Media Buying
Every TV, CTV, and radio rate has the agent's commission built into it. Buy your ads direct and the station keeps that money. Hire a media buyer and that same money pays for an expert who handles the reps, checks every bill, and holds the station to what it promised you.
Same price. Very different result.
Placed Since 2006
Buying TV, CTV & Radio
With Most Of Our Clients
What's Happening Behind The Scenes
They don't know the real price. There's no comparison to what competitors pay and no data to check the rate against.
Broadcast billing is confusing. Nobody expects an owner to read it like a Comscore or Nielsen analyst. So 5-week months quietly cost more.
They have no leverage to negotiate. One business is one account to a station. A buyer placing schedules for many clients carries weight a single advertiser never gets.
They don't know what's truly premium ad inventory for their category. On broadcast or streaming. So they get sold remnant inventory, the leftover slots nobody else wanted.
They don't know how to ask for proof the audience was delivered. And when the report does show up, it's built for analysts, not owners.
They don't know the right questions to ask, or when to ask them. That costs real money.
They're told contracts can't be cancelled.
Fact
A good media buyer gets you more new customers for less money on better channels. And it saves you the time you don't have to manage reps, campaigns, make-goods, and the data behind all of it.
The Work
I handle all of it.
You stop dealing with ad reps, contracts, and billing. Period. You run your business. I run this.
I stop the emails and the phone calls.
Every rep trying to sell you something new goes through me first. Most never even get to you.
I read the bills so you don't have to.
You've probably paid for stuff you didn't fully understand. That stops.
I know what things actually cost.
You don't know if you're paying a fair price or getting robbed. I do. That's the whole job.
I do the wrangling.
When a rep pushes, I push back. You never have to be the bad guy or get talked into something on the phone.
I get deals you can't get on your own.
Rates and slots that aren't available to somebody calling in without the relationships.
I troubleshoot any issues in advance.
Contracts get read, signed right, and don't come back to bite you later.
I buy streaming with the same discipline as broadcast.
CTV is the ads that run on streaming TV apps instead of cable or antenna. It's where a lot of your customers went. It gets the same rate check, the same delivery proof, and the same make-good rules. Most direct buyers get sold it as a black box.
What This Actually Looks Like
This is not hypothetical, it's political. A station missed 2 weeks of a client's TV schedule during heavy political advertising, the time of year when stations charge their highest rates. These were also the 2 most important weeks of the year for the client. Not advertising during those weeks directly affects their quarterly bottom line. Here's what I did about it, and why none of it happens if nobody's watching.
The first excuse wasn't the real one.
The station's first answer was vague. The real reason, a rep handoff that dropped the ball, only came out after I pushed a second time.
I asked the question they wouldn't volunteer.
Was this a political preemption? Stations bump paid schedules for candidate ads during election season and don't bring it up on their own. I know to ask.
Their first offer was a downgrade dressed up as a make-good.
They offered short, cheap spots to replace the longer ones that got missed. That's not equal value. I said no and made them come back with real numbers.
I got it in writing before it mattered, not after.
I made the station send a specific make-good schedule before my meeting with the client, so I walked in with real numbers instead of a promise to relay one.
I told them what the missed weeks actually cost.
Not "some spots got missed." The exact weeks their customers start calling again after summer. That's the number that gets a station to move, and it's not one they'll ever bring up first.
How It Ended
The station upgraded the client into premium programming, the shows people actually watch, not filler slots. They added over 100 bonus spots on top of it. And they committed to more once political advertising clears out of the inventory.
The stations and streamers know this advertiser has a great agent. Someone's checking the rates, the ratings, and matching the pre-log against what actually aired, so delivery matches the contract. The standard is real.
What Clients Say
Jessica Muller · Owner
We had heard about Ray Bell and Dinkytown Media from a vendor we work with. I needed someone to take the media buying, the rep calls and the billing off my plate. Ray did all of that. More importantly, his advice on messaging and which channels to add made us a top 3 cash home buyer in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Jessica Muller · True Neighbor Home Buyers
Who You're Dealing With
In 2010 I was selling radio advertising. One of my clients was a used car dealer in a Minnesota suburb who wanted to grow his lot into a full service auto center. He believed advertising would get him there, so he spent. When it didn't work, he spent more.
I told my sales manager the man didn't need more spots, he needed someone to fix his marketing. I was told my job was to sell ads.
Not long after, I drove out to pick up a check and watched the bank tow cars off his lot while I stood there. I had sold him those ads. I had taken the checks.
That was the day I quit selling ads. Ad sellers sell ads. That's the job. What that dealer never had was someone whose only loyalty was to his business.
So that's the job I built. I sit on the owner's side of the table, and I stay there month after month.
You get a person, not a platform.
20 years buying TV, CTV & radio
Minneapolis–St. Paul · Chicago · Milwaukee
Kansas City · Des Moines · Boston
How This Works
01
You call.
Fifteen minutes. You tell us what you're spending and where. No pitch, no proposal, no homework.
02
We look at what you've got.
Your current schedules, your rates, your billing cycle. We do a complete analysis and reconciliation of your campaigns.
03
We take it over.
We contact the channels and implement our proven system to do the job you need done.
Straight Answers
What does this cost me?
Nothing beyond what you already pay for ads. Stations build the agent's commission into every rate. If you buy direct, the station keeps it. If I buy for you, it pays me. Your ad bill doesn't go up.
Am I locked into a contract with you?
No. You can stop any time. If I'm not saving you money and headaches, you should stop.
I already have a station rep I like. Doesn't this cut them out?
Your rep still gets the sale. The difference is they're now dealing with someone who knows what the ad is worth, what a real make-good looks like, and when to say no. Good reps respect that. The ones who don't are the ones you needed protection from anyway.
Is my budget too small for this?
If you're spending real money on TV, CTV, or radio, no. The smaller the budget, the less room there is to waste any of it.
Do I lose control of my own advertising?
You decide what to spend and what the ads say. I handle where they run, what you pay for them, and whether the station actually delivered. Nothing gets booked without you knowing.
What about my Google and Facebook ads?
This page is about TV, CTV, and radio. If you want to talk about how those work together with your online ads, that's a different conversation, and I'm happy to have it.
Do you handle streaming, or just regular TV and radio?
Both. Streaming TV, called CTV, is a bigger piece of every buy I place each year. It's also where the pricing and reporting are the least transparent, so a buyer who knows what to check matters more there, not less.
Beyond Media Buying
Some companies need a marketing leader, not just a buyer.
Fractional CMO is contracted chief marketing officer work, billed by the hour. It fits most companies between $5M and $50M in annual revenue that need senior marketing direction without a full-time hire.
One More Time, Because It Matters
You're already paying the commission. The only question is whether an expert is earning it on your behalf, or a station is pocketing it.
Reach out however you like
No fee · No contract · ray@dinkytownmedia.com