New media buying | Ads are only the tip of the iceberg

We know traditional media buying as a marketing resource that serves as a promoter, advertiser, and publisher of ads. Although ads are its epicenter, it is a much larger and more complex role. Now, does it involve the same elements as before, or does it incorporate new ones?

I will explain what I understand new media buying to be and what it encompasses. I will review some key points that I consider relevant and how they align with current trends in digital marketing.

What do we mean by new media buying?

It is a term I coined to refer to new content promotion strategies. We can summarize it as current trends used by agencies and marketing specialists to launch ads.

Personally, I believe that it is more than just “new trends.” The truth is that ads have a dominant presence in Google’s SERP and in social media searches in general. 

New media buying is therefore:

• A rethinking of ad publishing strategies on different platforms.
• An integration of SEO efforts and content creation for their respective promotion.
• A reinforced paid search resource to build audiences and generate qualified leads.

I give it this “new” label, not because it offers anything novel. Instead, it is a way of understanding the reevaluation of its importance within the context of contemporary marketing expectations.

Let’s now review what this new media buying includes.

Ads (in Google, Meta, and more)

Ads complement the organic content of brands that is intended to inform. These are high-impact resources that generate results (impressions, conversions, and reach) across different communication channels. These channels focus on a handful of macro-companies such as Google, Meta, and TikTok.

Of course, the fundamental pillar of media buying to date has been advertising. Paid advertising is the primary resource for promoting content in these strategies.

Here we find:

• Launching ads on landing pages for search engines such as Bing or Google.
• Boosting posts on Meta, X, TikTok, and many other social media platforms.

It is worth noting that although the mechanisms for promoting content or landing pages have remained relatively unchanged, the underlying processes have undergone significant transformations. Today, audience selection systems, keywords, and preferences have suffered substantial changes.

This does not mean the ads’ effectiveness improved. But it did enhance the specificity of the parameters we configured.

Promoting products and services in apps

Another strategy gaining popularity is the use of ads and content promotion in other apps (outside web browsers and social media). That is, applications that offer a specialized service, where we can use paid search to generate views and interactions.

We see this in:

• Marketplaces (such as MercadoLibre or Amazon), where advertised products appear first.
• Service applications (such as parking, product sales, food, or delivery) where ads appear at the top of the results.
• Indexing content on other search engine pages, where paid ads facilitate awareness and interactions.

Other things related to new media Buying

New media buying is beginning to integrate with other areas of digital marketing. Not just in promotion and advertising, we also find media buying. There is more. We can find many different strategies associated with this spectrum of publishing resources.

Here are some that I use in my campaigns:

• Remarketing. We can recover several users who did not enter our sales funnel through a direct marketing campaign. That’s what remarketing is for.
• Email marketing. Promoting content through email channels and newsletters can be very effective. This is especially useful for brands with an established audience.
• Visibility with AI. This is a new scenario that is still developing. However, new marketing SEO and media buying strategies are considering the promotion and use of AI search engines to publish content.

I would like to highlight a couple of points. First, media buying is gaining significant ground in contemporary digital marketing, but there is a notable lack of innovation. Second, SEO has adapted to new trends, and media buying has begun to merge with it.

The truth is that the label “new” is still the same label as always. We are still referring to traditional media buying. What has changed here is its priority, not its functions. However, we can see new areas (such as those I mentioned) where it has considerable scope.

These new strategies help combat the bad practices of traditional media buying. Sometimes this area of marketing is one of the ones I like the least. This is due to its corrosive and invasive nature (especially in the remarketing stage). However, being optimistic, I believe that these new resources can help define new lines to create a better version of online advertising.