Today, when media planning and buying processes become extremely much more complicated, many media buying companies, advertising agencies or companies, which promote their products or services through various media feel the necessity of implementing good media planning and buying software. The implementation of such planning and buying software can mean for them acquiring one of core advantages over their competitors. Moreover, such planning and buying software can significantly cut down the amount of required time and people investments into preparing, carrying out and managing advertising campaigns. In addition, such software packages may include some good software for analysis of advertising and can help companies minimize the influence of the human element and cut down the amount of mistakes, made in the media planning and buying process. Although some of such excellent media planning and buying software as the Media Management Plus and Tapscan, for instance, have one significant shortcoming: it is their price.

Such planning and buying software could cost companies up to eight thousand dollars per year and not all media companies or advertisers can afford it. Nevertheless, an entrepreneur may find some other software options for media planning and buying, less functional, though less expensive accordingly. Furthermore, some smaller shops may not need to use all the build in functions of the more expensive media planning and buying software. Some of such less expensive programs are Excel based and it makes them pretty easy to use. The prices for such media planning and buying software may range from fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars annually.

Among the media planning and buying software there are different packages, used for different purposes. You can find separately planning and buying software programs for managing print media, such as newspapers or magazines, software, television or radio managing software, web media software, etc. All these programs may have different functions in them, which will help an advertiser or media buying manage their businesses in the best way. Thus, for instance, a television buying software program may have such functions as it will allow you to do the following: management of TV time purchasing, buy composing, compiling both inner company and client detailed reports, ordering units from stations, networks, etc.

These programs will also help you manage your billing summaries and market budgets; they may show you the cost as gross, net or net+fee. Orders and reports may be printed or easily copied to Excel files and sent as email attachments to your clients or business partners. Newspaper or radio media planning and buying software may have slightly different functions. Such programs may permit you to support up to two hundred and fifty publications and over one thousand insertions in each file. Additionally, such programs may serve you as archive databases and you may get back to the price or any other information that was used a couple of months or years ago.