Media buying process explained: Basics and best practices

Media buying in advertising used to be a manual, placement-driven task. It’s now a fast-moving, data-intensive function that spans dozens of platforms, channels, and buying models. Media buyers are responsible for stretching budgets further than ever.

This guide breaks down the full process: how media buying works, which methods and platforms to use, what best practices to follow, and how to avoid common mistakes.

What is media buying?

Media buying is the process of executing a media plan by purchasing ad placements across the right channels. It turns the media strategy into action by securing inventory, negotiating rates, and managing delivery to reach the target audience most efficiently.

Modern media buying process spans channels like:

• Traditional buying (TV, radio, OOH)
• Digital buying (social, display, search)
• Programmatic buying (automated, data-driven auctions)
• Emerging channels (retail media, influencer, CTV)

What is the difference between media buying and media planning?

Media planning and media buying are two sides of the same coin, but they serve different functions:

• Media planning focuses on strategy: identifying the right audience, channels, timing, and budget allocation.
• Media buying focuses on execution: securing placements, negotiating rates, and managing delivery.

Function	Media planning	Media buying
Goal	Decide where and how to advertise.	Execute the plan and manage delivery.
Focus	Strategy, targeting, and marketing budget allocation	Ad placement, negotiation, optimization
Key tasks	Audience research, channel selection, and setting marketing KPIs	Purchasing ad space, optimizing marketing spend, adjusting bids
Timeline	Before a campaign launches	During and after launch
Tools used	Marketing planning software and audience data tools	DSPs, ad servers, marketing measurement tools

Who executes media buying?

Media purchase is handled by a mix of in-house teams, external agencies, and automated platforms, depending on the size and setup of the organization. 

A quick breakdown:

• In-house media teams: Brands with larger marketing budgets often have internal media buyers who manage planning and execution directly. According to a survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 82% of member companies now have some form of in-house agency.
• Media agencies: Many companies outsource to performance marketing agencies specializing in media strategy, negotiation, and buying across multiple clients.
• Programmatic platforms: Tools like demand-side platforms (DSPs) automate large parts of the buying process, especially for digital and real-time bidding.

No matter who’s handling the media procurement strategy, the job today goes beyond just placing ads. Buyers are expected to prove value and make cross-channel optimization decisions quickly. 

Why is media buying important?

Media buying impacts how effectively your brand reaches the right audience and how efficiently you spend your budget. Even the best strategy falls short if the buying isn’t done right. Media buying helps:

• Drive reach and visibility: Buying the right placements makes your brand show up where your audience is already paying attention.
• Improve performance: Effective media buying leads to better outcomes, more clicks, conversions, and revenue, because your ads are delivered in the right context.
• Control efficiency: With media costs rising, buyers need to make every dollar work harder. Poor buying wastes budget on underperforming channels.
• Increase long-term growth. Media buying isn’t just about short-term wins. It influences brand equity, customer acquisition, and future profitability.

How does media buying work?

The digital media buying process includes software platforms that automate the purchase and delivery of ads across websites, apps, and connected devices. Unlike traditional purchases like TV media buying, which often involve manual negotiations and insertion orders, digital buying happens in real time and at scale. Here’s how media buying works.

Buyers use media buying platforms to access inventory at scale

Digital media buying happens through platforms, not people. Most advertising campaigns are run through:

• DSPs like The Trade Desk or DV360 for programmatic buying across display, video, CTV, and more.
• Self-serve ad platforms like Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, or LinkedIn Campaign Manager, which let buyers place ads directly on those networks.

These platforms connect buyers to massive inventories of digital placements across websites, apps, and streaming environments. According to Dentsu, in 2024, the programmatic ad spending made up about 59.5% of total global ad spend, showing the rapid adoption of the platforms.

The campaign setup involves defining targeting, budget, and bidding logic

Before campaigns run, buyers configure a set of rules within the platform:

• Targeting: Audiences can be defined by demographics, interests, behaviors, geography, device, and more.
• Bidding: Buyers set how much they’re willing to pay for impressions or clicks.
• Budget pacing: Daily and total spend limits are defined to control delivery.
• Ad creatives: The creative team creates assets to be uploaded and assigned to specific ad placements or audience segments.

All of this is controlled in-platform—no negotiation or manual coordination needed.

Impressions are bought through real-time bidding (RTB)

Most digital ad impressions are purchased through real-time bidding. That means:

• Every time a user loads a page or app, an auction is triggered.
• Platforms evaluate if that impression matches your targeting rules.
• If it does, your platform automatically bids for the placement.
• If you win, your ad is served within milliseconds.

The real-time process allows for precise and fast delivery. But it also requires buyers to manage cost, bid strategy, and performance across a massive volume of micro-decisions.

Targeting strategies are flexible, but changing

Buyers can choose from several targeting options depending on the platform:

• Contextual (based on page content or keywords)
• Behavioral (based on past actions like browsing or purchases)
• Lookalikes (based on first-party customer data)
• Geo and device (based on location, device type, or operating system)

With third-party cookies being phased out, platforms are shifting toward first-party data and contextual signals. Buyers need to adapt to the cookieless marketing world, which is reshaping digital targeting.

Campaigns are monitored and optimized in real time

Once campaigns are live, buyers watch for pacing issues, underperforming placements, or creative fatigue. Platforms provide dashboards with marketing channel performance metrics:

• Impressions and reach
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversions and CPA
• In-platform ROAS

But platform metrics don’t tell the full story. Each system reports in its own favor, often missing cross-media measurement or cannibalization.

Types of media buying platforms and methods: What to use and when

You can execute the media procurement strategy in various ways: manual, automated, in-house, or outsourced. The method you choose depends on your budget, team structure, campaign goals, and how much control you want.

Here’s a breakdown of media buying platforms and the process they involve:

1. Direct buying

Direct media buying is the traditional path: buying ad space directly from a publisher, broadcaster, or media owner. You negotiate terms manually and secure placements through insertion orders (IOs).

• Best for: Print media buying, radio media buying, OOH, premium digital placements (for example, homepage takeovers, podcast sponsorships)
• Pros: High-touch service, guaranteed placement, potential value-adds
• Cons: Slower, less flexible, harder to optimize mid-flight
• Tools used: Media plans, IO templates, email negotiation, ad servers

2. Programmatic buying (via DSPs)

Programmatic buying automates ad buying across thousands of websites and apps. You use a DSP (demand-side platform) to set bidding rules, targeting, pacing, and optimization logic.

• Best for: Display, native, video, audio, and CTV media buying at scale
• Pros: Scalable, efficient, real-time bidding and optimization
• Cons: Requires active management, risk of low-quality inventory without guardrails
• Popular platforms: The Trade Desk, Google DV360, Amazon DSP, MediaMath

3. Programmatic direct and private marketplaces (PMPs)

These offer a hybrid model: buyers can reserve premium inventory with fixed pricing through a DSP, without going through open auction bidding.

• Best for: High-quality publishers, brand-safe inventory, custom deals
• Pros: More control and transparency than open exchange
• Cons: Typically higher CPMs, limited scale
• Tools used: Same DSPs as above, with private deal IDs or direct negotiations layered in

4. Self-serve platforms (for search, social, and video)

These platforms offer direct access to major ad networks—no middleman required. You set up, launch, and manage everything through the platform’s UI.

• Best for: Paid search, paid social, in-app ads, performance marketing
• Pros: Granular control, strong native tools, quick setup
• Cons: Walled gardens and limited visibility into outside-channel impact
• Popular platforms:
  • Google Ads (Search, Display, YouTube)
  • Meta Ads Manager (Facebook, Instagram)
  • LinkedIn Ads
  • TikTok Ads

5. Retail media buying (for commerce-focused buying)

Retailers like Amazon and Walmart now offer their own ad ecosystems. The retail media networks (RMN) are important for brands that want to show up near the point of purchase.

• Best for: Ecommerce brands, product promotions, lower-funnel conversion
• Pros: Strong shopper intent, closed-loop attribution
• Cons: Higher competition, limited transparency into algorithmic preferences
• Platforms: Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, Instacart Ads

Key stages of the media buying process

Media buying follows a structured process, but in practice, it’s fast-moving, high-pressure, and packed with variables. It typically kicks in after media planning is complete: after defining the campaign goals, target audience, budget, and channel mix, it’s time to execute the plan.

1. Confirm campaign goals and targeting requirements

Start by aligning with the media planning team (or strategy lead) on the final campaign objectives. These might include:

• Increasing awareness (impressions, reach)
• Driving traffic or engagement (CTR, sessions)
• Generating leads or sales (conversions, revenue)
• Lifting brand perception or recall (survey data or proxies)

Next, lock in your audience criteria: age, gender, location, behaviors, device types, or intent signals. Make sure the targeting logic is consistent across platforms to avoid mismatched delivery.

Pro tip: Double-check tracking setup like pixels, UTMs, and conversion events before proceeding. Misaligned measurement can kill optimization later.

2. Select the right media channels and formats

Not every channel fits every objective. Depending on your industry, you’ll need to map each goal to the right combination of formats and platforms. For example:

• Awareness: Display, CTV, YouTube, OOH
• Engagement: Social video, interactive formats, native
• Acquisition: Search, retargeting, affiliate, paid social

Prioritize full-funnel optimization by balancing upper- and lower-funnel efforts. 

And while it’s tempting to rely on digital channels, make sure you’re considering your industry. Many industries still heavily rely on traditional media. In fact, according to eMarketer, over 54% of B2B advertising spend in 2024 went to traditional media outlets such as trade publications, direct mail, and in-person events.

Deliverable: A finalized marketing channel mix with estimated spend per channel and placement type.

3. Allocate media budgets across placements and platforms

Use historical performance (if available) to guide marketing budget allocation. Spread your spend based on expected impact, not just channel popularity. At this point, you should define:

• Spend per channel (for example, $40K paid social, $20K search, $15K CTV)
• Duration and pacing (even advertising flighting and bursts)
• Reserve budget for testing and reallocation mid-flight

The problem: Budget allocation will make or break your campaign. If you don’t have historical data and are just going by your marketing instincts, you’ll end up overspending and still not meet your sales target.

The fix: Leverage scenario-based marketing planning to understand how your allocation will impact your results. Keen helps you do that in one single click:

4. Purchase media inventory

Depending on the channel, you’ll either book directly or buy programmatically:

• Direct buys: Reach out to publishers, negotiate pricing and value-adds (bonus impressions, featured placement), and sign insertion orders (IOs).
• Programmatic buys: Set up campaigns in DSPs like The Trade Desk or DV360. Define bid strategies, audience layers, frequency caps, and budget pacing rules.
• Social/self-serve platforms: To build and launch campaigns, use Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Google Ads, etc.

Checklist before campaign launch

• Audience targeting double-checked
• Creative assets uploaded and approved
• Bids and budget pacing rules set
• Conversions and tracking fully tested

5. Launch and QA campaigns

Once inventory is secured, launch the campaigns. During the first 24–48 hours, focus on QA:

• Are ads delivering impressions?
• Are they hitting the right audiences?
• Is spend pacing as expected?
• Are key metrics tracking (clicks, conversions, view-through rates)?

Tip: Set automated alerts for overspend, under-delivery, or errors in performance tracking.

6. Monitor performance and optimize in real time

The media buying process isn’t set-and-forget. After launch, continuously monitor:

• Pacing: Ensure budget isn’t burning too fast or too slow.
• Media placement performance: Pause underperforming creatives or audiences.
• Frequency and reach: Avoid ad fatigue and ensure coverage.

Reallocate spending based on performance data weekly. For example, if retargeting CTRs are dropping but lookalike audiences are converting well, shift dollars accordingly.

7. Wrap up the ad campaign, report, and learn

At the end of the advertising flight, pull a full report covering:

• Delivery vs. planned spend
• Performance vs. KPIs
• Key wins and learnings
• Recommendations for next time

Final step: Document what worked, what didn’t, and why. Feed that data into future planning cycles.

Media buying negotiation tactics: 5 factors to consider

Negotiation still matters in programmatic advertising and media buying, especially when working with publishers, premium inventory providers, or non-auction-based channels. Here are five helpful media buying negotiation tactics:

1. Know your metrics before you start negotiating

Publishers want predictable revenue; you want efficiency and results. Come to the table with:

• Your historical performance benchmarks (CPM, CPA, CTR, etc.)
• Expected budget and campaign duration
• Target audience details (to show alignment with their inventory)
• Clear KPIs and what success looks like

When publishers know you’re organized and outcome-driven, they’re more likely to offer added value or flexibility.

2. Push beyond rate cards

Rate cards are just a starting point. Don’t be afraid to ask for:

• Lower CPMs or CPCs, especially if you’re bundling placements or committing upfront
• Bonus impressions or extended flights
• Priority placement or guaranteed viewability
• Flexible cancellation terms or performance-based clauses

Publishers often have unsold inventory and want to keep repeat buyers. Use that to your advantage.

3. Ask for a test-and-scale deal

If you’re new to a publisher or platform, propose a small test first. The test lets you evaluate performance without overcommitting and gives you leverage if the test performs well.

• “We’d like to start with a $5K test over two weeks. If it hits our target CPA, we’ll increase to $20K the following month.”

It’s a low-risk way to negotiate better rates at scale.

4. Negotiate value, not just price

Focus the conversation on what matters to your campaign: quality of audience, placement relevance, and performance guarantees. For example:

• If you’re buying podcast ads, ask for listener demographics and completion rates.
• If it’s display inventory, ask about viewability, fraud protection, and competitive exclusivity.
• If it’s sponsored content, clarify approval processes and headline control.

You want to protect brand integrity and performance, not just secure a cheaper CPM.

5. Document everything in the insertion order (IO)

Once a deal is finalized, make sure all negotiated terms are clearly stated in the IO:

• Flight dates and total spend
• Target impressions or delivery guarantees
• Bonus placements or value-adds
• Reporting frequency and format
• Cancellation or make-good policies

Having clear terms prevents confusion later and gives you leverage if expectations aren’t met.

Challenges of media buying

Media buyers juggle delivering results, justifying spend, and keeping up with constant change—all while dealing with fragmented platforms and limited visibility. Top challenges of media buying include:

• Platform bias and inconsistent reporting: Each platform reports success on its own terms, making it hard to see what’s actually driving the marketing incrementality across channels.
• Rising media costs: CPMs keep climbing, especially in competitive channels like social and CTV. And the rising costs are visible across channels. For example, Meta’s ad costs saw an average price per ad increase of about 10% in 2024 
• Data overload with no clarity: You’ve got dashboards everywhere, but none of them tell you what to do next. Decision paralysis is real.
• Pressure to prove performance: Clients and stakeholders expect outcomes, not just impressions. Buyers need to connect media spend to real business results.
• Lack of cross-channel media coordination: Channels are often planned and optimized in silos, leading to overlap, wasted spend, or missed opportunities.

Media buying trends in 2025

Media buying is shifting fast, driven by tech, privacy changes, and pressure to demonstrate marketing ROI. Review these top media buying trends shaping the way performance marketing teams work:

1. AI-powered planning and optimization 

Buyers are leaning on AI tools to forecast outcomes, identify saturation, and shift spend faster. AI-powered MMM platforms like Keen make this easier by showing where marginal returns drop off before you waste budget.

Read more: Ad spend optimization: Why you need an AI-powered strategy

2. Rise of retail media networks 

Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers are turning their owned channels into premium ad inventory. Buyers are moving their budget here to reach high-intent audiences closer to purchase.

Read more: Navigating the landscape of retail media networks

3. CTV and streaming growth 

Connected TV is pulling dollars from linear. It offers precise targeting and measurable results, but also higher costs and complexity, making optimization more important than ever.

4. Performance over platform reporting

Buyers are getting smarter about platform bias. Instead of relying on last-click media attribution or in-platform ROAS, they’re using tools like Keen to measure incremental impact across the full media mix.

A study by ANA analyzed $88 billion in programmatic ad spend and deemed 25% of it as waste due to invalid traffic, low-quality inventory, and sites built purely to monetize ads (“made-for-advertising” content). It also found that only $0.36 of every $1 actually reaches publishers, making it clear that in-platform ROAS often masks inefficiencies. 

5. Data deprecation and privacy pressure

With third-party cookies disappearing, buyers are prioritizing first-party data, contextual targeting, and cross-media measurement tools that don’t rely on user-level tracking.

Future-proof your process of media buying with Keen

Even with all the tools, one thing remains tricky: seeing the full picture across buying methods. Whether you’re running a programmatic campaign through a DSP, managing paid social in-platform, or testing a direct buy with a publisher, it’s hard to compare performance apples to apples.

But with Keen’s media planning platform, you streamline the media buying process. Keen evaluates every buying method: direct, programmatic, self-serve, retail media, affiliate, against actual business outcomes, not just impressions or in-platform ROAS. And you get the result in a user-friendly dashboard.

Keen’s platform for media buying agencies shows you:

• Which channels are driving incremental revenue
• Where you’re hitting saturation points
• How to shift budget across methods for maximum efficiency

Instead of optimizing within silos, you get to optimize your entire media mix, using causality to guide smarter investment decisions.Request a demo to see how Keen can help you create a smoother media buying experience.