising is more expensive than the static boards of yesteryear. Digital billboards can update in real time and can display multiple advertisements in the same playlist.

It’s no wonder these companies are charging around £1,250 per week to advertise on these things.

Buying Vehicle Wraps/Car Wrapping

Advertising on the sides of vehicles is an interesting one. Brands and businesses need to speak with specialists if they’re looking to place ads on vehicles.

You see, this isn’t something you can do yourself. Sure, you could buy some vinyl stickers and apply them to certain vehicles yourself. Still, getting it done properly really shows from a quality standpoint.

There are vehicle wrapping services everywhere. One in every city, pretty much.

Bus wrap advertising is a lot more expensive, yet it looks great when done right. Just look up any Jelly Belly or Kraken-related bus wraps on Google to see what we mean.

Credit to Oink Creative

There are a handful of bus wrap companies out there – some actually offer multiple services that include van wrapping too!

Brands such as Just Eat, GoCompare, Pizza Hut, Casumo and the NSPCC have all used vehicle-based advertising in the past.

There’s actually a service known as Car Quids that matches advertisers with drivers directly. Any driver can sign up for this too, meaning brands aren’t limited to taxis, buses or company cars to help spread their advertising.

How to Buy TV Advertising

Once you have a television advert produced and ready to go, the next step will be to approach the channels themselves.

To do this, simply head to the website of the channel itself – or the business site associated with the channel of your choosing.

Ad Fact: TV advertising in the UK must follow the current BCAP Television Advertising Standards Code. Moreover, all ads will need to be approved by Clearcast before it can be broadcasted.

For example, let’s say you wanted to run a TV advertisement during Coronation Street. Your next step would be to head over to ITV’s media site and fill in the form in front of you.

You’ll be required to fill in facts about your industry, where you’re based, details about yourself and info relating to the brand/product you wish to advertise.

Those that fill in the form will need to disclose the budget and when they’d like the campaign to start. ITV would then get back to that advertiser, giving them a rough estimate of the costs and other terms and conditions.

Ad length can vary. Some are 30 seconds long, others go up to 60 seconds or longer. Duration shouldn’t matter all that much (just expected to pay more for a longer ad).

The most sought-after ads during commercials are those that appear first, second and last. These are premium positions in the break (PIBs).

How to Buy Cinema Advertising

How you approach advertising on the big screen compared to the small screen is pretty similar, complete with a few notable differences.

You’ll still need to approach a cinema advertising company to get your ads up there. In the UK, companies like Pearl & Dean, DCM and TMH will help you do just that.

DCM, in particular, is great to use as an example. Digital Cinema Media have multiple unique packages available, each structured around different segments before the feature film begins.

Something known as the ‘Gold Spot’ is considered the most lucrative – aka, the ad that appears just after other movie trailers right as the movie is about to begin. This spot is said to be when audiences are really paying attention.

For this reason, DCM has made it the most expensive package available, followed by the ‘Silver Spot’ and ‘Bronze Spot.’

Speaking with these companies directly will be your best bet. Cinema advertising is an underrated subcategory of advertising, in our opinion.

Brands often forget how glued consumers are to screens at the movies.

Media Agency Help

Brands don’t have to approach television channels themselves. Seeking the help of a media agency saves time as they approach the channels for you.

TV airtime is sold on a cost per thousand (CPT) basis. CPT is a commonly used measurement in advertising, in general. An agency will outline all of this information out for you as the cost does flit around a lot due to multiple factors.

A media agency will represent you in all types of scenarios. You might find one that covers social media and other audio-based advertising (i.e. radio advertising/podcast advertising).

Seeking the help of any agency will ensure you get the most out of your advertising. It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is.

Someone will be there to listen.

How To Buy Radio Advertising

Speaking of listening, what about buying radio advertising?

Radio advertising is very similar to TV advertising in that all you really need to do is get in touch with the radio stations/channels that you’re interested in advertising with.

If you’re negotiating on your own then you’ll need to agree on:

• How many spots to run
• The time your spots play
• Total cost to run said spots

The same goes for podcast advertising, although there are media agencies out there that represent multiple podcasts. Speaking with an overarching media agency could allow you to run the same ad over multiple shows!

Ad reading is quite a popular option for podcast advertising. This involves having the host of the show (or co-host) read copy that you’ve written for yourself. For the video version of the same episode, a graphic should appear on-screen promoting your brand – or one with your website shown alongside a custom promo code.

This is but one example of a podcast advertisement – this Tiger Belly episode here:

This is something you can negotiate ahead of time.

Spotify Advertising: New Opportunities in Media Buying

Spotify isn’t the only music streaming service with ad support.

Still, we’re highlighting the popular streaming platform as it’s a great example of how you can promote your brand in a modern way.

Using Spotify’s ad studio, you can create ads to share with millions of its listeners around the world. The service lets you run ad campaigns for as little as £250.

To begin, simply create an Ad Studio account and go from there. Spotify suggests you can “run ads in minutes,” to give you an idea of how efficient it could be to you and your business.

You can increase the costs here, but it will depend on how much money you’ve budgeted outright.

Spotify has built-in video support too, and can assist brands in sourcing voiceover actors for script guidance. Not to mention offer real-time reporting on ad delivery so that your advertising is always on point.

Again, Spotify advertising is but one of the newer ways that you can deliver ads to set demographics. How you go about navigating new forms of advertising is completely up to you.

But to ignore paths like Spotify advertising is almost too crazy considering its potential reach.

If advertising is the land of opportunity, then you need to know how to navigate new pathways to stay ahead of your competition, basically.

Another thing you need to do is try to get the best deals possible on advertising.

This can prove difficult to startups, and even to some medium-sized companies that have little to no experience in bettering their ROI.

We’re here to tell you that it’s totally possible – when you know how to put your best foot forward and know what to ask for.

Media Buying Tips to Get the Best Deals

Deals aren’t exclusive to the customers you’re approaching with your ads.

For businesses, finding the best deals on media buying will make the difference between great ROI, and you burning through your budget with not a lot to show for it.

When talking about how to get the best deals on advertising, you should always think big picture.

Advertising can be a maze in and of itself. But there are ways of cutting through to the centre. The centre being what you hope to achieve with your ads – be it engagements, sales, or awareness.

Disclaimer: We won’t be covering the cheapest ad deals at the moment here, in case you were wondering.

This is something you’ll have to do on your own as deals tend to be given out by media agencies/publishers. And you usually have to talk about details, your budgets, and more, first.

No, our media buying tips here are a lot more calculated and a lot more specific. An ideal read for aspiring advertisers, startups, and everyone in between!

Approach Agencies/Publishers at the Right Time

Timing is everything, more so when it comes to advertising. The right advertising at the right time could change everything for small to medium businesses. And the large businesses also, but in this case we’re highlighting the SMEs.

Some of these companies might want to seek the help of a media agency – one to help them get results. Results that they don’t know how to get themselves.

But how does a brand/business know when it’s the right time to reach out?

Ask most brands/businesses and many of them won’t know how to answer that question.

Here, let Canny help.

The first thing you need to do is work out if you can afford it. Small to medium enterprises often lack a lot of capital to make big decisions. And while some agencies offer cost effective services, startups should always be wary of how much money is being spent.

A study in business found that, in 2020, 20% of businesses fail in their first year and around 60% will go bust within their first three years.

If you can’t afford a media agency then it might be worth looking at alternatives. By all means reach out to them, talk about your ideas. Touch base, so that you can approach them at a later date if or when you can afford to do so.

Businesses should apply this way of thinking when approaching publishers directly without the help of an agency, too.

That being said, if you’re a business with projections that show you in the green in the next six months and lack the time and resources to advertise your work, then maybe the risk is worth it while you’re in a state of flux?

All of this is purely hypothetical, of course. Still, these scenarios are a lot more real than you think.

Media agencies – and agencies, in general – will help you level up, so to speak. Just remember to approach them when you’re fit and ready (and have the funds/need for it).

Approach TV Advertising/Cinema Advertising at the Right Time

If we’re talking about finding the right opportunity to approach advertising, then we need to talk about TV advertising. Specifically, when to run TV spots.

Television adverts never take a break. They run 24/7, all year round. Still, that doesn’t mean that you should just run ads whenever.

Here’s a media buying tip for you: run a TV campaign at the right time, in the right season. This will benefit ROI by ensuring you’re putting your television ad in front of your target audience, and maybe pick up a few extra leads along the way.

The same applies to cinema advertising. For example, let’s say you sell kids electric scooters. Running a cinema ad in December before a Disney movie could generate a lot of interest.

Again, we should mention that the cost to run cinema advertising/TV advertising does shift up and down depending on time/season.

You’ll need to pay more to advertise over the holidays. How much you pay will depend on the channel/company and how it structures its pricing.

Run Longer Ad Campaigns with Media Buying

Ad campaigns will vary in length. Some will run for three months, others, a lot longer.

And that’s not to say that brands could run shorter campaigns either. Paid advertising on social media is seen as a popular way of testing the waters, so to speak. Brands can run ads for shorter periods, experimenting with its targeting in order to see what sticks.

Of course, this experimental ad style won’t be for everyone. Brands want results, and generally lack the time and funds to try something different to generate new business and interest.

Running a much longer advertising campaign, digital or otherwise, could prove beneficial in the long run. Some short term advertising strategies come and go way too quickly, thus making it difficult for audiences to latch onto the message you’re transmitting.

After all, the longer the ad, the more time it has to be seen by more people!

Yes, you’ll need to pay more for the ad to run longer, but if you’re looking to grow brand awareness, then this could be one path to take. More so on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where the ads you run are likely to gain more impressions.

The same goes for PPC campaigns.

Web advertising platform Outbrain found that long-term native campaigns are more cost-effective. Native campaigns running more than six months have a 36.4% lower average CPC than campaigns running six months or less.

Advertising tips like this are quite basic compared to others.

Sometimes the easiest choices in media buying are right there in front of you.

Ad Copy is Important

Another obvious yet important advertising tip.

Ad copy, aka, the text accompanying your images/videos, is very important to get right. Text helps cut to the chase, so to speak. If the imagery is what draws people in, it’s the ad copy that gets them to learn more and find you.

Ensuring that you utilise effective call to action (CTA) copy should be at the top of your priorities. That being said, some of the larger brands have simplified their advertising in recent years.

Brands such as McDonalds rely heavily on the golden arches to sell meals to people of all ages. Still, this only works for McDonalds because they’ve been around for quite some time, and its logo is one of the most recognisable symbols in the world.

It’s not the same for startups and established companies that have yet to really break out thanks to its advertising.

Describing what you do/sell is great and all. But your CTA is how you get people clicking on your ads, ordering your products and paying for your services.

You can be as ambiguous as possible with your ad copy, just remember to reel it in when it matters.

Traditional advertising is a little different in that you should try to get ad text right the first time around. Physical advertising is typically limited on space – and you can’t edit copy in real time like with some forms of digital advertising.

Incorrect spelling/punctuation on an ad could affect how customers see your brand moving forwards, if this is their first interaction with you.

Don’t do a Miller and go spelling the word ‘contradiction’ wrong.

Making sure you get your message right the first time is key. You can spend thousands on advertising, but all it takes is one mistake for people to avoid interacting with it.

The same goes for ad copy that doesn’t reflect what you’re about and what you do!

Consider Ad Copy Length

The length of your ad text matters.

With social media advertising, users are less likely to pay attention to your ads if you’re placing a wall of text in front of them. Facebook ad copy, for example, should be as short and concise as possible.

Even Facebook suggests keeping things short and sweet on its Copy Cheat Sheet. So how long should a Facebook ad text be?

According to AdEspresso, the average length of a text ad on the popular social networking platform is only 14 words long.

Less is more.

And relying on video content/imagery is one of the best ways of having your digital ads speak for themselves.

Media Buying: Podcast Advertising has No Skip Button

Podcast advertising, it’s changing the radio advertising game on its own terms. For businesses selling niche products or services, it’s one of the best ways to target a specific demographic!

Podcast ads are also native, meaning they are integrated into the show itself. There are no skip buttons for podcasts which makes them hella valuable, in our opinion. Moreover, the fact that the host often reads the ad will ensure that people are listening.

There’s an additional layer of trust, given the host is directly involved in the ad. We should mention that not every podcast has ad reading.

Some shows have a traditional ad break – similar to those you’d find on the radio or on TV, used to break segments up.

It’s not the same as other outbound marketing subcategories. There’s levels to podcast advertising, believe us!

Boost Pay Per Click with SEO

Getting people to your website through advertising is only half the battle. B2B businesses in particular will need to do more than create an effective ad for others to work with them.

Businesses who work with other businesses will want to know how legitimate they are. They do this by checking out everything from blogs to testimonials. Meaning you need to ensure that the content you feature is up to snuff.

84% of people expect brands to create content.

With around 45% of B2C marketers believing visual content to be their most important type of content. In contrast, 88% of B2B marketers agree that creating content makes their audience view the organisation as a credible and trusted resource.

You could create the most engaging advertising campaign known to man, and it still wouldn’t make a difference if certain businesses deem you ineffective in the content department.

Maybe a content marketing strategy could help? The kind that will guarantee your site is of a set standard. So that you can run advertising and not have to worry about how effective your brand’s content is at grabbing someone’s attention.

Canny Creative will have the answers you’re looking for and then some. We specialise in a variety of services that help you get results. One of which involves creating an in depth SEO plan.

SEO will drive organic traffic to your website. The better you rank, the more leads you’ll generate.

Search engine optimisation also coincides with PPC. Google even found that optimised content, when structured correctly, had a much better click-through rate. This is great for paid advertising and it provides a boost to organic content too!

Two birds, one advertisers stone.

Study the Latest Trends and Media Buying Statistics

Statistics take up a lot of space in an advertisers arsenal. And with good reason.

Media buying stats highlight trends, which in turn give advertisers the chance to do some pretty creative stuff.

Or avoid certain branches of advertising altogether.

Take this advertising statistic, for example: Around 93% of consumers read up on reviews before visiting a business (Qualtrics).

With this knowledge, an advertiser might look to create an ad that highlights customer experiences – maybe a stylised video advert of some kind?

Content that showcases the importance of customer experiences – mixed with verbal reviews – could encourage new customers to do business with this brand.

Let’s do another: 76% of marketers don’t use behavioural data for online ad targeting (Razorfish).

This tells us your competitors might be slipping. Behavioural data is like gold for advertisers, too. If you’re looking to stay on top of your marketing campaigns and truly thrive in a potentially saturated market, well, this is the way.

Or one of the ways, at least.

You could reference these statistics directly in your advertising to stress the importance of your product or service!

These are but a few key statistics that we’ve pulled together from a simple Google search. In our next section we’ll be looking at some more advertising stats.

Those that should help you become a better marketer/advertiser. Or at least grant an alternate perspective.

Media Buying Statistics

Stats, stats, and more stats – all of the advertising variety.

That’s what we’ll be covering in this section.

Media buying statistics that are up to date and relevant in the current landscape.

Remember, the data collected through advertising-based stats help influence and shape creative campaigns moving forwards.

Keeping up to date with the latest statistics will ensure that your decisions are backed by facts and trends. Every smart advertiser knows that they need to stay with the times to be at the top of their game.

Trends change on a knife edge. So you might want to stay ahead of the curve if you want your advertising to hit right.

Okay, let’s take a look at some more key stats on advertising. This will cover all types of ads (digital advertising, radio advertising, traditional advertising, TV advertising, cinema advertising and more).

Let’s dive in.

1. 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority – HubSpot State of Inbound

Again, search engine optimisation is one of the leading ways that brands can grow organically.

SEO is one of the main examples of inbound marketing as it’s one of the most effective ways to generate interest in your brand or business, and what you have to offer, overall.

2. Running advertising on TV can increase its overall effectiveness by 40% – Thinkbox

TV advertising – and cinema advertising, to be fair – exists within its own medium for a reason.

Sure, you could say that the ads you see on YouTube are similar (some TV ads exist across mediums), but advertisers still see the benefits. Television ads are still just as viable to businesses.

There will always be an audience there.

3. There are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, with around 92.6% of that total accessing the internet via mobile – Statistica

If you aren’t structuring your ads around mobile, then you’re missing a trick.

Consumers are spending a hell of a lot more time on a smartphone. It’s partly the reason why native advertising is as strong as it is.

The lines between ads and content are so very thin. Use this to your advantage.

4. Attaching video content to emails can increase click rates by 300%. Interactive email content has increased the rate of click-to-open by 73% total – MTA

Interactive email marketing is used by countless marketers/advertisers to bridge the gap between potential customer and valued regular.

Many subscribe to email blasts, or fill in forms to access things like e-books. Only not a lot of them engage with what you’re sending them.

Make it more interactive via gifs and bright graphics.

This might help.

5. Gen Z and Millennials: Around 62% of consumers prefer visual search over any other type of new technology – ViSense

Another reason why video-based advertising is taking over is the fact that younger people are engaging a lot more with it.

Platforms like TikTok, Vine (RIP) and Instagram have streamlined visual search – connecting the dots so that users can find what they’re looking for very quickly.

Imagery trumps ad copy a lot of the time on these platforms, regardless of how informative/descriptive/helpful it is.

6. TikTok is the second largest app for consumer spend in 2020 – Hootsuite Digital 2021 Report

Speaking of TikTok, this statistic is rather eye-opening from an advertisers point of view.

Consumers are spending a lot more money on products/services through the app. TikTok is raking in more than Disney+, YouTube and Netflix on mobile.

Tinder currently leads the pack. That’s right, you can also run ads on dating apps!

7. Marketers (71%) believe that influencer marketing leads to a higher quality of customers and visitors compared to other channels – Media Kix

Influencer marketing has come a long way in recent years. To the point where it is impossible to ignore.

Giving an influencer a product to showcase amongst their followers, is a very non-invasive way of advertising. It’s one of the main ways you can beat the ad blocker!

8. 29% of marketers believe pre-roll, skippable video advertising on YouTube are the most effective format – SproutSocial

This advertising statistic is telling.

Telling in the sense that users are quick to skip an ad on YouTube to get to the video they originally clicked a lot faster.

It’s risky, but there is a workaround. Shortening your videos to around 5 seconds is one way to do it. Meaning viewers see your ad in its entirety.

9. Between 70% to 80% of online users ignore paid advertising and prefer organic-based results – Imforza

Paid advertising isn’t the end all be all, and yet, it helps.

Again, this coincides with SEO as the main type of organic inbound marketing. It’s one of the main reasons why you need to speak with us here at Canny. Our knowledge of SEO is second to none.

Let’s get you ranking!

10. 54% of podcast listeners say that they are likely to consider the brands they hear promoted on podcasts – Edison Research

Here’s a statistic that sheds light on the effectiveness of podcast advertising. It’s such an informal way of advertising too. Especially if you’ve decided to offer consumers an exclusive promo code just for listening.

The codes themselves are usually in reference to the podcast itself too which makes them a lot more memorable, thus increasing the likelihood of them remembering you.

11. The average attention span is 2.8 to 8 seconds – Mvix

We’ve saved arguably the most important statistic till last for a reason. It’s getting harder and harder to grab someone’s attention with advertising due to how much content is already out there.

News feeds, and even digital billboards, are heavily populated with advertising. The window of opportunity gets narrower and narrower as the years go by. In the year 2000, the average attention span was somewhere around the 12 second mark.

Now, social media and our dependence on screens has made this window a lot shorter. We’re easily distracted in the present day which does make life a little harder for advertisers.

Still, new opportunities are presenting themselves in the form of neuromarketing, programmatic advertising and platforms like TikTok.

The future is bright, and advertising always finds a way.

Some would say the future has already arrived. One look at those reality-breaking LED billboards in China will tell you that.

The Complete Guide to Media Buying and Advertising

And there you have it, the complete guide to media buying in full.

We’ve covered a lot on this journey.

We’ve taken a walk down memory lane by looking at the history of advertising and how it’s shaped the current climate.

Furthermore, we also identified the main subcategories of media buying (digital advertising, traditional or physical advertising, TV advertising and radio/podcast advertising) and all the major subtypes of each.

And who could forget the great advertising vs marketing debate and the difference between inbound and outbound marketing!

Media buying in the modern day continues to allow advertisers, and the businesses they’re involved with, to truly shine.

Certain avenues (*cough* digital advertising *cough*) might be over-saturated, but with the right campaign, the right method, and the right budget, you can generate leads and sales.

The sky’s the limit to advertising, which is what makes it such a fun topic to cover.

Do you know what else puts a smile on our face?

Helping brands and businesses get the most out of their advertising and propose strategies that bring brands to an optimal level.

That’s the Canny way.

We’ve elevated businesses and brands from every continent and are more than clued up on the latest advertising trends and techniques. We’re also well-versed in digital content marketing. So, if you’d like to come at media buying from both angles (organic and paid) for max coverage, we’ve got your back.

Seriously, check out our testimonials and examples of previous work to see our marketing abilities up close.

Are you next up in your market?

You tell us.

Get in touch, or download our advertising brief and pitch us something, either way, let’s talk.