The Importance of Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a crucial foundation to acquiring new consumers. It refers to people’s ability to recognize your brand amongst others and can help them become familiar with your brand, choosing it over competitors. There are many advantages to generating brand awareness and various ways to achieve it. In this piece, we’ll explain how online and traditional media buying strategies can be utilized to increase brand exposure.

Benefits of Brand Exposure

In the past, brand exposure was done through traditional media such as radio, print ads, billboards and flyers. Now, media buying has taken a digital approach and has grown in remarkable ways. One of the obvious advantages is that brands can scale in new places, meaning they can reach new audiences through varying channels. In addition, brands can also make the most of their marketing budget by targeting the segments of their audience most likely to purchase from them.

The true value of a brand lies in the people’s experience of it.

Brand exposure can also mean improving brand perception and brand equity which contributes to overall brand loyalty and can allow companies to set higher prices due to their higher perceived value. In a competitive landscape, it is important to define yourself as a brand and have a voice, rather than just to show what products you offer. Brands that can showcase themselves as more than just a business are usually more successful than their competitors.

Different Types of Media Buys and Their Advantages

Online media buyers often use the following strategies to execute their media plans:

• Manual bidding: bidding on ad space and managing bids directly on a platform.
• Programmatic buys: algorithm based real-time bidding on ad space that matches consumer profiles.
• Direct buys: negotiating ad rates and run times with advertiser.

The price for online media buys depends on page placement, how many pages the ad will appear on, ad size, length and frequency, website traffic and user demographics. The main advantage of online media buying is that it is cost effective and has a high ROI since media buyers know which placements tend to generate the most engagement.

In traditional TV media buying, a variety of factors must be considered such as time, space, demand and rates. The price of TV media will depend on the specifics of the advertising campaign such as whether they appear in a city, regionally or nationwide. The main advantage is that the large scope of audiences will generate high impressions but can also show lower conversion rates as the target market may be too broad.

How to Successfully Master Media Buying (Bonus Tips on Standing Out)

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to navigating the media buying process and oftentimes getting results comes from personal trial and error. However, we have some tips you can surely benefit from.

• When advertising banners on a publisher’s site, ensure the brand logo and colors are visible, include any promotions on the banner. Also, don’t forget to include call-to-action buttons with terms and conditions.
• Ensure that ads are mobile responsive and display accurately on all platforms and devices.
• Consider using programmatic media buying – it’s simple, just set a target, specify your cost per click or impression, include your ad then let AI do the magic for you.
• When buying ads for TV, it is important to be aware of events happening so that you can ensure your ad doesn’t get bumped. Pro tip: make sure to negotiate that your ad cannot get bumped from the agreed upon time.
• When purchasing radio ad time, it is optimal to get space that airs early in the commercial break or at the close. Listeners tend to tune out during the bulk of commercial breaks.

Final Thoughts

Getting exposure for your brand can seem like a simple goal, but it can be rather complex. The secret of achieving this lies in the process of going about it. It can be confusing to navigate the media buying process at first, however, staying ahead of top media buying strategies and understanding their advantages can better optimize your strategy and spend.