Let’s get one thing straight—media planning isn’t just about throwing ads into the void and hoping for the best. In 2025, the brands winning the media game are the ones with razor-sharp strategy, data-backed decisions, and the agility to pivot when the market shifts (which, spoiler alert: it always does).
So why do so many brands still treat media strategy like an afterthought? According to WARC, brands that invest in a long-term, well-structured media plan see a 38% higher ROI than those that don’t. Meanwhile, a poorly planned media campaign can lead to wasted spend, audience fatigue, and—worst of all—zero brand impact.
If your brand’s media plan feels like it was written in 2019 (or worse, on the back of a napkin last week), it’s time for a serious refresh.
The Harsh Truth: Why do most media strategies fail?
Here are the 3 main reasons why most media plans fail before they even start:
1. The “Set and Forget” Mentality
A media plan that isn’t built to adapt is a media plan that’s already dead. Consumer behaviour shifts constantly, and if your strategy isn’t flexible enough to adjust in real time, you’re wasting budget on eyeballs that have already moved elsewhere.
✅ Winning Media Strategy: Agile media planning that uses real-time performance data to adjust spend, channels, and creative based on what’s actually working. Each channel has a purpose and defined goals as well as overall campaign goals where each layer of the campaign delivers its part towards holistic and tangible outcome.
🚫 Losing Strategy: A six-month static media plan with no optimisations, no adjustments, and no chance of success.
2. Over-Reliance on a Single Channel or Platform
Some brands put all their eggs in one media basket—pouring everything into Meta, Google, or one “hot” platform. But media consumption is more fragmented than ever. 95% of consumers use at least three digital channels before making a purchase, and multi-channel campaigns perform 250% better than single-channel ones (Source: Think With Google).
✅ Winning Media Strategy: A diversified media mix that is built to deliver specifically on the campaign objectives including media channels such Display, Social, CTV, OOH, Audio, and even emerging platforms like retail media networks.
🚫 Losing Strategy: “We see short-term performance through Google so let’s all invest there.”
3. Ignoring Measurement & Attribution
If you’re not measuring performance properly, you might as well be burning cash. Yet, only 52% of marketers feel confident in their ability to measure cross-channel campaign impact (Source: Nielsen).
✅ Winning Media Strategy: Using multi-touch attribution, incrementality testing, and AI-powered analytics to understand which channels drive real conversions.
🚫 Losing Strategy: Relying on last-click attribution, which ignores 95% of the consumer journey and gives all the credit to the last touchpoint.
How to Build a Smart Media Strategy?
Want to stop guessing and start growing? Here’s the blueprint for a high-performance media strategy in 2025:
Step 1: Get Clear on Your Business Goals (Not Just Media KPIs)
It sounds obvious, but you’d be shocked at how many brands don’t align media strategy with real business outcomes. Your media plan should be tied directly to revenue, customer lifetime value, and market share growth.
Example: Instead of just setting a CPM target, measure how each impression contributes to actual sales and retention.
Step 2: Map Out the Customer Journey
You need to know where your audience is, what they care about, and how they move between platforms.
Example:
- Top of Funnel: Awareness through Video, High Impact Display, OOH
- Mid-Funnel: Consideration through CTV, Native, Influencer
- Bottom of Funnel: Conversion through Retargeting, Search, Social media
The key is precision and creating a seamless journey—reaching the right person at the right time, on the right channel.
Step 3: Balance Brand & Performance Media
Short-term performance marketing gets instant clicks and will optimise towards short term conversion goals, so if you ignore brand building, your long-term growth will eventually flatline.
There is no secret formula for the right balance of brand vs performance investment. Les Binet & Peter Field’s research claimed that a winning media strategy balances:
- 60% brand investment (awareness, storytelling, CTV, display)
- 40% performance media (search, retargeting, programmatic, shoppable ads)
Other experts such as Professor Bryan Sharp claim that there are much more complex nuances to the idea split. At Bench Media we think there is no one formula that should be applied. Instead, we look at a range of metrics and the goals of each client, competitors, strength of offering, audience segments, industry and many more to determine the ideal media investment and channel mix. We also constantly evaluate and modify this mix as the campaign progresses.
Step 4: Test, Measure & Optimise Ruthlessly
If you’re not running experiments, you’re leaving money on the table. High-performance media strategies rely on:
- A/B testing creatives, formats, and audience segments
- Real-time data analysis to shift spend to top-performing channels
- Incrementality testing to separate real impact from wasted spend
Final Thought: The Agencies That Get It, Win.
The best brands don’t just “do media buying”—they partner with agencies that live and breathe media strategy.
At Bench Media, we build media strategies that don’t just keep up with the market—they push brands ahead of it.
✅ Need a smarter, more strategic media plan? Let’s chat.
