Media Planning: The Art of Setting Up Winning Ad Campaigns

Imagine this: Your target audience can’t stop talking about one of your ads. 

Why?

Because they all saw it at the right time and in the right place. 

That’s the impact of media planning. 

Media planning is an integral part of the digital marketing ecosystem. 

This post provides an introduction to media planning and detailed step-by-step instructions that’ll increase your knowledge about media planning—and your chances of marketing success. 

Let’s dig in. 

What Is Media Planning? 

Media planning is the process of determining how, when, and where your ads are shown to a targeted audience. Knowing the why behind your media plan will help you maximize your ad campaign’s reach. 

A media plan guides the ad campaign. Think of it as a blueprint for your campaign efforts.

A media plan should include:

• Objectives 
• Target audience 
• Selection of media channels 
• Resource allocation 
• Scheduling strategy for each chosen media vehicle 

We’ll explore each in more detail in the instructions later on. 

What Does a Media Planner Do? 

A media planner plays a crucial role in ensuring that advertising campaigns are seen by the right people, in the right places, at the right times. 

This role typically works for an advertising agency, in-house marketing departments, media companies, or even PR firms. The media planner creates a plan for a campaign’s media mix and often hands the plan off to a media buyer, who then negotiates with the media. 

Goals for a media planner include increasing their brand’s awareness, reach, and sales in the target market that the business wants to reach with its products or services. 

Here’s what a media planner typically does:

Conduct market research: Media planners study the target audience to understand their habits—what platforms they use, when they’re online, and what kind of content they consume.

Select media channels: Based on research, they decide which platforms (like TV, social media, websites, etc.) will be most effective in reaching the audience. The goal is to maximize exposure while staying within the budget.

Develop media plans: They create detailed media strategies outlining when and where ads should run, how often, and the budget allocation for each channel.

Manage budgets: Media planners ensure that the campaign spends money wisely, getting the most reach and engagement for the budget available.

Monitor campaigns: After the campaign goes live, media planners track its performance. They look at metrics like impressions, clicks, and conversions to see if the ads are working as expected.

Adjust strategies: If a campaign isn’t performing well, media planners adjust the plan—maybe reallocating budget or changing platforms to improve results.

Report on results: At the end of a campaign, media planners provide insights on what worked, what didn’t, and how future campaigns can be improved.

In short, media planners are the masterminds behind the strategy of where and when ads appear, ensuring brands get the best return on their investment.

Media Planning vs Media Buying

While media planners and media buyers work closely together, their roles are distinct but complementary.

• Media planners are primarily responsible for strategizing where, when, and how a brand's advertisements should appear. They focus on identifying the best channels, target audience, and timing for the campaign based on research and data.
• Media buyers, on the other hand, take the plan created by the media planners and execute it. They negotiate with vendors (such as TV networks, websites, or social media platforms) to purchase the actual advertising space or airtime. They ensure that the ads are placed at the best rates and that they reach the audience as intended.

Sometimes, especially in smaller companies or agencies, one person might handle both roles, meaning a media planner could also be responsible for media buying. However, in larger organizations or agencies, these roles are usually separate to allow specialization and efficiency

How Much Do Media Planners Make?

Media planners in the United States earn an average annual salary of around $65,000, according to data from Salary.com and RTDNA. 

Entry-level media planners typically make around $49,000 per year, while more experienced professionals can earn up to $80,000 annually, depending on their location and experience. 

Salaries tend to be higher in states like California and New York, where media planners can earn between $68,000 to $70,000 per year.

Like any job, media planning salaries can vary significantly by region, with locations such as San Francisco and San Jose seeing media planners earning up to $90,000​.

Why Do Ad Campaigns Need a Media Plan? 

Ad campaigns need a media plan because, without one, it’s like throwing darts in the dark—you might hit something, but it won’t be consistent or strategic. 

A media plan helps you figure out where, when, and how to reach your target audience effectively. It ensures you’re spending money on the right platforms, at the right time, and with the right message.

A media plan is essential for:

• Targeting the right audience: Focus on the platforms and channels your audience actually uses.
• Maximizing your budget: Avoid wasting money by allocating resources where they'll make the most impact.
• Timing your ads: Ensure your ads run when your audience is most likely to engage.
• Consistent messaging: Keep your message clear and aligned across different channels.
• Hitting campaign goals: Improve your chances of getting more clicks, sales, or brand awareness.

Without a media plan, you risk wasting time, money, and missing out on reaching the right people.

Types of Media

There are three fundamental types of media: paid media, earned media, and owned media. 

Each has the common goal of engaging with your target audience, but they achieve this through different means. 

Let’s take a look.

Paid Media

Paid media is ad content placed within marketing channels owned by external media entities (e.g., an ad in an online publication like Fortune, like in the example below) in exchange for a fee.

Owned Media

Owned media is the placement of ad content within channels the advertiser wholly owns (e.g., Forbes marketing its products on their site, as seen below). 

Earned Media

Earned media is the accumulation of organic brand mentions without paid promotion. One of the most common types of earned media is online reviews, like the example below. Other earned media can include organic exposure in the press or social media.

Types of Media Channels

Media channels traditionally fall into offline and online channels.

• Offline media channels include TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and out-of-home advertising (such as billboards and wayfinding)
• Online media channels include social media, online video, and digital advertising (such as display and native ads) 

Media Planning Tools

AdClarity - Advertising Intelligence

This tool offers a treasure trove of research for any advertising professional.

You can use it to research your competitors’ ad campaigns, analyze their spend, budgeting, and distribution of ads across publishers and social media networks. 

If you’re just starting out, you can quickly benchmark your competitors’ ad spending habits with this tool. Use those insights to structure your own media plan accordingly. 

AdClarity is available to try with a free 7-day trial in the Semrush App Center. After the trial period, plans start at $169/month.

Audience Intelligence

This tool is excellent for audience research, showing you all kinds of details about the audience of any X (Twitter) account. 

Use it to study a successful competitor and discover insights about their audience, like:

• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Media affinities
• Interests
• Top influencers 
• Buying mindset
• Socioeconomics 

And more! 

With this information, you can create an effective buyer persona to focus your media plan around. 

Then, plan your strategy to focus on the media affinities and interests that resonate with your target audience the most.

Audience Intelligence is also available in the Semrush App Center. You can view demo reports for free, and if you want to build your own it costs $150.

Media Plan Example + Template

Media plan templates are super handy pre-made frameworks that help you organize and manage everything for your ad campaigns—budget, channels, messaging—all in one place. 

They come in different types, like for yearly planning or digital ad buying, and can be customized with your data. 

You can review and download several free budgeting media plan templates from Smartsheet, including an annual media plan template, as seen here:

These templates will make it easier to plan and track your campaigns, optimize your spend, and keep everything organized. 

Know the Terminology: Media Planning Glossary

Get on a first-name basis with common media planning terms so marketing jargon never prevents you from seeing results. 

1. Ad Buy: acquiring ad space or time on various media channels intended to reach a specified target audience.
2. Ad Impressions Share: the percentage of ad impressions an ad or ad campaign generated compared to the total possible impressions within a media channel.
3. Ad Inventory: the total stock of available ad space or time slots media platforms have to offer advertisers.
4. Ad Placement: the ad spaces available, including size, type, and location (i.e., where a display ad goes on a website or a print ad is placed in a newspaper).
5. Click-Through Rate (CTR): a metric measuring the effectiveness of a digital ad or ad campaign on a particular site, based on the number of users who clicked on a defined link.
6. Competitive Intelligence: gathering data about competitors’ marketing and business activities to help inform decision-making in media planning—and beyond.
7. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): a metric quantifying an advertiser's total cost to acquire a new customer or lead through a media campaign.
8. Cost Per Click (CPC): the monetary amount an advertiser spends to get an ad clicked.
9. Dayparting: a strategy of scheduling ads or ad campaigns to run during particular times or days of the week to reach a target audience effectively.
10. Frequency: the average number of times someone was exposed to an ad or ad campaign over a defined period.
11. Gross Rating Points (GRP): the audience size reached by an ad or ad campaign, calculated by multiplying the reach (expressed as a decimal) by the frequency.
12. Impressions: the total number of times an ad or ad campaign was displayed.
13. Impressions Share: a metric that measures how effectively an ad campaign reaches its target audience compared to the total potential impressions.
14. Media Budget: the allocated funds for an ad or ad campaign across various channels within a specific time frame.
15. Media Buy: acquiring ad space or time on various media channels intended to reach a specified target audience.
16. Media Creative: an ad's actual imagery, design, and content.
17. Media Research: examining available data—from media consumption to audience behavior to competitive analysis—to inform media planning.
18. Media Schedule: a timetable detailing when and where advertisements will appear across varying media channels to maximize impact.
19. Media Vehicle: a specific TV program, website, magazine, radio station, etc. used to carry an ad or ad campaign (e.g., Cosmopolitan is a media vehicle).
20. Return on Investment (ROI): a metric assessing the effectiveness and profitability of ad efforts by taking net profits, dividing them by the investment made, and calculating a percentage.

Get Started with Media Planning

Feeling ready to take on the world of media planning?

You can get started with free trials of some helpful advertising and audience research tools from the Semrush App Center.

Then, check out our ten-step guide to making your own media plan.