Media Buying Platforms & Software
Media buying platforms and software are essential tools for anyone looking to efficiently and effectively manage their media buying campaigns. As the media landscape grows increasingly complex, these platforms provide media buyers with organization, automation, and insights to optimize their ad spending. In this article, we’ll explore what media buying platforms and software are, their key features and benefits, and some of the top solutions on the market today.
What Are Media Buying Platforms and Software?
Media buying platforms and software provide a centralized hub to plan, execute, and monitor media buying campaigns across channels like TV, radio, out-of-home, digital, and more. These tools offer media buyers workflow automation, campaign management, performance analytics, and integration with other martech solutions.
In the past, media buyers managed campaigns manually using excel spreadsheets. But today’s data-driven advertising landscape demands advanced software to integrate massive amounts of audience and performance data. Media buying platforms synthesize this data to optimize targeting, spend, and results.
Key features of top media buying platforms include:
- Campaign workflow automation
- Media inventory management
- Budgeting and pacing tools
- Analysis of audience insights and campaign performance
- Integration with advertising channels and data sources
- Planning capabilities for future campaigns
Media buying software runs the gamut from comprehensive platforms to specialized point solutions for different media types. Some popular options include:
- Omnichannel media buying platforms: Provide complete workflow management and insights across TV, digital, OOH, radio, and other media. Examples include Mediaocean, Strata, and Freewheel.
- TV-specific platforms: Focus specifically on TV ad inventory, optimization, and insights. Think iSpot.tv, SQAD, and SpotX.
- Radio-specific platforms: Offer radio-centric campaign management, rates, and audience data. Such as Marketron and WideOrbit.
- OOH-specific platforms: Enable out-of-home media planning, management and analytics. Like Broadsign and Vistar.
The ideal media buying software depends on your specific channel mix and needs. Many platforms also offer robust APIs to connect with other martech solutions used across your organization.
Key Benefits of Using Media Buying Platforms & Software
There are countless valuable ways media buying platforms and software can improve your media management and performance. Here are some of the top benefits these tools provide:
1. Centralized Media Workflow Automation
Consolidating your media workflow into a single platform significantly improves organization, efficiency, and team collaboration. Software automates manual tasks like tracking campaign progress, managing approvals, processing invoices, and more. Everything related to your media campaigns, from planning to execution to reporting, is housed in one centralized hub.
2. Holistic Campaign Optimization
Media buying platforms synthesize massive amounts of disparate data to help optimize your ad targeting and budget allocations across channels. You can use audience insights, competitive intelligence, and performance analytics to determine the ideal media mix and investment strategy. The software makes optimization recommendations based on your KPIs.
3. Detailed Performance Analytics
Robust analytics and reporting provide invaluable insights to continuously refine campaign performance. Media buying platforms connect to your martech stack to import campaign data and costs. You can then analyze performance by channel, audience, creative, time period, and more. These insights help you double down on what’s working and course correct underperforming assets.
4. Improved Team Collaboration
Your entire media buying team can access the platform to enhance collaboration. Pacing information helps teams stay aligned on budget status and make better optimization decisions. Task management and approvals foster cross-team transparency. Platform permissions allow you to control access and workflows across your group.
5. Increased Business Agility
Media buying platforms improve your operational agility to adapt to changing market conditions. You can quickly optimize budgets, audiences, channels, and creatives as needed. Inventory availability and competitive intelligence help you respond to external factors. The software also makes it simple to scale campaigns up or down.
Leading Media Buying Platforms & Software
The media buying software landscape consists of omnichannel solutions from major providers as well as specialized point solutions. Here is an overview of some of the top media buying platforms and tools:
Mediaocean
Mediaocean is an industry-leading omnichannel platform built for large brands, agencies, and media companies. It enables media workflow automation, campaign management, billing and invoicing, and performance analytics across all addressable channels. Mediaocean recently acquired Flashtalking to provide a best-in-class ad serving solution. The company also offers robust TV ad management capabilities through integrations with leading providers.
Freewheel
Owned by Comcast, Freewheel offers omnichannel campaign optimization and inventory management. It provides seamless workflow automation and performance insights across TV, digital, mobile, and OTT buying. Freewheel is known as a top provider of digital and connected TV ad management. It offers advanced brand safety, contextual targeting, and reporting capabilities.
Strata
Strata is an omnichannel media buying platform owned by Comcast that specializes in unifying direct and programmatic ad workflows. It enables automated campaign management and optimization across TV, OTT/CTV, radio, and digital media. Strata offers strengths in budget management, workflow automation, and performance analytics through its Campaign Converter tool.
iSpot.tv
iSpot.tv is a leading platform for TV and OTT ad measurement and optimization. It provides always-on measurement of TV ad performance, competitive intelligence, and audience insights. iSpot enables in-depth analysis of TV ad targeting, reach, frequency, attention metrics, and more. The platform measures ads across linear TV and leading streaming platforms.
SQAD
SQAD offers robust TV campaign management, inventory planning, and competitive intelligence. Users can research historical ad spend and airings data to optimize budget allocation and identify new opportunities. SQAD provides actionable insights to improve campaign efficiency, audience targeting, and results across linear, addressable TV, and OTT.
Broadsign
Broadsign is an out-of-home media management platform that helps brands and agencies manage OOH campaigns. It offers robust tools for DOOH and digital signage inventory management, scheduling, optimization, and reporting. Broadsign enables automation of the entire OOH workflow to improve operational efficiency.
Key Considerations When Selecting Media Buying Software
With many options on the market, it’s important to assess your specific needs and priorities to choose the right media buying platforms and tools. Some key factors to evaluate include:
- Channel mix: Review which media channels you need to manage to ensure the platform provides sufficient support and analytics.
- Campaign complexity: More advanced tools are required for large, omnichannel campaigns versus smaller channel-specific efforts.
- Budget: Opt for solutions that fit your budget in terms of both licensing costs and implementation needs.
- Data integration: Determine which advertising and martech systems you need the platform to connect with via API.
- Team workflows: Assess platform collaboration and permissions to meet your team’s management process needs.
- Vendor support: Research vendors’ customer service and training capabilities to ensure you get implementation assistance.
It’s also wise to consider platforms’ ease of use, analytics capabilities, inventory features, and vendor roadmap for innovation. Weighing all these factors will help you select media buying software that ticks all the boxes for your unique requirements.
Conclusion
Media buying platforms and software provide today’s advertisers with the organization, efficiency, and insights required to successfully manage and optimize media campaigns. Leading solutions like Mediaocean, Freewheel, and iSpot.tv deliver workflow automation, robust analytics, and omnichannel campaign management to enhance targeting, spend, and performance.
With the seismic shifts occurring across the modern media landscape, implementing a capable media buying platform is a strategic imperative for brands, agencies, and media companies. Taking the time to assess your specific needs and research the top vendors will help ensure you choose software that becomes an invaluable asset for your media buying success. The platforms discussed in this article are leading options to consider as you look to level up your media operations and results.
We hope that you haven’t missed the previous article about “Digital Media, Planning & Buying“.