Hello,

dear Pushground users.

Today’s article concerns the new media buyers – what you need to be a media buyer, budget, tools, how to start, etc. 

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Who is a media buyer? 

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According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a media buyer is someone whose job is to arrange to pay to put advertisements on television, radio, the Internet, or in a newspaper, magazine, etc. It is the job of the media buyer to get the most effective advertising space for their clients.

The main focus today is on Internet media buyers, they are mainly divided into three types:

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1. Solo media buyers – many media buyers start on their own and learn from their mistakes – this is the hardest way, especially when you're on a budget and have no experience. Unfortunately, about 90% of them give up, but the other 10% who show persistence and skills start making money. Most often, they work with the so-called affiliate networks that provide them with offers.
2. Agency media buyers/media buyer’s teams – usually these are people with proven experience and knowledge of media buying. It is not a problem for them to work with larger budgets and with direct clients, avoiding the middleman.
3. In-house media buyers – work for the offer owner or the affiliate networks, which gives them access to higher payouts and more resources.

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Since the article is aimed at media buy beginners, we will mainly focus on their concerns.

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How much does it cost to start in Media Buying?

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We have a specific article about how much money you need to start your media buying business here.

If you're fortunate enough to find a winning offer early on, and if you work with an affiliate network that pays small amounts quickly, you can make it with less money.

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What I nee to get started with media buying?

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In our opinion, the main thing is to be able to “read” the data you collect during the campaign and make the right decisions based on this data – the so-called optimization process.

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Optimization

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It's not hard, but you'd be surprised how many media buyers, even advanced ones, struggle with optimization and stop potentially profitable campaigns because of poor optimization.

Fortunately, there is specialized software that will help you optimize your campaigns more quickly and easily – the ad trackers.

We have talked a lot about them in previous articles, but we still want to point out which are the best trackers in terms of price/quality ratio. We recommend starting wit is a self-hosted tool and RedTrack is cloud-based - both products are among the leaders in their niches.

Regardless of which option you choose, you will receive the best possible service, fast ad trackers, high-level support, and many templates. Pushground is already added as a traffic source. Our advice is to try both and pick out the one you like better.

Pro-tip: For additional optimization use our free tools -  the Auto-Optimization by creativity and the Automatic Rules:

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Coding Skills

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This is another skill that will help you a lot if you are serious about media buying. If you are a total beginner, it is best to start with HTML5 and CSS, if you have some basic knowledge, continue with JS and PHP. This knowledge will help you edit and/or create landing pages, write or improve scripts that will facilitate your work on optimizing and automating processes, etc. Of course, you can always hire a freelancer to do this for you, but it's still advisable to have a basic knowledge of how to write code, especially for those on a tight budget.

‍Pro-tip: already built and proven landing pages you can take from Purelander - they are ready for use, you just have to download them and deploy them on your server. 

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Copywriting

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Again, a very important skill that can set you apart from your competitors and make your ad campaigns profitable.

Good copywriting skills will help you create hook-up ad text, descriptions, and titles as well as unique angles.

The angle of the offer/campaign is essentially the messaging of your overall campaign. It’s how you’re going to hook visitors into converting a lead on the offer you’re promoting. 

‍Pro-tip: it's not a good idea to use unrealistic or misleading angles at first. They may increase leads, but they won't lead to sales, and you'll be kicked out of the offer. In the worst case, the advertiser may refuse to pay you.

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Communication skills:

To inexperienced media buyers, this skill may seem inconsequential. Not true. Communication is one of the key factors for your success in media buying. You will need to communicate regularly with your affiliate network account manager to receive new offers, receive information about the quality of the traffic you are sending, solve problems together, ask for payout bumps, and ask for advice on optimizing your campaigns. In the same way, you will also talk to Pushground representatives – from them, you will ask for information about prices, black and white lists, technical questions, etc.

If you work with freelancers like designers or system administrators, or programmers, you will also need to communicate with them – explain current projects to them, give them new tasks or check their work, etc.

Designer and System Administration skills:

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In the media buying business, it is useful to have a basic knowledge of how to make a banner or work with digital images and photos and how to maintain your server. You can find all the information you need on how to handle these tasks on YouTube or, if you don't feel like it, hire a freelancer.

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In addition to skills, however, you also need practice, and that can't be gained without offers to promote.

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We have repeatedly written about what types of offers and verticals are best to start with, but let's still quickly recall:

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1. Don't be greedy and start with SOI or DOI offers – they convert more easily than offers that require the user to enter sensitive information such as their credit card number, for example. 
2. Promote offers in tier 2 or tier 3 countries – the competition there is much less, and the traffic prices are lower, which gives you a chance to test more if you have a limited budget
3. Start with easy verticals like dating or sweepstakes, after you gain experience you can try your hand at lead generation offers from other verticals like home improvement.
4. Don't try to find hot water, but don't 100% copy your competitors either – stick to what you know works with slight modifications.

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Dear readers, that's all for today. Media buying is a vast topic, and we've only scratched the surface, but the new media buyers have a lot to learn from this article. 

Take care and stay healthy. Until next time!

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