Want to Work in Media Planning & Buying?

Here’s the Skillset You’ll Need

In a world where people watch, scroll, and stream on multiple devices every day, brands need to meet their audience where they are—across Linear TV, CTV, OTT, and every screen in between.

But what is behind every successful campaign? A smart, strategic media planner and buyer. If you’re considering a career in media—or you’re just curious about what it takes to succeed—here’s a closer look at the well-rounded skillset you’ll need.

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Analytical Thinking & Data Interpretation 🔍

Today’s media professionals must analyze data across platforms to understand what’s working—and what isn’t. That means digging into audience insights, viewing patterns, platform performance, and attribution models to optimize campaigns in real time. Tools like Nielsen, Comscore, Google Analytics, and platform-specific dashboards are your new best friends. At LWD, our team uses a full stack of proprietary ad tech programs that our planning and buying departments are trained in to manage and gauge the success of client campaigns.

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Communication & Collaboration 🤝

Media planners and buyers work with internal teams, clients, and external vendors every day. You need to be able to present plans clearly, communicate strategy, and back it up with data—all while building strong relationships. You’re not just crunching numbers—you’re explaining them. Whether it’s presenting to a client, working with internal teams, or negotiating rates with vendors, communication is everything.

Collaboration is at the core of everything we do, especially when coordinating across departments!

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Strategic Thinking & Problem-Solving 🧠

Media planning is building a full-funnel strategy that reaches the right people at the right time. You’ll build campaigns based on business objectives, audience behavior, and media mix modeling. You also never know what factors may affect the campaign, shifting budgets, inventory changes, etc., so being able to quickly pivot is a must. Finding workarounds that don’t sacrifice results is a big part of the job.

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Budget Strategy & Media Math Mastery 📊

Media buyers must balance performance, reach, and cost efficiency across channels. Understanding how to calculate CPM, frequency, and reach—while aligning spend to client goals—is key to delivering results. You’ll also need to know how to allocate budgets between upper- and lower-funnel tactics and across time periods to avoid waste and maximize impact. 

At LWD, managers host Media 101 sessions to dive into all the media math fundamentals. This way the entire team can confidently analyze performance, optimize media plans, and speak the same strategic language.

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Channel & Platform Knowledge 📺

Omni-channel success means knowing how to plan and buy across traditional Linear TV (think broadcast and cable) and Streaming platforms (like Roku, Hulu, and Pluto TV). Each has its own rules, audience behaviors, buying models, and measurement tactics. While role specialties may vary from agency to agency and could be specific to traditional or digital channels, it is important to have an understanding of the full media landscape as client campaigns span across multiple channels.

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Flexibility & Agility 🔁

You’ll juggle multiple clients, campaigns, and deadlines, often at once so you will need to have a strong attention to detail. Also, campaigns today require constant optimization. Spot not running as scheduled? Audience not responding? Streaming platform shifting inventory? You’ll need to think quickly and adjust plans on the fly. Agility isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s how you keep campaigns moving forward in a fast-paced, ever-evolving media environment.

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Curiosity & Passion for Media 💡

The most successful MediaPros stay curious, follow trends, test new platforms, and never stop learning. Whether it’s digging into a new CTV partner’s offering, analyzing Nielsen’s latest audience report, or testing emerging formats like shoppable TV, your curiosity is what will keep you sharp.

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Media planning and buying is about crafting an integrated, strategic, audience-first campaign that drives performance across every screen. If you love data, storytelling, problem solving, and working at the intersection of media and technology, there’s never been a more exciting time to join the field.

Thinking about jumping in? Our advice: Get curious. Get hands-on. And get ready to think across channels—because in this omni-channel era, media isn’t just bought… it’s engineered for results.

Check out our careers page to learn more about what it’s like to work at LWD and to consider any open positions we’re hiring for!