Media Buying

Lots of Questions
 Who am I trying to reach?
 How many can I afford to reach?
 How often do people need to encounter my message?
 In which vehicles should I pursue message space?
 When should I communicate (day, week, month, year)?
 What markets and regions should receive extra
emphasis and which ones can be ignored?
 How can I take advantage of emerging media?
Media Selection Procedures

 Selection based on audience and costs

• What does your target consume?
• How much can you afford?
 Audience measures
• Gross impressions & Gross rating points (GRPs)
• Reach & Frequency - How many and how often
• Cost per thousand (CPM) and Cost per point (CPP)
 Gross Impressions

 In media, primarily concerned with accumulation of

audience
 Each audience member exposed to the message
is considered an “impression”
• Summed to equal “gross impressions”
• Audience size = gross impressions for single show
• For multiple programs, add audience sizes together for
total gross impressions (GI)
 Gross Rating Points
 Same logic applies to rating points
 Rating for individual programs are added
together to calculate the total rating points
accumulated across a schedule
 Gross Rating Points = GRPs
Ex. Rating for Program 1 +
Rating for Program 2 +
Rating for Program 3
Gross Rating Points
 GI and GRPs
 Gross impressions (GI)
• Total number of exposures - duplication counts
• Exposures (Ad 1) + Exposures (Ad 2) + Exposures (Ad 3)…
• 2 ads in 60 minutes each generate 6.5 Million HH impressions + 1
ad in NCIS: Los Angeles generates 8.5 Million HH Impressions
 Total impressions = 21.5 Million or 21,500,000 Gis

 To Convert to Ratings, must know the total audience size, in this

case, Total TV HHs (119.6 Million TV HH in US)
 Gross rating points (GRPs)
• GRPs = GI / Total population (x 100 to convert to %)
• Can be over 100, and often is
 5.4 rating + 5.4 rating + 7.1 rating = 17.9 GRPs
• GRP’s are easier way of allocating media weight
 Media Schedules
Program. Rating. Aud. Size Units GRPs GI

NCIS: LA 7.1 8.5 10 71.1 85.0

Big Bang 6.0 7.2 8 48.2 57.6

60 Minutes 5.4 6.5 14 76.1 91.0

Olympics 3.7 4.4 9 33.1 39.6

Total 41 228.4 273.2

 Huh?
 Your schedule generates 273.2 mm HH GI
yet there are only 119.6mm TV HH
• How is this possible?

 Your schedule generates 228.4 GRPs, with

each GRP equal to 1% of the audience
• How can you have more than 100%
 Duplication of Impressions
 GRPs and GI allow for the duplication
of impressions
• Someone might see more than one ad in
your schedule
 Ex. NCIS and 60 Minutes
 Ex. multiple episodes of NCIS
 Ex. multiple ads in a single show
 Reach and Frequency

 Percent of audience exposed at least once

• Overall - Household reach
• Target - Reach of specific audience

 Average Number of times exposed

• Average frequency x Reach = GRP
 Reach and Frequency

Viewers Average Number

GRPs = Counted X of Times
Once They View

GRPs = Reach X Frequency

Reach is net unduplicated audience

Frequency is average number of exposures

 Estimating Reach and
Calculating Frequency
 Back to our 41 unit schedule of ads
• GRPs = 228.4
• Reach = 75.0 (estimated)
• Frequency = 3.04

• Numbers comes from “reach curves” that

contain reach estimates for various media
vehicles and GRP levels
• Frequency is then calculated from reach
Frequency Distribution
 Effective Frequency

 Combines reach and frequency

 Threshold: minimum effective frequency
• Usually 3+
• Ideal exposure frequency
 Varies by message complexity
 Varies by strategic goals
 Cost Efficiency

 Cost in relation to target delivered

• Cost per thousand (CPM)
• Cost per rating point (CPP)
 CPP used to compare efficiency of
advertising media to one another
 Ad Schedule with CPM/CPP

Program Rating Aud. Size # Ads GRPs GI Cost / unit Total Cost CPM CPP
NCIS 7.1 8.5 10 71.1 85.0 400,000 4,000,000 $47.06 $56,282

Big Bang Theory 6.0 7.2 8 48.2 57.6 350,000 2,800,000 $48.61 $58,139
60 Minutes 5.4 6.5 14 76.1 91.0 275,000 3,850,000 $42.31 $50,600
Olympics 3.7 4.4 9 33.1 39.6 200,000 1,800,000 $45.45 $54,364

12,450,00
Total/Overall 41 228.4 273.2 0 $45.57 $54,503
 CPM
 CPM = Cost per thousand impressions
 CPM = Cost of ads / Total GIs in (000)

• Ex. CPM for NCIS

• CPM = $400,000 / 8,500(000) = $47.06

• Ex. CPM for 41 unit schedule

• CPM = $12,450,000 / 273,200(000) = $45.57
 CPP
 CPP = Cost per rating point
 CPP = Cost of ads / Total GRPs

• Ex. CPP for NCIS

• CPP = $400,000 / 7.1 = $56,282

• Ex. CPP for 41 unit schedule

• CPP = $12,450,000 / 228.4 = $54,503
 Media Plan Steps
1. Choose your mediums
2. Fill out the Media Buying Spreadsheet
3. Figure out how much you want to spend across
year
4. Fill out the Media Buying Flow Chart
5. Write up your media plan, which includes:
1. Reach and frequency goals
2. Duration, Timing, Regional Emphasis
3. Scheduling strategy (spreadsheet/flow chart
explanation)
4. Rationale of strategy
Media Buying Spreadsheet
 Media Buying Spreadsheet
 Impact Media
 Digital Flat-Rate
 Digital CPM
 Traditional Media
 Impact Media
 What you need:
• # Units per media buy
• Cost per unit (found in manual)

 What the spreadsheet will calculate:

• Overall cost ($ allocation)
 Digital Flat-Rate Media
 What you need:
• # Units per media buy (1 unit = 1 month, 1 ad)
• Cost per unit (found in manual)

 What the spreadsheet will calculate:

• Overall cost ($ allocation)
 Digital-CPM Media
 What you need:
• # units per media buy (1 unit = 1 month, 1 ad)
• Cost per mille (price per 1,000 impressions) (found in
manual)
• # impressions desired

 What the spreadsheet will calculate:

• $ allocation
 Traditional Media
 Traditional media is calculated from the “remainder” of your
budget
 Spot vs. National Media

 What you need:

• Cost per point (found in manual)
• % you want to allocate

 What the spreadsheet will calculate:

• $ Allocation
• GRPs (Gross Rating Points – you will use this in the flow
chart)
Final Product
 Media Buying Spreadsheet
Activity
 Say I wanted to buy the following things:
• Academy Award Ad Spot
• 1 month of billboards in the NYC market
(January)
• Five Promoted Tweets
• A Buzzfeed Article
• An Instagram Ad with 10,000,000 impressions

 How much would this cost?

 Media Buying Spreadsheet
Activity

 Say I wanted to buy the following things:

• Academy Award Ad Spot
• 1 month of billboards in the NYC market
(January)
• Five Promoted Tweets
• A Buzzfeed Article
• An Instagram Ad with 10,000,000 impressions

 How much would this cost?

• Answer needed
 Media Buying Flow Chart
 4 Spreadsheets
• Impact
• Digital
• Traditional
• Summary Chart
 Media Buying Flow Chart Tips

 Impact media used to launch campaigns or promotions

 Some media (e.g., radio, SEM) make sense to buy
continuously,
 Others (e.g., prime time) usually bought in pulses to
manage costs
 Digital and traditional media strategy doesn’t need to be
the same
Media Buying Summary Charts
 Media Plan Steps
1. Choose your mediums
2. Fill out the Media Buying Spreadsheet
3. Figure out how much to spend across the
year
4. Fill out the Media Buying Flow Chart
5. Write up your media plan, which includes:
1. Reach and frequency goals
2. Duration, Timing, Regional Emphasis
3. Scheduling strategy (explanation supporting
the spreadsheet/flow chart)
4. Rationale of media selection strategy
 Reach and Frequency
Goals
 Reach: How large is your audience?
• National audience or a specific region?
• Target a specific demographic group?
• Must decide whether reaching all is a priority

 Frequency: How often is audience seeing

ad?
• How often should your audience see it?
• Sometimes we need more frequency to be
noticed

 The broader your audience, the harder it

 Duration, Timing, and
Region
 Duration: When to when?
 Timing: When are your pulses?
• Media aperture: What daypart will you focus
on?
• Example: When would you advertise for
coffee?
 Region: Are you emphasizing a region
• Part of the country, metro area, county size

 This should be reflected in your

spreadsheets.
 Scheduling Strategy
 What is your overall strategy? (Pulse, flight,
continuous)
• Do you have different strategies for different media?
 Describe the media plan for each media category
(impact, digital-flat, digital-CPM, and traditional)
• You can describe digital together
• Be specific about which magazines, websites, radio
formats, tv shows, and cable networks you want to use.
 Editorial compatibility – Why does this medium’s
content make sense with your ad?
 Rationale for these choices – How do you know
these choices put the ads in front of the right
people?
Media Buying
From class
 GI & GRPs
 GI: Gross Impressions, total # of impressions
GI = Ad1 Views + Ad2 Views + Ad3 Views

 GRP: Gross Rating Points

GRP = GI / total population
GRP = viewers (reach) x # of times seen (frequency)
GRP = Rating of ad 1 + rating of ad 2 + rating of ad
3

 I have an advertisement that will be aired

twice on a show with a rating of 2.5. What is
the GRP?
 Another example
 I have an ad that will be aired four
times. In the first two instances, it
will be viewed 5,000,000 times each.
Then, it will air in a more popular
outlet, where it will be viewed
8,000,000 times. We will finally put
the ad online, where it will be seen
an additional 3,000,000 times.

 What are the Gross Impressions

 CPM & CPP
 CPM: Cost per thousand
CPM = cost of ad / total GI (in 1,000’s)

 CPP: Cost per point

CPP = cost of ad / total GRP

 I have an advertisement that cost

$100,000 dollars, that will be viewed
20,000,000 times. What is the CPM?
• 100,000 / 20,000(000) = $5.00
 GRP and CPP
 CPP: Cost per point
CPP = cost of ad / total GRP
 GRP: Gross Rating Points

 I am placing an advertisement in a
magazine that generates a 1.3 rating
at a CPP of $50,000. How much is the
advertisement? = $65,000