Here at Digital Willow, our team has decades of experience in media planning and buying. We understand that investing your marketing spend requires thought, planning and negotiation. It is all too easy to get pulled in one direction by a strong sales proposition – we help our clients align investment to business objectives. Our experience and expertise sets us apart from other media buying agencies and can save you thousands and oodles of time.
With the exception of the Coronavirus in 2020, media spending globally has been growing for the last 15 years. In 2012 media owner revenue worldwide was estimated at 406.99 billion USD, by 2027 that figure is predicted to be 1075.38 billion USD. (Statista, 2022).
As a business, how do you navigate all the choices out there in the market? How do you decide which ad placements are best for your brand? It is these types of questions that we love solving at Digital Willow. For over 20 years we have been tweaking the media mix for our clients and challenging and improving their media buys.
How Does Media Buying Work?
You may have a media plan already in place (if not check out our media planning services). If so, perhaps you have the core channels set up and running but you’d like some inspiration or new thinking. Maybe your current team isn’t pushing the boundaries on new formats or opportunities. Perhaps your business is ready to expand to new markets and you need some help as you grow. Or perhaps you are finding that to squeeze the return on investment out of your media buying, it is time to pull in our experts.
However you need help with your media buying, we are here to complement your internal skills and zero in on where we can make the biggest difference to your campaign performance. We make your business objectives our own. Unlike some of the big media agencies, we aren’t locked into publisher deals that might not be good for our clients. We are completely independent and neutral in our buying, the most important thing is getting the best value for you.
Using an Ad Server for Digital Campaigns
One common reason clients come to us is when they are struggling to understand the real value of media buying with a publisher directly. For example a finance or technology publication. They may spend a chunk of money and then have to rely on the salesperson to tell them how many digital ads were actually served. At some point, every client wonders if the numbers are reliable.
To help solve this problem we recommend using an ad server for media buying and will manage this for our clients from start to finish.
An ad server is a tool that aids in delivering online advertising campaigns. Using an ad server can be beneficial for media buying for several reasons. First, an ad server allows you to easily manage and optimise your campaigns, helping you to get the most out of your advertising budget and sense-checking publisher reports through independent verification. Additionally, we use an ad server to help our clients track the performance of campaigns, providing valuable insights into which ads are performing well and which ones may need to be adjusted. Ultimately, an ad server is a powerful weapon for media buying that helps to deliver your ads to the right audiences at the right times, increasing the chances of them being seen and generating a positive return on investment.
Brand partnerships with both editorial and media buying elements
Brand partnerships boost brand equity. There may be core publications that are so aligned with your brand’s values and target audience that building a deeper relationship with them is a logical and strategic move. Fine-tuning these partnerships takes time, effort and great project management skills – something that your team might not have the bandwidth for. Digital Willow can help negotiate these deals and manage the various elements across editorial, media, creative and investment to take the pain out of your day-to-day work.
Alternatively, you might prefer to keep the editorial relationship in-house. We work with some clients who prefer to have direct lines with editorial teams of specific publications but utilise Digital Willow to represent their business as media buyers for the paid advertising elements of the partnership. It can be a winning strategy to let us be the bad cop, negotiating on your behalf, whilst you work your magic with the editorial team.
Take a look at some of our brand partnership case studies:
Targeting global expats for a finance business
Experienced Media Buyers
Media buying at the right time, in the right place and for the right price is a specialised skill set. A rookie mistake can be extremely costly. Similarly, if you aren’t participating in the ad market as you should be, you are missing out on scale and growth opportunities.
So, perhaps it is time to review your current media buying process and get some help from the experts. We hope you agree that having specialist support to navigate the ad space and spend wisely for your business is a partnership well worth exploring.
Ready to elevate your media buying strategy? Contact the team at Digital Willow to discover how our expertise can propel your online presence to new heights.