These days, persons are consuming advertising and media in additional methods than one, which implies that media planning instruments are now not non-compulsory for many who need to attain their audiences throughout a wide range of channels.
I’ve discovered that whereas conventional shops like TV, publications, and radio can nonetheless be helpful for sure companies, extra media planning is required throughout on-line platforms like electronic mail, social media, influencer, and search than ever earlier than.
Which means complete media planning software program is vital for staying on high of what you’re doing and figuring out the way it works.
However the place do you begin? To assist, I’ve rounded up an inventory of the important media planning instruments, software program, and templates to make use of this 12 months to assist develop your viewers.
13 Important Media Planning Instruments
HubSpot Media Planning Template [Featured Resource]
Bionic Media Planning Software program
SRDS Media Planning Platform
Media Plan HQ
Mediatool
Quantcast
BasisAutomate+
Proximic by Comscore
Nielsen
HubSpot Social Media Software program
Scarborough from Nielsen
MRI-Simmons
Monday.com
1. HubSpot Media Planning Template [Featured Resource]
Supply
Value: Free
HubSpot’s paid media template may also help you observe your spending on paid media, when your messages are going out, and the way a lot income you are producing from every supply.
With this media device, you will have entry to charts that routinely alter whenever you add your spending and ROI data. This useful resource is free — get your copy now.
Key Options
Accessible in Google Sheets — no logins or apps required
Permits full customization based mostly in your wants
Designed for simple monitoring and reporting month-to-month
What I like: You need to use this template to compile month-to-month information out of your media efforts. With this media planning device, you will see which paid media channel works finest on your firm and produces one of the best outcomes on your backside line.
Finest for: Small groups and solopreneurs who need an easy-to-use doc to plan and report on efforts.
2. Bionic Media Planning Software program
Value: $995/month for as much as 5 customers
Bionic has among the finest media planning instruments. They provide corporations flowcharts, IOs and RFPs, trafficking, reporting, and dashboards about shoppers.
With common updates, businesses utilizing the software program are supplied with up-to-date planning instruments to run and arrange their campaigns.
Key Options
All-inclusive pricing means you don’t must pay for every function
Cloud-based platform
Intuitive interface
What I like: Bionic is a cloud-based media planning device. You might be up and working with this device in minutes with limitless coaching, help, and information backups at no extra value.
Finest for: Companies and mid-sized organizations with complicated promoting wants.
3. SRDS Media Planning Platform
Value: Contact for pricing
Crucial device in media planning is information, and SRDS gives corporations among the finest data-gathering instruments. Because of their top-notch data-gathering software program, you possibly can really feel assured selling your media on all platforms. I wasn’t in a position to demo this particularly, but it surely persistently receives excessive rankings.
Key Options
Potential to check and consider promoting choices
Potential to attach immediately with media reps
Makes it simple to seek out media utilized by your goal markets
What I like: You will have entry to intensive datasets that showcase viewers statistics and demographics. This can assist you to select the best platforms and messages to focus on particular audiences.
Finest for: Companies and bigger organizations who use a lot of completely different advert placements and channels.
4. Media Plan HQ
Supply
Value: 30-day free trial; $45/consumer monthly (minimal of three customers)
Media Plan HQ is a good media planning device that does not depend on spreadsheets. An actual-time interface tracks dates, placements, and budgets with out counting on Excel. The organized interface will make it simple so that you can handle tasks, observe your advertising ROI, and share all the info along with your crew and stakeholders.
What’s extra, it helps you break down your media buys by media, class, marketing campaign, and shops/areas, which suggests that you may get the reporting and monitoring you want with seamless insertion order growth.
Key Options
Artistic challenge administration
Advertising and marketing bill validation
Advertising and marketing request kinds
Limitless media plans, organizations, and media distributors
Limitless inventive storage, free upgrades, and free electronic mail help
What I like: There’s so much to love right here. Coming from an company world, I like that it’s a collaborative, all-in-one platform that mixes challenge administration with media shopping for. As a result of you possibly can work alongside crew members with out all of the back-and-forth communication in emails, the decreased complexity means the platform can develop along with your wants and your crew.
Finest for: Small inventive groups or departments and businesses.
5. Mediatool
Value: Contact for pricing.
Mediatool is a collaborative advertising platform that may assist corporations plan media to focus on whoever they need to. You possibly can leverage actionable insights, collaborate along with your crew members, and develop impactful advert campaigns to make you stand out.
Key Options
20 integrations and counting
Oversee marketing campaign information and monitoring
Gives a platform you need to use for a single supply of media information
Helps improve productiveness with environment friendly workflows
Simple to customise and scale to your wants
AI-integration offers media information insights instantaneously by means of a GPT-style chat
What I like: The platform is environment friendly, simple to grasp, and simpler to make use of than different media software program — it’s intuitive and offers a centralized place to handle media information.
Finest for: Mid-size corporations with a wide range of complicated promoting wants.
6. Quantcast
Supply
Value: 30-day trial; Contact for pricing
Whenever you use Quantcast, you will have insights with information from over 100 million web sites. The device makes use of AI so customers can higher predict how their media will affect their target market. Because of the steady bombardment of adverts for services and products, this function is crucial.
Getting began is simple — a bank card shouldn’t be required to arrange an account. Their intuitive platform walks you thru the method step-by-step.
Key Options
Viewers supply location filtering
Helps cookieless and omnichannel promoting
Makes use of third occasion information and AI to create real-time viewers insights
Simple to pinpoint new and present audiences
Insights into buyer journey
Intuitive interface and distinctive documentation
What I like: Quantcast is implausible for understanding your viewers‘s conduct. It offers real-time insights based mostly in your adverts and media to your viewers, which may also help you higher perceive them and create adverts they’ll recognize.
Finest for: Advertising and marketing execs who need to simplify their present media planning martech suite.
7. BasisAutomate+
Value: Contact for pricing
Foundation Applied sciences gives an all-in-one promoting platform that optimizes media planning, execution, and evaluation. It’s a terrific resolution for groups who need to be extra environment friendly and strategically centered with out getting slowed down in tedious duties.
Key Options
Automated planning, efficiency, and measurement
Reduces operational complexity and handbook work
Single platform to combine all promoting efforts
What I like: When working a number of advert campaigns, it may possibly really feel chaotic. Foundation Applied sciences lets you combine all of your adverts and media in a single location throughout a number of platforms.
Finest for: Advertising and marketing execs who need to simplify their present media planning martech suite.
8. Proximic by Comscore
Value: Contact for pricing
Proximic is a platform by Comscore designed to assist entrepreneurs attain their audiences at scale regardless of the challenges of contemporary promoting. With choices for media consumers to exactly goal audiences and media sellers to maximise monetization, Proximic gives options for each side of the media equation.
Since we’re centered on media planning and advertising primarily, I’m specializing in the answer for media consumers, which is designed to enhance attain by creating predictive audiences that don’t require private identifiers.
Key Options
AI-powered contextual concentrating on improves attain
Meets client information privateness necessities by eliminating ID-based concentrating on
Content material concentrating on to make sure your adverts seem alongside brand-safe content material
What I like: Within the post-cookie world, the place sign loss is a serious drawback confronted by advertisers, I like that they’ve an AI-driven resolution to make it simpler to succeed in present and new audiences.
Finest for: Rising organizations with vital promoting wants and promoting businesses.
9. Nielsen
Supply
Value: Contact for pricing
Nielsen is a family identify in viewers measurement. It is primarily for tv metrics, however you need to use it for different metrics throughout platforms. With a set of options below classes of viewers measurement, media planning, advertising optimization, and content material metadata, it’s just about a media planner’s powerhouse, making it simpler to achieve an all-encompassing view of your viewers.
Key Options
Viewers segmentation
Aggressive intelligence
Shopper insights
State of affairs planning
Word: As a result of Nielsen gives a complete suite of options for media planners and entrepreneurs, the checklist of key options is sort of lengthy whenever you consider viewers measurement, advertising optimization, and content material metadata. Whereas these may very well be fairly useful options for entrepreneurs, I’ve centered solely on Nielson’s media planning options.
What I like: Nielsen has superior viewers segmentation and aggressive intelligence that exhibits you the full image of the media panorama. This media planning software program may also help your model stand out amongst your competitors.
Finest for: Giant organizations.
10. HubSpot Social Media Software program
Supply
Value: $15/month/seat Advertising and marketing Hub Starter; $15/month/seat Starter Buyer Platform; $800/month (3 seats) for Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled; $3,600/month Advertising and marketing Hub Enterprise (5 seats).
HubSpot Social Media Software program is the best choice for many who need to plan media particularly for social media. It lets you publish any media on Fb, LinkedIn, Instagram, or one other social media platform. You may as well see how your viewers converts from social media to CRM.
Key Options
Centralized location for planning, constructing, and managing social media campaigns
Social point out monitoring
Social media advertising reporting
What I like: It may be time-consuming to always refresh your social media to see how many individuals have interacted along with your adverts. This platform will assist you to save effort and time from frequently refreshing your socials. I additionally love that HubSpot’s Social Media Administration Software program offers weekly insights and AI-generated suggestions that can assist you keep on high of the content material most probably to drive engagement.
Finest for: Small companies and solopreneurs, particularly these utilizing HubSpot as a CRM.
11. Scarborough from Nielsen
Supply
Value: Contact for pricing
Scarborough is one other identify from Nielsen in media planning. It‘s a media planning device that helps you get extra hyper-focused on viewers insights from locals out of your space. It’s excellent for region-specific adverts and promotions.
Key Options
Market-specific client habits
Cross-platform consumption
Insights into rising and rising segments
What I like: You‘ll be capable of profile customers far more than with commonplace demographics. You’ll see their buying behaviors, media consumption, and life-style. You possibly can additional slender it down by individuals who watch particular sports activities or what they stream on units.
Finest for: Native companies or companies promoting in particular geographic markets.
12. MRI-Simmons
Supply
Value: Contact for pricing
MRI-Simmons focuses on client insights and analytics that make it simpler for media consumers, entrepreneurs, and advertisers to grasp client behaviors and make data-driven choices. There are three excellent media planning instruments, every masking barely completely different elements:
Catalyst is the first platform for media planners centered on client conduct evaluation.
Activate Marketing campaign Targets (ACT) helps entrepreneurs achieve insights from the info and use them to focus on campaigns.
Model Catalyst offers a device for analyzing model positioning and notion.
Firms utilizing MRI-Simmons embody Spotify, Coca-Cola, Dell, and extra.
Key Options
Shareable experiences and dashboards
Visible storytelling for fast evaluation
Interactive fast experiences
What I like: MRI-Simmons is a robust segmentation device that may assist you to discover new audiences and observe developments. Understanding your new viewers may also help you anticipate their conduct and attitudes and discover one of the best methods to market your services or products to them. I like the combination of all three instruments for a complete method to media planning and advertising.
Finest for: Mid-size to enterprise-level corporations.
13. Monday.com
Value: Free for as much as 2 seats, restricted options; $9/seat/month for Fundamental; $12/seat/month for Commonplace; $19/seat/month for Professional; Contact for Enterprise pricing.
Monday.com is an all-encompassing device that lets you schedule your media and implement it in one of the best methods attainable on your viewers. You may as well use the duty administration options to examine off your to-do checklist.
I’ve used Monday for therefore many alternative sorts of tasks, together with content material planning and administration, ticketing methods, challenge administration, and creating an inner advertising company — and that’s the tip of the iceberg.
Some ways in which it may very well be used on your media planning embody:
Marketing campaign planning and administration.
Content material and asset audits and cataloging.
Media shopping for and budgeting.
Job administration.
Media schedule monitoring.
Reporting — internally and for shoppers.
Automations.
Integration with media instruments.
As a result of Monday isn’t particularly designed for media planning per se, it’s vital to enter it with a strong understanding of what you need it to do for you. It’s an extremely highly effective and versatile device — nevertheless, with out a strong plan, it may be overwhelming.
In case you go for this one, be certain that to map out the way you see it working after which work with Monday and even define your use case with generative AI for recommendation on tips on how to construction your boards. Moreover, you possibly can select considered one of Monday’s templates and use it as a place to begin.
Key Options
200+ integrations
200+ templates throughout a wide range of classes, together with advertising, gross sales, and extra.
A centralized hub for information
Complete automations
A number of views, together with desk, calendar, Gantt chart, and extra.
Kinds for information entry and advertising/media requests
Customizable dashboards
What I like: It is an inexpensive media planning device. Main corporations like Hulu, Canva, and NHL use it, to call a number of. I like how simple it’s to make use of and customise. And between Monday’s help, automations, and assistance from exterior generative AI, I’ve discovered that it may possibly do absolutely anything you want.
Finest for: Companies of all sizes from solopreneurs to enterprises who don’t want the viewers growth and concentrating on side and/or have a separate division for these lists.
Bonus Useful resource: HubSpot Academy’s Paid Media Course
HubSpot Academy’s paid media course is a good introduction to media planning software program.
It is excellent for all budgets and may let you develop paid media methods and use media by means of the buyer’s journey.
Planning Your Media Technique
Whereas I discovered that many of those media planning instruments disguise demos and pricing behind their gross sales crew, this text ought to assist you to slender them down by capabilities and simplify your decision-making course of.
As for the place to go subsequent? First, resolve which channels you need to use — from conventional promoting to social media. Second, take into consideration your media planning targets — do you want a device that can assist you keep on high of a number of transferring elements and dates, or would you like in-depth viewers insights (or each)?
Utilizing these choices as a lens, I like to recommend revisiting the media planning instruments above to decide on which finest aligns along with your plan, and both take their free trials for a spin OR schedule demos with their gross sales groups.
No matter media planning platform you select, it ought to make your life simpler and let you focus extra on technique and fewer on busy work.
Editor’s notice: This submit was initially printed in April 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.