Media buying can be a tricky game if you don’t know what you are doing. The #1 factor for media buys is demographics. So any offer you are promoting should match the target demographics. This yields higher conversions without having to test so much to figure what is working.
There are some important sites you need to know of when going into media buys and these are what I suggest (Ya, I know these sites are already known, but do you use them the way you are supposed to?):
- Google Ad Planner – This site allows you to search sites that have media available for purchase by demographics or by URL. Excellent resource.
- Quatcast – Type in any URL into Quantcast and get demographics. You can then look at the affinity sites that Quantcast gives you and look at those demographics. Quantcast is a kick ass demographics research tool. You can then take these demographics and use their planner (or Google’s) and find more sites for the target market you are going after.
- Compete – Very similar to Quantcast except they give you keywords. Compete also has a paid version where you can do more in depth analysis
- Alexa – Alexa is unique in that it has been around the longest and it may just have “better” and more accurate data than the others. I could be wrong here, so someone correct me if I am.
Now that you have your demographics and target URL’s you want to figure out which Media Agency’s have that demographics. This is probably the more important website of all time when doing media buys and market research. Not many people know about this website and you should. comScore’s services are a bit expensive, but if you got the money, USE IT on this.
comScore - This website IS the all encompassing website for media buys, market intelligence, media planning, tracking, and everything.
Every month they release reports that analyze the whole internet marketing scene. Be sure to watch their Press Releases section at http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases
Make sure you download their “comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for October 2009″ report. They have a new one every month. This thing is amazing. Shows you upcoming trends, what’s hot, and where media is being bought.
Table 2 shows you “Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors.” Now who wouldn’t want that?
Below is the one from October. It basically says that eCards is a upcoming trend along with other markets. Get your Christmas campaigns up NOW!
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | |||
| 9-Sep | 9-Oct | % Change | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 198,378 | 198,218 | 0 |
| e-cards | 19,023 | 21,867 | 15 |
| Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 26,162 | 29,953 | 14 |
| Automotive -Manufacturer | 23,150 | 26,501 | 14 |
| Business/Finance -Online Trading | 10,347 | 11,383 | 10 |
| Retail -Apparel | 58,135 | 63,434 | 9 |
| Career Services & Development -Training and Education | 8,971 | 9,770 | 9 |
| Technology -News | 59,694 | 65,005 | 9 |
| Retail -Toys | 18,870 | 20,546 | 9 |
| Gay/Lesbian | 3,699 | 3,969 | 7 |
| Business to Business | 37,777 | 40,292 | 7 |
Table 4 is what particularly interests me. This is probably the BEST table to use when starting out with media buys. This list is a list of the Top 50 companies that own media on the internet. The table below is a copy of it. Why not start contacting these companies and negotiating deals?
Building relationships with people at these companies will only help you. It’s 90% of how low the rate on your media buy can go. Seriously. Search for them on LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc. IF you have a chance to go to Ad:Tech – GO and meet these people. Become friends with them, tell them what you do, then tell them to hook you up. Simple right?
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 198,218 | 100 | |
| 1 | AOL Advertising** | 180,422 | 91 |
| 2 | Yahoo! Network** | 174,007 | 87.8 |
| 3 | Google Ad Network** | 171,881 | 86.7 |
| 4 | Tremor Media -Potential Reach | 165,310 | 83.4 |
| 5 | ValueClick Networks** | 163,023 | 82.2 |
| 6 | FOX Audience Network** | 158,390 | 79.9 |
| 7 | Yahoo! Sites | 158,251 | 79.8 |
| 8 | Specific Media** | 157,564 | 79.5 |
| 9 | 156,620 | 79 | |
| 10 | Microsoft Media Network US** | 155,368 | 78.4 |
| 11 | BrightRoll Video Network -Potential Reach | 152,694 | 77 |
| 12 | 24/7 Real Media** | 150,133 | 75.7 |
| 13 | YuMe Video Network -Potential Reach | 141,803 | 71.5 |
| 14 | Traffic Marketplace** | 140,104 | 70.7 |
| 15 | Tribal Fusion** | 137,633 | 69.4 |
| 16 | AudienceScience (formerly Revenue Science)** | 137,157 | 69.2 |
| 17 | Collective Network** | 134,162 | 67.7 |
| 18 | SpotXchange Video Ad Network -Potential Reach | 133,903 | 67.6 |
| 19 | interCLICK** | 132,198 | 66.7 |
| 20 | Adconion Media Group** | 132,196 | 66.7 |
| 21 | Casale Media -MediaNet** | 130,305 | 65.7 |
| 22 | Advertising.com Video Network -Potential Reach | 125,463 | 63.3 |
| 23 | Turn, Inc** | 125,100 | 63.1 |
| 24 | Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) -Potential Reach | 121,453 | 61.3 |
| 25 | AdBrite** | 119,846 | 60.5 |
| 26 | Burst Media** | 119,550 | 60.3 |
| 27 | CPX Interactive** | 104,925 | 52.9 |
| 28 | YOUTUBE.COM | 100,691 | 50.8 |
| 29 | TidalTV -Potential Reach | 100,279 | 50.6 |
| 30 | AOL Media Network | 98,515 | 49.7 |
| 31 | FACEBOOK.COM | 97,372 | 49.1 |
| 32 | Adify** | 97,244 | 49.1 |
| 33 | MSN | 95,181 | 48 |
| 34 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 91,901 | 46.4 |
| 35 | Undertone Networks** | 91,422 | 46.1 |
| 36 | Ask Network | 88,073 | 44.4 |
| 37 | Vibrant Media** | 87,813 | 44.3 |
| 38 | Pulse 360** | 85,781 | 43.3 |
| 39 | NNN Total Newspapers: U.S. | 80,606 | 40.7 |
| 40 | ScanScout Network -Potential Reach | 80,388 | 40.6 |
| 41 | IB Local Network | 79,372 | 40 |
| 42 | Centro -Potential Reach | 77,975 | 39.3 |
| 43 | Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)** | 77,906 | 39.3 |
| 44 | ITN Digital -Potential Reach | 74,576 | 37.6 |
| 45 | Kontera** | 73,576 | 37.1 |
| 46 | Windows Live | 73,036 | 36.8 |
| 47 | IAC Ad Solutions | 68,283 | 34.4 |
| 48 | Turner Network + Y! Partnership | 67,738 | 34.2 |
| 49 | Six Apart Media -Potential Reach | 67,098 | 33.9 |
| 50 | Bing | 65,666 | 33.1 |
{ 5 trackbacks }
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Amish –
Great post with tons of info on Media Buys.
Brand new to me is the comScore site – Many thanks
Hamant
[Reply]
I wanted to go to ad:tech and meet some of these networks. These are where the deals happen. Going to the events and building relationships is where you get your hook-ups. No question!
[Reply]
Very awesome post Amish! It is nice to have a consolidated list for all of these research tools in one place for reference. Thanks bro!
[Reply]
Amish,
you are so informative and give us all great stuff every single time. Thank you for your tenacity. Hope you are getting more quality rest these days. Great new blog as well. Hope we can connect soon!
Most Sincerely,
Tanya Chadwick
http://www.twitter.com/TanyaChadwick
[Reply]
Only 50? You’re slacking Amish! Where are the other 50?
Just kidding of course! Thanks for the resources.
[Reply]
Alexa is indeed a tricky one. Like yourself, I also use it as a reference but I am wary that because some of Alexa’s data comes from Google and because google isn’t always truthfully forthcoming about stats, it means that some of the Alexa numbers mirror those weird peculiar inconsistencies too.
Data such as the number of back-links that a site has, is pretty well known to most of us, however the Alexa toolbar isn’t evenly distributed amongst population demographics so their numbers can be incredibly wrong when it comes to some asian countries like Korea where if I remember correctly, the population has adopted the Alexa toolbar with an uncharacteristic vengeance. Which in plain english means that Alexa’s information when regarding sites heavily visited by this group are incredibly flawed in favor of extrapolated, massively larger numbers for the particular site.
Additionally, if Alexa uses any of the google analytic numbers – and I have no idea if they do – those numbers can vary by a few percentage points to a variance of up to 200%. This is the difference that can sometimes be calculated by comparing google analytics and well known management programs that directly read your apache logs.
For those, not in the know, your webserver logs are nearly always going to be significantly more accurate than google analytics.
[Reply]
Awesome! Really wish the so called “gurus” could learn from your credible way of delivery top notch and extremely “juicy” knowledge to your subscriber list at literally no cost to some of us who cannot afford for these expensive but useless information sold to us by gurus…… Great job….. Sir!!!
[Reply]
amish,
what do u think of this?
how do i start buying media with as little as $50?
and how do i get the approval of cpa networks if i just want to send the traffic straight to the offer, no landing pages and all that? i just want to buy media and send it straight to the cpa offer i am promoting…….. how can i make this work?
btw, thanks for the great content.
[Reply]
Nice… again. Too many people have been pushing ppv and media content without informing people of the absolute necessity- market intelligence. Do your homework first…. like Amish is reminding us to do. Otherwise you’ll get spanked. Hard.
[Reply]
Thank you for this valuable resource information. As usual, no fluff, just information which can be helpful in boosting income.
[Reply]
Hey Amish,
Great insight into a world that is currently new to me. Your info is really on the ball as always!
Cheers,
Mitch
[Reply]
I promote freely for my Affiliates – search toddpease on YouTube and plz take the time to rate my videos – not the same ole lame o – check em out – Seasons Greetings – Todd OUT…
[Reply]
The expected amount of oooo-ing and aahh-ing by commenters, and the usual amount of brown-nosing that newbies typically give to gurus.
This isn’t as as great of an article as people think it is.
Granted, the article title says it’s a resource list, and that’s exactly what it is, a freakin’ resource list. But this won’t help 99.99% of all newbie, intermediate and advanced marketers out there. (Analogy: It’s like an SEO how-to website with a big fat article that does nothing more than list the top 10 search engines, followed up by a bunch of brown-nosing commenters saying things like: “Great article man, now I can finally make money with SEO!”)
Amish, how about telling us how to cut the deals?
If you’ve done media buys then you well know that standard “rate card” rates are la-la land. When a newbie approaches a media outlet, agency or ad property, they’re given el-fako “rate card” rates which, frankly, virtually no respectable media buyer actually pays. So the newbie pays the high rates. The experienced buyer knows how to cut the deals.
Analogy. Guy goes to a new car dealer, sees the sticker price, is told by the salesman that everyone pays full sticker price, and then buys the car at full sticker. It would be useful for the guy to KNOW that car prices are indeed negotiable, and to know about how low he can negotiate (i.e. $100 over dealer cost).
What this article needs is a primer on HOW TO BUY media, and, what TYPE OF DISCOUNTS can & should be negotiated.
Amish, how about a follow up blog?
[Reply]
Amish reply on December 15th, 2009 4:21 pm:
Actually – I think I’ll just make a free video to teach you guys this stuff..how about that?
[Reply]
seminar addict reply on December 23rd, 2009 1:24 am:
Well i would say no amish, dont! Considering the close circle paid their dues (at a highly cost that is) for you and your marketing “style”, i wouldn’t like the idea of free leechers stopping by and see the “whole picture” without giving anything back to you. If this video will be some kind of a sales pitch for kern then pls do it by all means, seeing you in action is a valuable lesson at the least.
Pls feel free to delete this msg and may god bless you.
[Reply]
It seems the only way to make money with media buying is to have a flog,every media buy that i have seen goes to a flog,so unless you want to risk getting taken down by the ftc i do not see how media buying will be effective for legit advertisers.
[Reply]
Amish reply on December 15th, 2009 4:21 pm:
You’re wrong Ben. You can do SOOO much with media buys!
[Reply]
amish – yes please!
[Reply]
Ya, a video would be great.
Thanks for the comscore sheet – would be nice to have that sorta data
WTF is tremor media and who knew that AOL had such a big reach in their network
All news to me, thanks for opening my eyes.
Riel
[Reply]
Thanks for the info. Will certainly widen the net for me.
[Reply]
Hey Amish,
Thanks for the awesome post and the real great resources, I am always looking for good traffic sources that are out of the ordinary.
Thanks again.
[Reply]
Okay the free DVD is here – http://www.amish-shah.com/traffic/two-free-dvds-my-holiday-giveaway
[Reply]
In a word Amish…AWESOME!
[Reply]
Not sure why some people are bitching saying this isn’t a good share.. if you are new to media buying and don’t know about Quantcast / Google ad planner than you just got hooked up with some amazing info for free. Quantcast is easily my favorite demographic tool at the moment. Comscore is another great share, personally I never knew about that one.
Way to go Amish
[Reply]