What Are The Biggest Mistakes Of Media Buying That Can Be Avoided

When it comes to marketing, your media buying strategies will be determined by what types of products and services you offer and how much money you have to invest. But one area that can make a big difference is knowing which media channels are effective for your business and which ones are not.

By now, most businesses know about the importance of social media in marketing campaigns. However, some media buyers may still feel overwhelmed when it comes time to determine which platforms should get top dollar.

That’s totally understandable since there are so many different options out there!

But don’t worry, we've got everything you need covered here. From YouTube to Facebook, Twitter to Snapchat, this article contains all the important information you need to effectively allocate budget dollars during your next campaign.

Focusing too much on your current audience

 

As mentioned earlier, media is a form of marketing that involves communicating with or targeting an audience. But what kind of audience? Yours!

The most common type of media buying is focused entirely on your current audience – readers who already agree with you about important topics and like your style and tone.

This can be very limiting as a marketer if you want to expand your brand’s horizons and reach new audiences.

By only focusing on your existing fans, you are not reaching out to anyone else but those people already have enough trust in you to listen to you.

If you wanted to increase your exposure, then you would need to find ways to gain their trust first before they will listen to you. This is not possible if you don’t have any exposure yet.

So, whether you are a beginner blogger looking to grow your business or someone who has been writing for years but still feel limited by how many subscribers your favorite blogs have, expanding your media profile is a great way to boost your visibility.

Being inconsistent with your marketing

As we mentioned before, media buying is only one part of our marketer’s toolbox.

The second most important factor in achieving success with advertising is consistency. Consistency can be limiting your spend to certain days or times, sticking to the same brands or products, or both!

By having these restrictions, you will know what changes occur due to outside factors such as weather or shifts in seasonality (for example, if winter clothing sales are happening, you may want to avoid stocking up then). You can also plan ahead and anticipate trends so that you do not need to overspend at the time of sale!

With all this consideration, there is an easy way to ensure that your advertisements do not vary too much. Use a computer program to manage your ads for you!

There are several good ad management programs out there that have features designed to keep things consistent.

Spending too much money

A common mistake is spending way more than you should on media advertising. This can be due to excessive budget constraints, or people buying into the myth that if we spend enough money, then the media will pick up the slack and promote us for it.

It’s not your fault when this doesn’t work! After all, the advertisers pay to get your attention so they’re willing to put in what it takes to do so.

But unless you have an abundance of cash to burn, there are some ways to maximize the effectiveness of your ads while staying within budget. You want to look at cost-per-conversion (CPC) metrics instead of simply looking at cost per advertisement (CPI).

By using CPC instead of CPI, you take out of the equation the expense of producing the ad before calculating how effective it was. Also, test different types of advertisements to see which ones generate the most response.

Getting stuck in negotiations

When you are buying media, or marketing for that matter, time is of the essence! You do not have hours to spend shopping before making your purchase, so it is important to know what tricks the sellers may be using to make their products seem better than they really are.

Trick number one: Over-elaborate descriptions and features

Thought for this article: How to Save Money Online Shopping

Description: This feature sounds great but cost quite a bit of money to implement. Most of these services have free versions, if you are willing to put up with limited functionality. It is best to do your research and see whether or not the paid version is worth the extra price tag.

Feature: This and that…and more!

It is very common to find vendors boasting about how many features their product has. While having lots of features can be helpful, overdoing it can backfire and hurt your brand image.

Consistency is much better than having too many flashy additions. Consistent branding will help people recognize your business and website easier.

Avoid letting buyers push you into adding unnecessary bells and whistles unless you want to run expensive advertisements. Budget properly for advertising campaigns and keep tabs on how much you spent to determine if the additional features were necessary.

Not using the time that you do have to make a sale

The second biggest mistake is not taking advantage of the media buying opportunities that you have during your initial contact with a company, their website, or through social media postings.

When you have someone’s attention, you can use direct response advertising, which are advertisements that aim to get you to buy a product or service immediately, or broadcast ads, which are longer and feature an advertisement message.

Direct response advertisements typically focus on a specific benefit of the product or service being advertised while the marketer calls out for it directly. For example, a car advertisment might emphasize how much space a vehicle has, what features it has, etc., whereas a health related ad would stress benefits such as weight loss or disease prevention.

Broadcast advertisements are usually one-way messages that promote or discourage something. A marketing campaign could be making a claim about how well X product works or warning people about potential dangers of Y ingredient.

There are many ways to run effective commercials. You don’t necessarily need to advertise by paying close attention to the advertisement, but if you noticed anything interesting, confirm whether there is actually a product or service available and see what price range they fall in.

By doing this, you will cut down on wasted money due to false claims or products that aren’t viable.

Not having a good grasp of your market

As mentioned before, media is an integral part of any successful marketing campaign. Without it, there would be no way to tell if your campaign is working or not!

Making mistakes related to media can have disastrous results. Luckily, most of these pitfalls are avoidable unless you don’t know what you’re doing!

The first step in avoiding this mistake is to make sure that you understand your audience. Who is your target audience? How do they spend their time? What content does they look at and enjoy?

By knowing more about your own audience, you will begin to brainstorm ways to provide them with the content that they want. You can create that content yourself, or hire someone else to do it for you!

There are many ways to gain knowledge about your market so that you can better serve them. Some of the best resources include talking to people around you, reading books and self-help guides, and looking through past publications and testimonials.

Not having a clear understanding of your customers

As mentioned before, media is a powerful tool that can be used for many different purposes. If you are not sure who your audience is or what they like, then it is difficult to create messages that appeal to them.

Your target market may have specific characteristics such as age, gender, income level, region, etc. Finding out more about these traits is important so that you can better tailor your messages for them.

Knowing your audience makes your job much easier because you do not need to test various messages if they do not work.

You will also know whether your message has been received and by whom. This helps determine how successful your campaign was and where you can make changes to improve future campaigns.

Not having a clear understanding of your products

As mentioned before, media buying is more than just buying advertising space for your product or service. It includes creating content to promote your product, designing your ads, finding appropriate ad slots for your business, and integrating all of this information into one campaign.

Making sure your audience can understand what you are offering and how it benefits them is an integral part of successful marketing. This article will discuss some things to consider when deciding which products to advertise and why.

It’s important to know who your advertisements are targeted at and whether they work for that person. A small business may not have large budgets, but they can still do effective media buying by targeting areas with similar products or services.

By using direct comparisons, your advertisement or website article can tell people about their competitors and why you are better. An easy way to do this is to use online comparison tools to find prices for and reviews of both yours and theirs.

Another trick is to see if there are any testimonials or videos of past customers. These could prove very helpful in selling your own product or giving you inspiration for new strategies.