Insights

How Much Should I Budget for Media?

Determining the right media budget is one of the most critical decisions in any marketing campaign.  

First though, your approach to growing brands can vary and depends on business size but everyone needs to have a repeatable systematic approach to communications. If you are going to invest into a campaign to reach new audiences, then getting your media spend amount right is critical.  

  • Digital
  • Strategy
by Crew
April 7, 2025

Whether you're working on a local test campaign or scaling up to a national audience, allocating your budget correctly will determine the success of your media strategy. In this article, we'll dive into the key factors to consider when budgeting for media and provide insights on how to calculate your spend effectively. 

Key Factors Affecting Media Budget 

Several variables impact how much you should budget for media, including your target reach, frequency, campaign duration, and media channels. Let’s break these down: 

  1. Reach: Reach refers to the percentage of your target audience that you want to expose to your media. Typically, campaigns aim to reach at least 70% to 90% of the target population to maximize impact. However, the larger your desired reach, the higher the cost. 
  2. Frequency: Frequency is the number of times your target audience will be exposed to your message. For effective brand recall, a frequency of at least 4-7 times per person is recommended. Higher frequency increases the likelihood that your message will resonate, but it also increases costs.
  3. Remember frequency is also an average, which means some people will see the ads more times and some people less. Having a variety of ads within the same campaign helps to reduce wear out and frustration among the audience. 
  4. GRPs (Gross Rating Points): GRPs represent the total number of impressions across your audience. The calculation for a GRP = Reach (%) × Frequency. This is specific to an audience. 
  5. Duration: The length of the campaign also affects your budget. Longer campaigns require sustained media spend to maintain the desired reach and frequency. A typical campaign duration (flight) is 13 weeks, but it could be shorter or longer based on your goals, market, and budget. How you spread out your GRP’s also matters. 
  6. Target Audience within a Population: The size of your target audience directly impacts your budget. For instance, a local campaign in a city with 100,000 people will require a significantly lower budget than a national campaign targeting millions. Consider the incident rate of your ideal target audience within a specific geography.  While digital tactics are good at targeting interests and lifestyles, traditional media is not and will have more spillover into audiences that are not a fit. 
  7. Media Channels: Different media channels have different cost structures, typically measured as CPM (cost per thousand impressions). Here's a rough estimate for common media channels: 
  • TV: $15–$30 CPM 
  • Digital: $3–$10 CPM 
  • Out-Of-Home (OOH): $5–$20 CPM 

The choice of media mix will depend on where your audience spends most of their time. For example, digital might be more effective for younger audiences, while TV and radio may still dominate for older demographics. 

Calculating Your Media Budget 

To calculate the media budget, the formula below involves multiplying your desired GRPs (Gross Rating Points) by the CPM of each media channel. 

Here’s a simplified version of the media budget calculation: 

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For example, if you are planning a campaign in Jacksonville, Florida, with a population of 950,000, and you want to achieve 1,400 GRPs (enough to reach close to 100% of the population with an average frequency of 4), your budget might look like this: 

Duration 

We want to spread those GRP’s across time because not everyone will be reached in one week. Think about your own media behaviour – there may only be times in the day or week that you drive down a certain road or times of day that you watch TV. Spreading the GRP’s over a longer period of time ensures you are reaching the most amount of people. 

To maximize reach and increase memorability, we need to front load the GRP’s to create memorability. Reducing the amount of GRP’s after 4 weeks and pulsing the remainder of the GRP’s stretches the budget while also acting as a reminder message. 

Managing Overlap 

When using multiple media channels (such as digital and OOH), there is often duplication of reach, meaning some individuals will be exposed to your ads across multiple platforms. To calculate unduplicated reach, you can adjust for an overlap factor (typically 30% for campaigns using multiple media). 

Adjust for Campaign Strategy 

Each campaign is unique, so the variables can change based on your objectives, target audience, and available media mix. With proper planning and the right tools, you can ensure your media spend is optimized for maximum impact. 

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