Web Media Planning Overview: Consider All the Variables Keith Pieper ClickZ Weekend Guy Chief Idea Officer Specktrum Interactive When you make a buy, what do you consider? Banner size? Price? Reporting? Service? There are literally dozens of variables that could influence your media buy. But no one (that I know of) teaches internet web media planning or buying. Let me attempt to provide you a general framework to consider when planning your buy - perhaps there are things you have overlooked? 1. Objective. Of course, every business task starts with an objective. Media is no different. More than likely your objective will be to brand, get clicks or generate action. Hence, your objective is image or awareness, traffic, or leads, sales and downloads, or some combination thereof. 2. Study the target market to determine target criteria. Who is your prime individual target? If you could pick your customers and could only pick one, what would his or her characteristics be? Once you've established lifestyle, demographic, geographic and other criteria for your primary individual target, expand on that target to include secondary targets. 3. Historical effectiveness. Often times, some sites will naturally perform better than others. Often, this phenomenon is immeasurable but does provide quantitative indicators. For instance, what is the entire site's average click-through rate? How about average keyword click rate? Ask if they have classified and segmented their historical data and could provide it for your specific industry on their site. How about their audience growth trend? Or is it in decline? This could signal good or bad news - or perhaps they made some drastic changes. 4. Cost. Look at cost and rates from different angles. For instance, how targeted can they get? What are the costs for targeting? Expect to pay a premium with each target criteria included. Inversely, expect increased effectiveness and efficiency with more target selections. Consider reach and frequency. Many sites can tell you average frequency using cookies or some other method. And many times they can even offer length of average visit broken down by page. Reach (audience size) is typically obtained from third party sources like MediaMetrix or Relevant Knowledge. Of course, reach and targeting and frequency all work together to provide an overall balanced value: you may not need massive reach if your target is X size and visits X times per week. Consider all three very carefully when buying. But start with your prime target first and expand reach to secondary targets. 5. Context. Reach, frequency and targeting are easy and readily measured and used. However, there are some other context variables you should consider with common sense and a little consumer insight. Consider the banner's location on the web site - the closer it is to the home page, or more shallow it is, the more effective it likely will be. A good example of this is the little ad on Yahoo's home page - it reaches many more people than banners 5 tiers down, but is not targeted. Consider the banner's location on the web page itself - my gut instinct says the closer to the top, the better it will perform. This can be offset if the same banner is placed on the top and bottom of pages. Consider placement on the page right vs. left - left is likely better than right because people read left to right. How about clutter - how many other banners are competing with yours for eyeballs on that same page? The more ads, the less you should pay. How about timed rotations (when ads are rotated every 30 seconds or so)? I've seen data that suggests non-timed banners are more effective - naturally, the longer an impression the more engrained it becomes. it's the same reason you'd buy a 2 minute TV spot instead of a 30 second spot. Consider if the banner ad is framed or not. I've seen data that suggests banners that are framed are more effective - primarily because the user cannot simply scroll away and avoid the ad. Consider if you can get category or some other exclusivity. Don't overlook the site as a whole - ease of navigation, originality of content - this can rub off on you as an advertiser, good or bad. 6. Banner. Standards aside, the bigger a banner the more effective. This goes to say why intersitials have so much impact - they potentially fill the whole screen! Be prepared to pay more for bigger ads. Also consider creative types - Java, Shockwave, video. Being different is being effective, and new ad technologies are sure win for standing out. Consider also whether the banner ad loads as the first graphic on the page. At one point, CNET loaded ads first (It appears they still do that). It's a bonus in your corner when users have a few extra seconds of impression before they dig into page content. 7. Control. If you have a demanding placement schedule, you'll want to pay the premium for control. You should be able to change your create frequently as needed - again, a premium price but much more effective. It's been said that banners can burn out anywhere between 200 and 400 thousand impressions - of course this is a function of frequency control. Consider how much lead time they need to change the creative - the better site buys are obviously quick on their toes here. Consider the flexibility of rate packages and whether the impressions are guaranteed. Both will cost you more. 8. Negotiate the buy. 9. Analysis tools. This is a critical area that is often overlooked - what kind of reporting do they provide? How often? Daily, weekly, monthly? How detailed? How accurate? How are they delivered? Web, email, overnight? Here is where service comes into play in the price. If you want daily, detailed, web based reports with real-time analysis capabilities, be prepared to pay. Are they audited? 10. Savor Success. Media planning and buying can be as simple as picking up the phone. But to get a real value, don't overlook the small, important things that will make your life easier down the road. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.clickz.com/archives/011098.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -