Media planners and buyers, like us, develop a media mix by evaluating the objectives of a campaign and the properties of the media that could be used to deliver those objectives - how we do it isn't for this blog post, but, one of the things that we do have to consider is the budget.
We have to look at how each media platform or channel will provide a cost-effective contribution to reaching the campaign objectives. We will then plan the best media mix, of course, within budget.
Organisations of all different shapes and sizes, with varying budgets and unique objectives, know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to budgeting for a media campaign.
All media plans (and the corresponding budgets) have to be bespoke. They're unique to the organisation and their brief.
Yet, despite these differences, all media plans must operate within the constraints of a budget. It's rare for a brand not to have budget parameters.
We've pulled together a selection of questions that we believe are always worth asking yourself (or a budget holder), before settling upon a budget:
- Is the advertising (and media) budget linked with overall marketing objectives?
- Is the budget fixed on a percentage of sales whether that be the past, present or anticipated?
- Is the budget objective-based? Or is it going to be loosely based on what the competition spends in order to steal some of their market share?
- Who is the target audience?
- What media type will be most useful/effective in reaching the target consumer?
- Which media channels and formats would best fit the creative you have available?
- What is required to get the target consumer to take action?
- How much profit is expected to be earned for each pound spent?
- What is the cost efficiency of the media considered?
- How much flexibility is there in the media plan, can it run on or take into consideration media deals?
- What plan have you and/or your media planning and buying agency, got in place for post-campaign analysis?
We love developing media plans that are cost-effective and able to help achieve organisational marketing objectives.
Find out just how happy media budget allocation makes us by getting in touch to discuss any of the above.
