Commentary

Trick Question: When Is The Worst Media Buy Actually The Best?

Granted that the initial intended target audience for the media buy in the print editions of Emu Today & Tomorrow, Teddy Bear Times & Friends, and Drain Trader magazines is trade journalists like me, but if you're reading this, it's now reaching its most desired audience: planners and buyers like you.

Sure, the paid-media campaign from behavioral targeting firm Bango is a PR stunt, but it makes a great point: That even print buys in tertiary print titles you've probably never heard of are still more effective at reaching an audience target than the billions planners and buyers spend on most social media buys.

And believe it or not, this is not the worst media plan Bango has ever executed to make this point. It's only the "second worst" one. The worst one was an obscure outdoor billboard Bango bought in 2021 in a remote neighborhood in the U.K., which ranked the worst for reaching audiences according to Clear Channel data.

advertisement

advertisement

But both that outdoor media buy (see bottom) and the print schedule (above and below) are still better at targeting people than the average social-media buy, which according to a Bango analysis of more than 5,000 paid ads on popular short-form video platforms (TikTok, Instagram and YouTube) reach only 8% of the relevant audience the campaigns were targeting.

“Over the last year, social media companies have launched a host of advanced targeting tools, including behavioral and purchase intent targeting," notes Bango CMO Anil Malhotra, adding: "These allow marketers to import data about customers’ past purchases, targeting ads directly at the people most likely to buy. Despite these advances, the overwhelming majority of marketers are still bombarding consumers with un-targeted and irrelevant ads.”

I actually don't know if the full-page ads Bango bought in these highly specialized interest magazines actually are more targeted than TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but I do know that if you're still reading this, they managed to reach you.

4 comments about "Trick Question: When Is The Worst Media Buy Actually The Best?".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Craig Mcdaniel from Sweepstakes Today LLC, September 27, 2023 at 8:24 p.m.

    Joe, there is another side of your article. This is, part of the DOJ and class-action lawsuit is about ads and anti-competitive postion by Google. Suppression of ads and ad locations is just as worse. Shouldn't there be an award for these actions as well?

  2. Craig Mcdaniel from Sweepstakes Today LLC, September 27, 2023 at 8:42 p.m.

    Hey Joe, do you want a real live candidate for the worst ad and ad location?  At the bottom of sweepstakestoday.com is a approved ad by Infolinks.com. Underneath is one or two Google banners which you cannot read clearly or not at all.  I didn't ask Google for these cloud-based ads and certainly didn't approve of them.  This is wrong and sick. This is in my opinion, retaliation. I challenge you to ask IAB if they approve of these no-ask ad placement by any ad distributor. Clearly Google is hurting the advertiser with these false views and they could do the same to any website that has Google ads running. This is real time ad fraud in my opinion.

  3. Thomas Siebert from BENEVOLENT PROPAGANDA, September 28, 2023 at 3 p.m.

    I feel like EMU TODAY & TOMORROW should have an Emu on its cover. 

  4. Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., September 28, 2023 at 3:09 p.m.

    @Thomas Siebert: touché!

Next story loading loading..