Media Planning and Buying
This domain tests how well you translate strategy into reach, frequency, and cost-effective delivery across channels, and whether you can compare buys on equivalent terms.
Core rules
- Impressions count exposures; reach counts unique people or households; frequency is impressions divided by reach.
- GRP = reach percentage x average frequency. A plan with 40% reach at 5.0 frequency delivers 200 GRP.
- CPM = (cost / impressions) x 1,000. CPP = cost / GRP points.
- Effective frequency is a planning judgment, not a universal number; it depends on category, creative, and purchase cycle.
- Normalize for quality: viewability, brand safety, invalid traffic, and audience match. A cheap CPM can be expensive per viewed impression.
- Choose flighting, continuity, or pulsing based on seasonality and the purchase cycle, and state the reason.
Worked example
$500,000 buys 250,000,000 impressions, so CPM = $2.00. If the plan delivers 40% reach at 5.0 frequency, that is 200 GRP, and CPP = $500,000 / 200 = $2,500. A rival plan has a $1.50 CPM but only 40% viewability, so cost per viewable impression is $3.75. A $2.50 CPM at 80% viewability is $3.13. On a viewable basis the apparently cheaper plan loses. Show the normalization in your answer.
Traps that cost marks
- Comparing CPMs across formats without quality adjustment.
- Confusing GRP with impressions or with reach.
- Applying one universal effective frequency to every campaign.
- Ignoring production costs when comparing cost per GRP.
- Assuming reach adds neatly across media when audiences overlap.