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What Does a Digital Media Planner Do?


You’ve hired an agency or you’re looking for a job, and want to know what a digital media planner does. I’m going to outline what a digital media planner is like and list their core functions within an ad agency.

Personality. Digital media planners are usually more extroverted (as they work with a lot of media reps), detail-oriented and data geeks (if one is reading this article right now they’ve already skimmed the article for hard numbers). They are always learning and excited about technology. Digital media planners probably check these websites for fun after work.

Plan Media. Their primary role is to plan media on behalf of the agency’s clients. They collaborate heavily with the account team and other media planners to create a digital media plan. The media that is typically considered digital includes: digital video, banner ads, search, social media promotion, mobile banners/video, digital audio, etc. Think Hulu, CNN.com and Facebook. If it links to a website it is likely under a digital media planner’s watch. Tools that are regularly used are:

  • Scarborough, MRI or other demographic data. This gives insights into what digital channels the target audience is on. Do they index well for online video? Are they heavy Instagram users? The data shows the most efficient media to hit a target audience.
  • ComScore data to see specific sites. If the goal is market penetration or a high reach to the target audience, a digital media planner will look at ComScore data to see what sites are most heavily used.
  • Social tools. Facebook and Twitter’s ad tools show digital planners their estimated reach to a desired target audience.
Media Partner Relations. Digital media planners spend a lot of time meeting with reps for specific sites, exchanges or other online services. They must be knowledgeable about what’s available to run, as it may impact a media plan. For example, upon learning that a site offers homepage reskins they may be able to include that on a media plan for a client. The typical digital media planner spends 20% of their time meeting with companies or reading about new offerings.

Placing Media Buys. The digital media planner/buyer must present their media plan, get approvals and then start negotiating with the specific media partners they have selected. They must be familiar with market rates so they aren’t duped into paying $20 CPMs for banner ads. A digital media planner is one of the most accountable people in the agency for their decisions as everything will be traceable. Therefore they must be able to forecast delivery, estimate ad serving costs, and then actually build out entire campaigns.

Hard Skills. Digital media planners are tasked with being the engineers behind the media plan, literally building a campaign from the bottom up. If they included paid search as part of a media plan, they need to build an AdWords campaign which includes selecting keywords, writing ads and optimizing. If the digital media planner is running banners or video they need to build out their ads on an ad server. As a side rant – digital media planners are often the last in a chain to get creative assets before a campaign goes live. They must therefore be deadline-driven and able to work efficiently.

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers. Did I mention that digital media planners work with a lot of numbers? They are responsible for optimizations, reporting and garnering insights from campaigns that run. People in this role spend a lot of time in Excel spreadsheets. They are part-time psychologists as well, analyzing why users would click on a green banner over a blue one. As a digital media planner myself I oftentimes check our client’s web analytics for fun just to see how users navigate the site or how they found it.

Now the secret is revealed for what digital media planners do all day. Of course, they have many more tasks depending on the agency or clients. But the core functions are all here. Need help from a digital media planner? Let’s talk.

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