Media planning is determined as a process of media time and space selecting for the purpose of advertising as part of a marketing strategic plan. The notion of media planning comprises setting objectives and developing a media planning strategy and tactics.

A winning media planning strategy stems from well thought over objectives that are based on solid results of the findings. Planners try to transform findings into differentiated media objectives in terms of frequency (the number of times the target audience is exposed to the message), reach (the number of people or households exposed to the message at a specified time period), continuity (timing of the media placements) and gross rating points (the reach, multiplied by the average frequency). A media planning strategy embraces all the means, necessary for reaching thoroughly constructed media objectives. It contains the answer to the most important questions "Where to advertise, how much to spend on advertising and how advertising should be scheduled over the whole period of an advertising campaign?"

Media planning strategies may be quite different. There is a defensive media planning strategy, which says to allocate most of the media budget in the area, known for high sales volume. It is opposed by an offensive media strategy, according to which, the money should be allocated in the market with low sales and a high potential to grow. There is also a media class strategy that orders to put money in various media classes with an intention to adjust media audiences with your target audience beyond creative considerations.  Television, for instance, may be a desired media class if a commercial contains both: sound and video. In addition, it is better not to be guided by the existing media stereotypes and think of using media that are not used by competitors. In addition, you may borrow an innovative solution from the others if it is likely to bring a sweeping victory to a media campaign.

Using the Internet for advertising purposes can now be very effective with modern web campaigns management solutions, developed specially for advertising agencies and advertisers. These developments provide means for a complete overall control of the web media process, leaving more time for creativity and obtaining results.

Advertising can appear on a regular basis, which is referred to as "continuity", and it can appear intermittently (the widely accepted term for such schedule is "flighting") or advertisers may choose a mix of continuity and flighting in order to build a pulsing advertising strategy. Whatever the decision of a planner may be, he must abide by the basic rule that says that a single exposure is on no account, enough to break through. One more hint is to plan a media schedule in accordance with seasonal events (vacations, holidays, partners' pre-scheduled activities, etc.) and competitors' activities to appear in the foreseeable future that may hamper the whole campaign or, vice versa, enhance the leading position within the product or service group.

An effective media plan with a well-planned strategy will help to obtain a considerable return from all the advertising efforts, necessary to launch a media campaign.