A digital marketing plan is a document sharing the details for all the planning of a company’s digital marketing campaigns or actions (Penalver 2019). How to structure a digital marketing campaign plan? A successful digital marketing plan has to consider among many other things, media planning and media buying.
A media plan is the entire, collective result of both of the above including a final evaluation of the campaign’s effectiveness. Media Planning is the process of selecting the optimal combination of media outlets for advertising a particular marketing message.
It involves researching, identifying, analyzing, comparing, planning, and working around a brand’s budget. Media buying is the complementary, secondary process by which an individual or agency takes the insights gleaned from the media planner and begins to find and negotiate buying ad space across the intended media channels.
This can be automated or done manually depending on preference, objectives, audience, budget, and so forth (mediatool.com).
Conducting a situational analysis before media buying
This is the process of critically evaluating the internal and external factors that affect an organisation. This is done before a new product is released or a new initiative is taken. A situational analysis will bring light to strengths, challenges, weaknesses, opportunities and threats affecting a company (Lake 2020). Factors that are analysed in a situational analysis include:
Product situation. The product has to be determined. You may want to view this definition in parts such as the core product and any secondary or supporting services or products that you sell. Viewing your products and services separately helps determine how each relates to your core clients’ needs.
Competitive situation. The main competitors have to be analyzed. Determine how they compare to your business such as competitive advantages.
Distribution situation. In terms of the distribution, a review has to be done in terms of how you get your products to market, such as through distributors or other intermediaries.
Environmental factors. External and environmental factors can include economic or sociological factors that impact your business’s performance.
Opportunity and issue analysis. A SWOT analysis is to be undertaken to determine any strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that may affect your business and its performance.
The five steps of the media buying and planning process are as follows:
Identify target audiences through comprehensive market research.
Understand your audiences’ interests.
Find your audiences when they are most receptive to your messages.
Deliver creativity that motivates them to take action.
Test and retest your ad placements and creative to uncover what’s working and what’s not. Refine and improve.
Media Buying: Calculating BDI and CDI
Branding Development Index (BDI) relates the percent of a brand’s sales in a market to the percent of US population in that same market. Category Development Index (CDI) relates the percent of a category sales in a market to the percent of the US population in that same market to the percent of the US population in that same market.
The points to remember when calculating BDI and CDI include:
Indexes should be expressed as whole numbers.
BDI and CDI assume that the U.S. population represents the “norm” or base of “100.”
Markets with the highest index numbers do not necessarily represent the best potential.
PENALVER, P., 2019. A Step-By-Step Guide to Structuring a Digital Marketing Plan. [online]. INBOUND MARKETING. [15/03/2021]. Available from:
LAKE, L., 2021. The purpose and elements of a situational analysis. [online]. [15/03/2021]. Available from:
MEDIATOOL., 2020. A beginner’s guide to media planning and buying . [online]. MEDIA TOOL. [15/03/2021]. Available from:
OBI CREATIVE., 2019. What is media buying and planning? [online]. OBI CREATIVE. [15/03/2021]. Available from:
©Keren Obara Mar 2021
Comments