TV Media Buying Guide

Media Buying - the art of getting your adverts seen by the right audience at the lowest cost.

Toast blends access to large media buying savings with personal service to spend your media budget wisely. We work with teams of media buyers to access the savings only offered to clients with large media spend.

If you’re looking for help with TV media buying. Or are confused by some of the TV media buying terminology. See our handy guide to TV media buying terms below.

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WORKING WITH A MEDIA BUYING AGENCY

TV remains the most efficient way to advertise your business or brand. TV advertising offers unparalleled returns when compared to other forms of advertising. Not only does TV advertising provide short term gains but also long term brand building. According to industry body Thinkbox linear TV advertising has a short-term payback of £1.82 for each £1 spent on media buying. Long term payback is even better with average returns of £5.94 for each £1 spent. - ThinkBox Profit Ability 2 (2024)

Buying TV media can be a daunting exercise. It can be challenging for new to TV brands to secure the best media prices. Making sure your brand appears on the correct media channels and hits the right demographic without blowing your media buying budget is what Toast does best. Broadcaster TV advertising accounts for 93% of the average video advertising seen per day. Advertising on YouTube still doesn’t have anywhere near the reach of TV. – ThinkBox

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TV Media buying channels in the UK — Buy TV ads to fit with your brand and reach your target demographic.

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TV MEDIA IS STILL KING

TV is also the most trusted advertising platform your media buying can access.

When asked, “In which, if any, of the following places are you most likely to find advertising that is most trusted?” The scores are in:

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TV ADVERTISING – 42%
NEWSPAPERS – 13%
WEBSITES – 9%
RADIO – 8%
YOUTUBE – 6%

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SOURCE: TV/AD NATION, 2016, IPSOS CONNECT/THINKBOX, ADULTS 15+

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HOW TO TARGET AN AUDIENCE

The television advertising landscape in the UK has changed over the past few years. The traditional dominance of ITV has given way to more niche Freeview channels. This shakeup has been significant for TV media buyers as it has forced ITV to up its game.

BVOD (Broadcaster Video on Demand) advertising is rapidly gaining popularity in the digital marketing landscape. As streaming platforms and online content consumption continue to grow, advertisers are increasingly recognising the potential of BVOD to reach and engage their target audiences. This shift is fuelled by the convenience and personalisation that BVOD offers, allowing viewers to access content on their terms and providing advertisers with more precise targeting options.

ITV now has some of the most attractive shows for advertisers looking for young audiences. Love Island drives repeated viewing and is one of the most popular advertising opportunities for those looking to make a splash.

The digital channels haven’t stood still during ITV’s resurgence; they have continued to plough the niche furrow. Niche advertising is great for advertisers wanting to pick audiences that tightly fit their brand or product.

In terms of media buying terminology, viewers split into trading audiences, large clusters of TV watchers. Some of the titles of these groups are ABC1, 16-34 Men, House person with a child etc. These clusters are sometimes too broad. A good media buyer will work with the broadcaster to ensure the advertising resonates with the intended audience.

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HOW TV MEDIA BUYING WORKS

Once your TV advertising media plan is complete, the process of media buying can take place. Our media buying partners then pick up the phone to their contacts at the TV channel sales houses that handle the selling of advert slots.

Broadcasters are always interested in recruiting new advertisers, so great media deals are possible. We use the power of large media-buying partners to access the best prices for our clients. Much of the media planning and buying processes are automated, with systems available to block book media.

The next step is to collate the purchased media into a TV advertising schedule. This schedule includes a complete list of the adverts and their appearance in the TV programming whether it's linear TV or SVOD services like Amazon or Netflix.

The advertising schedule will quote audience figures. These figures are sometimes estimates of the actual viewing figures, but often they will be based on tracked viewing figures from a previous period.

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GETTING A RETURN ON INVESTMENT

We pride ourselves on TV media buying, which works for the modern era. Media buyers use tracking software to correlate your TV advert schedule with your website visits. Once your advertising campaigns are running, we can check which TV channels perform well. We can adjust our media buying plan to get the best results using this performance data.

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