As a media planner and buyer, you're responsible for putting on a great show. While you won't be the entertainment yourself, your job is centered around finding talent that will get your company's message to your target audience.
You'll be in charge of developing an advertising strategy with the marketing department and using various media channels to get your point across. However, while communication and negotiation are important skills to have, research and analysis will be two of your most important areas of expertise. The media planner and buyer position uses audience data, focus group testing, and client feedback to develop their content strategy. You'll also be responsible for finding the best rates and schedules as well as obtaining the proper licensing agreements for the media you use.
While some companies will focus on a bachelor's degree in a business or marketing field, your experience and capability in similar roles will be their primary concern. Many organizations will expect an applicant to have several years in media or marketing, and even a background in media law is a significant advantage. While this position is typically 40 hours a week, deadlines can stretch your workday past eight hours. On average, a media planner and buyer makes about $24 per hour with the chance for bonuses, traveling, and networking opportunities.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a media planner and buyer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.92 an hour? That's $55,992 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 17,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many media planner and buyers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills and speaking skills.
If you're interested in becoming a media planner and buyer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 89.4% of media planner and buyers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.0% of media planner and buyers have master's degrees. Even though most media planner and buyers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a media planner and buyer. When we researched the most common majors for a media planner and buyer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on media planner and buyer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a media planner and buyer. In fact, many media planner and buyer jobs require experience in a role such as media buyer. Meanwhile, many media planner and buyers also have previous career experience in roles such as account executive or media planner.