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Tips on Media Buying
Posted by admin | Posted in Internet, Marketing | Posted on 25-04-2009
I am going to preface this post by saying 2 things. I’ve had good success doing small and mid 6 figure buys, but I’m not the best at media buying. Secondly, when I say media buys, I mean purchasing ad space through a network or large site, on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or dCPM (dynamic cpm) basis. I do not consider Facebook, Adsonar, Adsdaq, Pulse360, etc. to be media buying for this post.
After having spent a lot of money doing media buys, i’ve learned a few things:
- Rates are almost always negotiable. Either sign a larger IO or offer to prepay and you will almost always get a lower rate. Lower CPM pricing can make or break a media buy
- Just cause you see someone’s ad in a media buy doesn’t mean it is profitable. I make this mistake often. There are lots of variables as to whether you can make it profitable such as their CPM cost, their payout, but also they could also be running negative.
- Know you’re target market before you do a media buy. You should know your target demographics before you contact the network/site. Don’t rely on your rep to tell you what ages to target, often they just want to make the sale.
- Test the offer on Facebook first. I have found running an offer on Facebook first gives me a great idea if the landing page is good and what ages to target. Better to learn this info on Facebook than during a 6 figure buy.
- Make sure you know when you’re out clause is. Ask upfront before you sign the IO, you never want to get stuck in a bad buy you can’t get out of.
- I’ve never had success with Right Media. I have found on multiple buys that the traffic quality on Right Media is bad. I would just stay away from it. Yahoo properties and their Comscore 250 are a different story, but smaller right media sites tend to be bad.
- Don’t expect every buy to have ridiculous ROI or be wildly successful. My first buy tanked. My second buy tanked (lost like 25k), my 3rd buy rocked (like 400% roi), but every other one has usually been modest 10-25% roi. When doing big media buys, you usually have smaller margins and make up for them with volume (there are exceptions to this obviously).
- Do not sign an IO if you don’t feel comfortable with it. Trust your instincts, typically you will know more about your offer/landing page than your ad sales rep. If you don’t like the targeting, make them change it. If you really think the CPM price is too high, don’t sign it. Bottom line is don’t let someone badger you into signing an IO if you don’t want to. It will rarely ever work out in your benefit.
That’s just a couple of tips for media buying that i’ve learned from successes and failures. Also, don’t think you have to do media buys to be big. I know really big affiliates who never do media buys, but I also know guys who almost only do media buys. There are tons of traffic sources out there, some will work for you, some won’t.
Sweet post. I’ve been doing a few media buys recently and this post definitely helps. Good to know I’m not the only one who had a shitty experience with RM…
Sick media buying tips here.
The networks usually asked me to place their pixel in the conversion page, I am afraid they can see the data and steal the campaign. What’s your take?
Hi
If it’s not secret then which ad networks you personally use every day (tribal fusion, casale media etc)?
Thanks
yea that’s not info I share
@Cherry - Some networks will do that, so I am picky about which adnetwords I place pixels for. Most major networks won’t, but many mid to smaller ones will run in-house affiliate campaigns
also if it’s possible it’s good to have access to people to pause your campaigns and make adjustments during the weekend if something happens….
Good Post,
I’ve been using Pulse 360 actually which I still believe to be media buying. Definitely not in the vicinity of 6 figure costs but I’ve been playing around with to great extent. At this point, I’m taking either marginally loosing money or barely breaking even at best, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. Media buying is something that is very difficult to master, its an art in a way and a lot of people will fail. This ain’t no PPC, this is demographic marketing which entails you have some knowledge.
But if you succeed, wow, the profit potential is unbelievable.
Again, great post
- Gabriel Hunter
brandon could you please recommend a good course that will get me started in the right direction as far as media buying?
Brandon,
Excellent tips here.
Can you elaborate on how much data is necessary from Facebook to make a decision that this product works?
Thanks,
Mark
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Great write up on media buying! I just stumbled across your blog for the first time and you got some really helpful information.