What Media Buyers Want

I’ve recently been doing some web research for one of our clients, trying to find websites targeting women aged 18-54 who have young children and who live in Indiana. I happen to be a person who fits this demographic, so I can personally recommend a few sites I frequent; but honestly, I may not be your average bear. Ask people who know me.

Another option: to pick the strong newspaper or television websites of major metro markets in the state, which consistently get high traffic because of their local news and weather content. This option will reach a large population and may be cost effective CPM-wise. But it also will expose my message to a bunch of people who may not care, because they are not my core demo.

In a media-buying dream world, here is what I really want:

· A (free) website that ranks other websites based on basic demographic information:
o Geography
o Sex
o Age
· It could go a step further and allow us to target based on other factors such as:
o Education
o Marital status
o Income
o Children in the household
o Whether they ate at Subway in the past month
o Etc

I can see it now. You log in to awesomewebsiterankingbydemo.com, check all the targeting information you need, and up pops a comprehensive list of the top sites, ranked by total number of unique visitors who meet the demo criteria.

Is there such a thing out there? Compete.com is a good start for basic website comparisons, but you have to pay for the really good data. The stuff we really want. And need.


--Tessa G.