TV media buying agency options, compared on published evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How to evaluate a TV buying agency

1. Establish how they are paid, in full. Ask whether the fee is a percentage of spend, a flat retainer, or a commission retained from the media owner, and whether any rebates, volume bonuses or inventory arbitrage exist. An agency that buys inventory in bulk and resells it to you at a marked up rate is running a different business from one taking a disclosed fee, and you are entitled to know which.
2. Ask to see post logs and make good handling. Require that post buy reports reconcile what was booked against what actually aired, station by station and daypart by daypart. Ask how make goods are pursued when spots are pre empted, and who keeps the value of them. This single question separates agencies that manage a buy from agencies that place one.
3. Separate linear from connected and addressable. Traditional broadcast and cable, connected television inventory bought through programmatic platforms, and addressable buys targeted at specific households are three different markets with different minimums and different measurement. Ask which of the three the agency actually transacts in weekly, because most are strong in one and outsource the others.
4. Agree the measurement before the first flight. Decide in advance how response will be read: matched market testing, a clean holdout region, spike analysis against airtimes, or unique promotional codes and phone numbers per station. Retrofitting attribution after a flight has run produces an argument rather than an answer, and every experienced buyer knows this.

Fee models change what the agency recommends

A percentage of spend rewards spending more, a flat fee rewards efficiency but can leave the agency underpaid on a complex small buy, and undisclosed media owner commissions create an incentive to favour whichever seller pays best. None of these is disqualifying, but the model should be stated in the contract along with a clause requiring disclosure of any other compensation the agency receives in connection with your buy. If a candidate is uncomfortable with that clause, you have learned the most important thing about them in the cheapest possible way.

Ask also whether they will pass through the actual station invoices. Full disclosure buying, where you see what the media cost and what the agency earned separately, is available and normal at many shops. Non disclosed or principal based buying is also legal and sometimes cheaper in gross terms, but you cannot audit it, so you should only accept it knowingly rather than by default.

What the work costs and what moves it

Fees move with the number of markets, the number of stations, whether creative trafficking and versioning are included, how often flights change, and whether connected television and addressable buys are in scope alongside linear. A single market direct response buy with two creatives is a small job. Twenty markets with weekly optimisation, three creative versions and a connected television layer is a different operation and should be priced like one.

Two costs get missed by first time buyers. Creative trafficking and station delivery carry real fees per market and per version, and clearance matters: claims made on air are advertising claims like any other, and the FTC's advertising guidance for small business sets out that claims must be truthful and substantiated regardless of the medium. Budget for legal review of the script, not just for the shoot.

Questions people actually ask

What is a typical agency fee for TV buying?

Percentage of spend is the common shape and it falls as budgets rise, while flat retainers are usual for smaller or steady buys. Ask each candidate for both quotes at your planned spend rather than accepting whichever model they lead with, since the crossover point can be far from where you assumed.

Is connected television replacing linear?

It is taking share, but they do different jobs. Linear still delivers large simultaneous reach cheaply in many markets, while connected inventory offers targeting and cleaner measurement at a higher cost per thousand. Most serious plans use both and argue about the ratio.

How small a budget is worth buying TV with?

Small enough budgets exist in individual markets, especially in direct response dayparts, but below a certain point you cannot buy enough frequency to be remembered. Ask candidates to state the minimum spend at which they believe your market becomes viable, and to show the reasoning.

Should the buying agency also make the creative?

Not necessarily, and separating them lets you judge each on its own merits. What matters is that the buyer sees the creative early enough to advise on length, dayparts and versioning, because those decisions change the media plan and are expensive to revisit after the shoot.

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