How to Choose the Right Advertising Platforms for Your Marketing Campaign
Choosing the right advertising platforms should not begin with, ‘Should we use radio, TV, social media or Google?’ It should begin with your product, your audience and what the campaign needs to achieve.
Before recommending any channel, a good media planner asks: What are we selling? Who is most likely to buy it? Why would they choose it? How long will they take to decide? Where can they realistically purchase it? When will they be most receptive to the message? And what is a new customer worth to the business?
Only when those questions have been answered does the right media mix begin to take shape.
At Shakespeare Media, our media planning and buying is not tied to one platform. A campaign could include print, PPC, paid social, radio, digital audio, DAX, podcasts, outdoor advertising, digital out-of-home, television, connected TV or programmatic display. The aim is not to justify a preferred channel. It is to identify the combination that gives each client the best opportunity to reach the people who matter.
Start with the product, not the advertising platform
The nature of the product or service will immediately make some advertising options more suitable than others.
A £12 consumer product sold nationwide presents a very different marketing challenge from a £25,000 piece of industrial equipment. A local restaurant does not need the same media strategy as a university. A theatre production with a fixed closing date has different requirements from an accountancy firm seeking enquiries throughout the year.
The first stage of advertising planning is therefore to understand exactly what is being sold and the circumstances surrounding the purchase. This includes price, profit margin, availability, location, purchase frequency, competition, delivery arrangements and the level of customer consideration involved.
These factors help define the job the advertising needs to do before any platforms are selected.
Are you capturing existing demand or creating it?
One of the most important distinctions in marketing is whether the customer is already looking for the product or whether the campaign first needs to create interest.
If someone searches Google for ‘emergency plumber Stratford-upon-Avon’, the need already exists. They know the problem and are actively looking for someone to solve it. PPC and paid search can be particularly effective because they place a relevant supplier in front of the customer at the moment of intent.
Now compare that with a new visitor attraction. A family may not search for it because they do not yet know it exists. Radio, social media, newspaper advertising, display, television or outdoor advertising could introduce the idea before the family begins actively researching what to do.
Most effective marketing campaigns do both: awareness activity creates or stimulates demand, while search and other performance channels capture it when people are ready to act.
Consider the price and value of a customer
Product price has a major influence on media buying, although not always in the most obvious way.
Low-cost consumer products often need scale. If a business earns only a few pounds from each sale, advertising may need to reach a substantial audience and generate a high volume of purchases. Depending on the market, TV advertising, radio, online video, social media, digital out-of-home, and broader digital campaigns may all be relevant.
An expensive specialist product works differently. A company selling £500,000 manufacturing equipment may need only a small number of suitable enquiries each year. Reaching millions of people would offer little value if almost none could make the purchase. Specialist publications, paid search, targeted digital advertising and carefully selected business audiences may be more appropriate.
The key calculation is not simply how much the advertising costs. It is the relationship between media spend, expected response, conversion rate, profit margin and customer value. A £10,000 campaign that generates one profitable £100,000 contract may deliver excellent value – a £1,000 campaign that sells £600 of low-margin products does not.
Cheap advertising is not automatically good value, just as expensive advertising is not automatically poor value.
Match the platform to the amount of explanation required
Some products can be understood almost instantly. A photograph of a pizza with the words ‘Two for £20 tonight’ needs very little explanation. Outdoor advertising, paid social, display and short radio messages can communicate that proposition quickly.
Other products need more detail. Insurance, professional services, engineering solutions, education, financial products, software and complex B2B services can involve questions, comparisons and lengthy specifications.
That does not mean short-form channels have no role. A billboard may build awareness of a complicated service even though it cannot explain every feature. Its job might be to create recognition and encourage the right people to visit a website, where the detail is available.
Different channels can then support different stages of the journey. Targeted radio advertising might introduce the problem and build familiarity. Podcast sponsorship can add contextual relevance and credibility. Paid search can capture customers when they begin researching. Retargeting can keep the brand visible while they compare their options.
The question is rarely which single platform can sell the product on its own. It is which platforms should perform each role in the customer journey.
Allow for the length of the buying cycle
The time it takes a customer to decide can change the media strategy considerably. Buying a cinema ticket might take less than a minute. Choosing a university could take months, while purchasing commercial property may take longer still.
The longer the buying cycle, the less realistic it is to expect one advert to produce an immediate sale. Marketing needs to build familiarity, answer questions and maintain visibility throughout the decision.
A potential customer might hear a business on the radio in September, notice an outdoor advert in October, visit its website in November, see a retargeting advert in December and finally enquire in January. If the business only measures the final click, it may wrongly conclude that every earlier contact was unnecessary.
Effective media planning considers the whole decision journey, particularly for expensive, complex or infrequently purchased products.
Decide whether the purchase is urgent
Urgency changes customer behaviour. A broken boiler, damaged windscreen, emergency locksmith or urgent legal problem is likely to generate high-intent searches. PPC becomes particularly valuable because the business can appear when somebody is actively seeking help.
The same person may behave very differently when replacing a kitchen. There is usually no immediate emergency. They may notice advertising for months, browse magazines, watch videos, visit showrooms, read reviews and discuss the decision with other members of the household.
Understanding urgency helps determine whether the campaign should intercept an immediate requirement or gradually influence a future decision.
Distinguish impulse purchases from considered purchases
Impulse purchases benefit from relevance and immediacy. Food, event tickets, fashion, modestly priced consumer products and short-term offers can all generate quick action when advertising creates desire at the right moment.
Location is especially important. Outdoor advertising near a restaurant can encourage an immediate visit. Digital out-of-home advertising near a shopping centre can influence someone already in the buying environment. A radio advert during the journey home can promote takeaway food just as people begin thinking about dinner. A social advert can connect discovery and purchase within seconds.
Considered purchases need a different approach. The first advert may begin a relationship rather than complete the transaction, so the campaign needs enough time and repeated contact to build trust.
Focus advertising on where customers can actually buy
Geography is one of the quickest ways to narrow the choice of advertising platforms. There is little value in generating demand in Manchester if a business only serves customers within 20 miles of Stratford-upon-Avon.
Local businesses can concentrate spend within a defined catchment using local radio, selected outdoor sites, regional press, location-targeted digital advertising, PPC and paid social. Regional businesses can widen that footprint selectively, while national advertisers can consider broader media because geographical wastage is less of a concern.
Channels that were once viewed as broad are also becoming more precise. Television advertising can now use geographic, demographic and interest-based targeting through addressable and on-demand services. Digital audio can be planned around factors such as location, age and interests.
The practical question is not simply, ‘Where are our customers?’ It is, ‘Where can customers actually buy from us?’
Check that the business can meet the demand
Marketing should never be planned separately from operational capacity. If the campaign performs exceptionally well, can the business fulfil the demand it generates?
For physical products, stock availability, delivery charges, delivery areas, lead times and replenishment schedules should all influence where and when advertising runs. If a product is bulky or costly to transport, regional activity may outperform national advertising because fulfilment is more practical. If a product can be downloaded or delivered digitally, geographical restrictions may be minimal.
Promoting something that cannot be supplied wastes budget and risks damaging the customer’s experience of the brand. A strong media plan must reflect operational reality.
Plan around seasonality and the customer decision window
Seasonality should influence more than the month in which advertising appears. Media planners need to understand when customers begin thinking about the purchase, not just when the product is used.
Christmas is an obvious example. The date stays the same, but buying behaviour differs greatly by category. Families may book festival entertainment months ahead. Businesses may organise Christmas parties even earlier. Gift shopping builds gradually before accelerating near December, while food purchases peak much later.
The same principle applies to tourism, education, gardening, home improvement, automotive purchases and events. Advertising should begin at the start of the relevant decision window, with activity weighted towards the moments most likely to influence action.
Remember that seasonal demand can increase media costs
Advertisers are not the only people who understand seasonality. When many businesses compete for the same audience at the same time, media costs and availability can change.
Paid search costs may rise, premium outdoor sites can become harder to secure, relevant radio and podcast sponsorships may be booked, press features have fixed deadlines and television inventory around major programmes or seasonal periods can become more competitive.
Planning early gives a media buying agency more opportunity to secure the right placements, negotiate effectively and avoid making decisions based only on what remains available.
How to choose the right media mix
The right platform is one that performs a clear role against the campaign objective, reaches the right audience with acceptable wastage and makes commercial sense for the business.
Before committing budget, consider the product, audience, customer value, required level of explanation, buying cycle, urgency, geography, operational capacity and seasonality. Then decide which channels should build awareness, which should support consideration and which should capture demand.
That is the value of independent media planning and buying – the recommendation starts with the client’s challenge, not with a platform that needs to be sold.
In part two of this guide, we will look more closely at how audience behaviour, campaign objectives, budget and measurement influence the final channel mix. If you would like help choosing the right advertising platforms for your next campaign, get in touch with us today!
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