A media planner and buyer plays an important role in the advertising of products and services. If you have always dreamed of working in the advertising and marketing industry, media planning may be the discipline that you should consider pursuing. As a key member of the advertising team, a media planner and buyer are tasked with the purpose of analyzing data and constructing innovative strategies to maximize the profits that are generated through advertising on different media channels. If you would like to know more about the roles and responsibilities of media planners, read the job description below and decide if this is the role that you would like to play in the industry.
What Do Media Planners Do?
Typically, the roles of the media buyer are combined with the roles of the media planner. If your dream is to work for the large company, you may hold either the media planner or media buyer title separately. As a media planning specialist, you will collect data on different media channels and then analyze this data to determine which option will have the greatest impact in the market that the organization is targeting. You may have to collect a data on consumer behavior, buying trends, viewing trends, cost for advertising space, response rates and preferences within the demographic so that you can recommend which channel would reach the largest group of consumers.
What Do Media Buyers Do?
Once research has been completed, the planner will turn into a buyer and obtain price quotes for advertising space on specific days of the week for at specific times of the day. It is the buyer’s job, to look for the best possible prices for media space by choosing the appropriate frequency of advertising and the best time of day to run the ads. Once data and pricing quotes have been attained, the planner will then write recommendations that can be used by the creative team and management to take the appropriate course of action as they deploy the campaign. Since the roles are so related, it is very common for the titles to overlap.
How to Become a Media Planner and Buyer
If this is the profession that interests you the most in advertising, it is time to get the educational and professional experience that you need to leap into the field. Graduates from all fields are welcome to enter media planning, but students who are attending schools strictly to pursue a career in this field should earn a degree in marketing, journalism, sales and advertising, or business management to get the most recognition by HR recruiters. A bachelors degree is sufficient, but earning in a master’s degree or MBA may help you beat out other candidates when there is a high level of competition.
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The average salary for a media planner in the United States is $47,000 per year according to Glassdoor. You may be able to increase your earning potential by gaining experience, earning an advanced degree, or climbing up the ladder to become an account manager or an advertising executive. With the demand for more experienced media planners projected to rise as more media channels are created online and offline, the salaries are projected to grow as well. Now would be the time to learn your degree to enter this field. Start researching different accredited marketing degree programs, and build the skills that you need to become a successful media planner and buyer.
