What Does an Online Media Buyer Do?
In late November, we were invited to speak to St. Cloud State University’s Advertising Creative class, to bring insight about the overall profession of online Media Buying. Mark Eden, one of my former educators and professors of Advertising at SCSU, thought it would be important for his students to get some understanding of the emergence of online marketing and how strategic media buying plays a vital role in marketing/advertising departments. Michael and I initially had prepared a 15 minute presentation, but unknowing to us, the class was eager and willing to dive deeper into media buying than just a broad overview. The class, containing juniors and seniors, were prepared and full of questions.
Below are some of the things they learned about us:
- A quick history of W3i
- Successful company in the integrated interactive media industry for the past 8 years.
- Entrepreneur magazine ranked Freeze.com as the 31st fastest-growing new business in the U.S in 2004.
- Over 15 Million Unique Users Monthly.
- Over 4 Million Installs Monthly.
- Our responsibility
- We are responsible for the company’s advertising budget, and therefore, must work to get the most value out of each dollar spent, depending on the goals.
- The Pricing Models we use to make our buys
- CPM (Cost Per Thousand) pricing ensures that the publisher is paid, it is up to the advertiser to make sure they get the most for their money.
- CPC (Cost Per Click) pricing means the advertiser only pays once a user has clicked an ad and visited their site. This simplifies things greatly for the advertiser and distributes some of the risk to the publisher (if no one clicks the advertiser doesn’t pay).
- CPA (Cost Per Action) pricing puts the optimization responsibility on the publisher. If no users respond to the ad (convert) the advertiser pays no money. The publisher and advertiser incentives are aligned in this model.
- The daily routine of a media buyer
- Checking and researching current industry news.
- Completing important statistical reports that help form current and future strategic decisions for media buys.
- Researching trends
- The current state of the market
- With the economic market in such a state of chaos, it is our prediction that companies will shift their budget towards online because of its ability to track and retain data, the ability to make real time changes to campaigns, quick feedback, and proof of performance to better optimize current and future campaigns.
The 15 minute presentation soon turned into a 90 minute discussion, in what Mark later called an “eye opener”. With most businesses allocating more of their advertising budget towards Internet advertising and marketing, Mark thought it was crucial for his current and future students to know as much about online advertising and marketing as possible. He contacted me after the presentation and asked if Michael and I would be interested in speaking to his class next semester. We both agreed that it was not only a great opportunity to help educate the next generation of marketers and advertisers, but also a great chance to promote W3i and its presence in the local community.
Mitch Bain & Michael Liebelt, Marketing Managers; W3i, LLC
Michael and Mitch have 4 years combined experience at W3i (owner of Freeze.com), focusing on Search Engine Marketing, Display Advertising and Mobile Marketing in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.
