8 steps to smarter media buying on a budget

Not every company has billions of dollars to spend on each online marketing tactic. Clients with smaller budgets need to be more selective about how they allocate their funds.

Their money needs to work smarter -- not harder -- to generate their desired return on investment without going over budget. Fortunately, for these clients, there are steps advertisers can take to make the most of their clients' budgets, especially when it comes to media campaigns.

In broad terms, agencies have several ways they can leverage their relationships with online publishers to maximize budgets. A few examples are continually cultivating relationships, being creative in campaigns, adjusting to campaign variables and creating agency-publisher win-win situations. Advertisers working with clients who have a media budget in the million-dollar range can tap into their network of publishers to stretch their clients' spends.

The way to maximize smaller media budgets is twofold: make sure money spent is going to be efficient and work with publishers to tack on as many extras as possible to make investments go further.

First and foremost, agencies need to make certain they maintain amicable, cooperative relationships with their representatives. Agency reps know their site better than anyone, so it's important for media teams to listen to the suggestions, insights and proposals publishers have to offer. This does not mean that agencies should blindly follow their initial proposals, but agencies can do themselves a sizable disservice to just cast aside the expertise of their reps.

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