A media buyer is a person who places and negotiates the price of all the ads on different media. This media can be television, print, radio, or digital.
They ensure that the ads are placed on relevant and favorite sites. They have to consider the length and size of the placement of the ad on the website.
They are also responsible for ensuring that the budget does not exceed the budget for the advertising either while preparing the ad or while placing the ad on the website. They ensure that the advertisement reaches the maximum number of the target audience and is within budget.
The media buyer may work individually or with the advertising agencies. These days freelancing media buyer has become a popular trend in the advertising industry.
Having knowledge of digital marketing is essential for media buyers because media in digital marketing is not only economic compared to other forms of media but also has a wider and specific targeted reach.
A media buyer is expected to have exceptionally good communication skills in both verbal as well as written communication. Graduation in marketing and or communications is required to be eligible for the role of a media buyer.
Apart from communication, a media buyer is expected to have good negotiation skills, and networking skills are mandatory for this role.
Media buyer is required in almost every industry in order to promote their products and services to the end customers. Following is the role of media buyer:
#1. Media management
Planning the media for the customer and managing everything related to it is one of the most important roles of a media buyer. The media buyer makes a plan related to the ad placement, along with the estimated target audience and the reach of the media.
This is planned within the budget sanctioned by the client. Necessary changes may be made to fit the requirement of the client. The media buyer should prepare a detailed estimate giving delivery prices and the final budget required by the client.
There may be cases wherein the prices may go lower or higher than expected, and both clients, as well as the media buyer, should be prepared for the same.
After the media is approved the media buyer should manage all the technicalities of posting the advertisement and ensure it reaches the target audience.
Feedback if any from the audiences passed on to the client by the media buyer.
#2. Negotiations
The media buyer is also responsible for contacting the media representative to establish a base price for the advertisements and negotiate for them. The media buyer has to have contacts in all of the media space where advertising can be done.
Write from television to radio or print ads to digital space the media buyer has to know which ads would work at which place and what would be the relevant target audience.
The media buyer should understand the requirements of the client and then propose, negotiate, and be a mediator between the media representatives and the client.
#3. Business partnership
Media buyers establish business partnership with their media representatives and pull an extensive amount of business. There may be a mutual understanding between the representative and the media buyer, and some commission might be passed on to him, but the fact remains that media buyer is the primary business generator for the representative.
This is productive for both media representative as well as a media buyer.
The media buyer has to have contacts in all of the industry of resident media so that different options can be presented to the client and can be tailored and customized according to his need. Media buyer can always incentivize this business partnership.
#4. Mediator
Media buyer should have contacts everywhere in the industry right from market research to market planner. There are times when media buyer has to analyze market information and get the demographics data or other relevant data which is required for an advertiser to planners advertising.
The media buyer may have important inputs for the client regarding the advertising demand and the reach to the customers. This information can be collected from the market research team, which is why the media buyer has to remain in contact with them.
The media buyer has to have contacts in different industries and their marketing teams to convey different options of media buying. The industries may have their own media buyer, but even that media buyer has to you have relations in the advertising field.
The more contacts the media buyer has, the better will be the final delivery of the advertisement.
#5. Revenue generator
A media buyer who is associated with an organization has the primary job of revenue generation. More often than not, the media buyer associated with an advertising firm or a media planning firm.
Their job is to bring different clients to utilize their advertising media and sell the advertising space in order to generate revenue. The media buyer also generates revenue for the client indirectly.
Advertisements, if successful, increase the sales of the client; thus, media buyer increases business for their clients also.
#6. Campaigning
In some cases, media buyer helps in campaign preparation of the marketeers by providing technical information and being the missing link between the advertisement department and the market.
In the case of the inhouse advertising department, the media buyer, along with other teams of advertising and marketing plan as well as execute the campaign.
Although the media buyer does not handle the campaign directly, he is responsible for major steps, including media space buying.
#7. Reporting
Once the campaign is decided and initiated, the media buyer has to monitor the campaign and also provide a report. This report will have ROI as well as reach specifying the outcome of the campaign.
The report is usually submitted to the marketing department of the organization or in other cases to the client dealing on behalf of the company. The ROI also mentions the reach, and the ratio of targeted vs. reached the audience.
