What is a media mix and why is it important?

A media mix, or marketing mix, is the combination of communication methods in which brands can reach their desired audiences. To understand what this means, consider these four elements of marketing:

A media mix encompasses all the possible ways a product reaches its chosen audience(s)—or people—through avenues like traditional advertising, grassroots marketing, digital advertising, social media, email, and landing pages. Those methods are the third element in the marketing mix: place.

Perhaps Brand A reaches audiences through digital-only campaigns. Their media mix could be a combination of display ads, social media ads, and native advertising.

Perhaps Brand B prefers to reach audiences through traditional methods. Their media mix might look like transit signage, direct mail, and TV and radio spots.

These are only some of the tactics that brands can use for promotion, which spans advertising, public relations, and other ways to share your message. When it comes to advertising, many brands find a mix of traditional and digital media to be the most cost-effective approach, accounting for the highest ROI (return on investment) for the price—the fifth and final element of the marketing mix.

A brand’s media mix is important for total ROI and testing new campaigns. Having a diverse mix of media means a brand isn’t putting all its marketing or advertising budget in one place and relying on only one method to reach their desired audience. If one method is underperforming, having a diverse mix means that the other methods can help balance out the total ROI while you optimize—or choose to eliminate—ineffective options.

Also, a media mix allows brands the freedom to more confidently try new things. For example, if a brand has always seen positive results from digital display ads but is interested in trying Streaming TV ads, it can allocate half of its advertising budget to digital display and half to streaming. This allows the brand to test something new while keeping a safety net in place. Since digital advertising is a dynamic field, the ability to test and evolve your strategy is important.

Media mix modeling, also referred to as marketing mix modeling, is a technique used by advertisers to predict how media will perform based on previous activity and other factors like seasonality. It helps marketers answer questions like:

Media mix optimization analyzes how your messages are resonating with customers. It’s the process of figuring out which combinations of marketing methods work best together in order to see the best results. It involves creating models that predict likely results from each type of media, or place, a brand is considering investing in.

To do this, brands use marketing data and analytics available to them in order to pinpoint where along the customer journey their intended audiences are most likely to engage with the brand. With that information, they can make more informed decisions about where and how to allocate their budget for the best ROI.

Media mix optimization isn’t as helpful when considering traditional media outlets—such as billboards or transit ads—which are harder to track than digital media. However, it can be useful for brands in determining which content and design are resonating most with audiences online.

Digital advertising is a great way to maximize effectiveness of a brand’s marketing mix. To learn why, first, let’s break down advertising into five core elements:

Learn more about how Amazon Ads and our full suite of advertising solutions can help build your best media mix.