MKF3461 Chap.7 Media Planning, Metrics and Budgets
Media Planning, Metrics and Budgets
Media planning converts audience delivery into measurable quantities and budget choices. This chapter relates reach, frequency, impacts and gross rating points, then adds cost per thousand and other cost comparisons. The formulas are not isolated arithmetic: each denominator answers a different question, and none proves persuasive effect.
Students learn to show units, reconcile related measures, test whether values are internally consistent and combine quantitative delivery with qualitative judgments about audience and placement quality.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Reach as unduplicated audience delivery
- 02
Frequency as average exposure among those reached
- 03
Impacts from reach multiplied by frequency
- 04
Gross rating points as accumulated rating delivery
- 05
Cost per thousand and cost comparison denominators
- 06
Budget allocation under delivery and quality constraints
Worked example · free
Reconcile delivery before comparing cost
- 2Multiply 36,000 people by an average frequency of 3 to obtain 108,000 impacts.
- 2Divide $7,560 by 108,000 impacts and multiply by 1,000 to obtain a CPM of $70.
- 2Keep people, exposures and dollars visible so the relationships can be checked.
- 2State that CPM compares delivery cost but does not establish target quality, attention, understanding or action.
Key terms
- Reach
- The different people or households exposed to a schedule at least once during a defined period.
- Average frequency
- The mean number of exposures among the people reached by the schedule.
- Impacts
- The accumulated exposures produced by a schedule, calculated from reach and average frequency.
- Rating point
- One percent of a defined audience population delivered by a media placement or schedule.
- Gross rating points
- The sum of ratings across placements, equivalent to percentage reach multiplied by average frequency.
- Cost per thousand
- Media cost divided by delivered impacts and multiplied by one thousand.
- Media budget
- The financial allocation used to secure and support planned audience delivery across selected media.
- Objective task method
- A budgeting approach that estimates the activities and resources required to pursue defined communication objectives.
- Marginal return
- The additional response expected from the next increment of spending compared with the additional cost of that increment.
Media Planning, Metrics and Budgets FAQ
What is the difference between reach and impacts?
Reach counts different people exposed at least once, while impacts count accumulated exposures. One person reached three times contributes one to reach and three to impacts. The distinction matters because broad delivery and repeated delivery solve different communication problems.
Can gross rating points exceed one hundred?
Yes. Gross rating points accumulate ratings across placements and do not remove duplication. A schedule can exceed one hundred because the same audience members may be exposed more than once. The total is a weight of delivery, not a count of unique people.
Is the lowest cost per thousand always best?
No. CPM standardises the price of impacts, but it does not reveal whether those impacts reach the priority audience, gain attention or support the message. Compare like denominators, then add audience composition, context, creative fit and the required frequency pattern.
How can I check a reach and frequency calculation?
Keep reach in people and frequency in exposures per reached person, then multiply them to reproduce total impacts. Reverse the relationship when one value is derived. If the units or totals fail to reconcile, stop before interpreting the schedule. Rounding should occur only after the underlying values reproduce the printed delivery.
What makes an objective and task budget defensible?
The planner begins with communication objectives, identifies the activities and delivery required to pursue them, estimates their costs and states the assumptions. This does not make the budget certain, but it makes the logic traceable. Sensitivity analysis can show how the allocation changes when audience cost, response expectation or required frequency differs from the estimate.
Assessment move
Create a unit ladder with people, percentages, exposures and dollars on separate lines. Derive impacts from reach and frequency, then derive cost per thousand from cost and impacts. Reverse each relationship so you can detect an impossible or inconsistent schedule. Work small examples by hand and annotate every intermediate value with its unit.
After every calculation, write one sentence beginning with the number's legitimate use and another identifying what it cannot prove. Compare two media options only after confirming that their audiences, periods and denominators are comparable.
In a plan, connect the desired balance of reach and repetition to the communication task: a broad awareness objective and a narrow reassurance objective may require different delivery shapes. Treat cost efficiency as one constraint among several, and state where placement quality or audience evidence changes the allocation.
Working through Media Planning, Metrics and Budgets in MKF3461? Sia is AskSia’s AI Marketing tutor — ask any MKF3461 Media Planning, Metrics and Budgets question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how MKF3461 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
