Explainer · UK
Agency vs direct media buying
You do not have to choose. Buying direct from national media owners gets you the best rate; using an agency gets you planning, negotiation and accountability across every channel. Media Addict is both: an independent UK agency that buys direct from the national media owners, then prices the campaign on your cost per lead.
What is direct media buying?
Direct media buying is when an advertiser negotiates and books space straight with the media owner, the publisher or broadcaster that owns the inventory, rather than through a reseller. The appeal is obvious: no middle layer, and in principle the keenest rate.
The catch is everything that sits around the buy. On your own you carry the planning, the negotiation, the trafficking and the measurement, you deal with each owner separately, and you have little leverage on price because you are placing a single campaign, not a year of volume.
The two options
Is it cheaper to buy direct or through an agency?
Buying direct
You deal with the national media owner yourself. In theory the best rate, but you carry all the planning, negotiation, trafficking and measurement, and you buy one owner at a time with no cross-channel view.
Using an agency
You get planning, negotiation, buying and accountability across every channel at once. The risk is a broker that adds a layer between you and the media owner, hides the rate, and reports on impressions rather than results.
Rate cards routinely run well above the rates negotiated by a buyer placing volume with an owner. The cheapest media is rarely the card price, and it is rarely the price you reach on your own.
Our model
Why get both in one agency
We buy direct from the owners
We negotiate directly with the national media owners across TV, press, radio, inserts, OOH and digital. There is no reseller layer between your budget and the buy.
We plan and account for it
You still get a senior team planning the mix, trafficking the campaign and reporting it back, with the two people who pitch you running the account.
We price it on your outcome
We structure the deal around your cost per lead or acquisition, so the plan is judged on results, not on the rate card.
It is the same discipline behind our cost per lead, national press and direct response work. For one client we bought four core channels direct and delivered 62,839 leads at a 92%+ lead-to-signed rate in five months.
Agency vs direct FAQs
The questions advertisers ask first
What is the difference between an agency and direct media buying?
Direct media buying means an advertiser negotiates and books space straight with a media owner. An agency sits between the advertiser and the owners, planning the mix, negotiating rates, trafficking the buy and reporting on it across many channels at once. The two are often framed as either or, but an agency can also buy direct on your behalf, which is how we work.
Is it cheaper to buy media direct without an agency?
Not usually. Rate cards typically run well above the rates negotiated by buyers who place volume with an owner year round. Buying direct on your own means paying close to the card, doing the planning and measurement yourself, and having no leverage across titles. An agency that buys direct gives you the negotiated rate plus the planning and accountability.
Can an agency buy media direct from national media owners?
Yes. We negotiate directly with the national media owners rather than reselling inventory through a third party. That is the point of our model: you get the benefits of a direct relationship, the negotiating leverage of an agency that places volume, and one plan across every channel instead of a separate conversation with each owner.
Do you mark up the media you buy?
Our commercials are agreed up front and can be structured as a project fee, a retainer or priced on outcomes such as an agreed cost per qualified lead. You see the cost per lead by channel in plain numbers, so the maths stays transparent whichever model you choose.
What counts as a national media owner?
The publishers and broadcasters that own the inventory directly: national newspaper and magazine groups such as Reach PLC and News UK, the national broadcasters, radio groups, and the OOH and digital owners. Buying direct means dealing with them rather than an intermediary reselling their space.
Get the direct rate and the plan
Tell us the outcome you need and we will come back with a plan bought direct from the national media owners, priced on your cost per lead.
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