Foundations of Advertising and Media Planning

Introduction

Advertising is a planned form of market communication in which an identifiable sponsor pays to present messages to selected audiences through media and other communication channels. Media planning is the disciplined process of deciding whom to reach, where to reach them, when to communicate, how often to communicate, and how much to invest. Advertising and media planning are therefore related but distinct: advertising concerns the persuasive communication and its objectives, while media planning concerns the delivery system that connects the message with an audience.

In contemporary practice, advertising operates within a complex communication ecosystem. Traditional broadcasters, publishers, outdoor companies, search engines, social platforms, influencers, retail media networks, data providers, creative agencies, media agencies, advertisers and audiences all influence campaign outcomes. A successful planner must understand not only media channels and audience measurement, but also economics, culture, regulation, technology, data governance and consumer behaviour.

This chapter establishes the conceptual and professional foundations required for later study of audience research, media strategy, budget allocation, scheduling, campaign measurement and integrated marketing communication.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Define advertising, marketing communication and media planning accurately.
2. Explain the purposes and economic and social roles of advertising.
3. Distinguish important advertising and media-planning terminology.
4. Describe major stages in the evolution of the advertising industry.
5. Classify campaigns by objective, audience, geography and duration.
6. Explain paid, owned, earned and shared media and their relationships.
7. Analyse the roles of advertisers, agencies, media owners, platforms and audiences.
8. Apply basic reach, frequency, impression, CPM and response measures.
9. Recognise ethical, regulatory, privacy and brand-safety responsibilities.
10. Develop a logically justified introductory media-planning approach.

1. Advertising as a Form of Market Communication

Advertising is commonly distinguished by four characteristics:

• Identifiability: the audience can identify the sponsor or source.
• Payment or controlled access: the sponsor pays for media space, time, exposure or distribution, although some subsequent publicity may be unpaid.
• Mediated communication: the message is delivered through a channel rather than only through a salesperson or direct interpersonal exchange.
• Purposeful influence: the communication seeks to inform, persuade, remind, reassure or stimulate action.

Advertising is not identical to promotion. Promotion is a broader term that may include advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship and digital engagement. Advertising is also not identical to branding. Branding is the long-term process of creating meaning, recognition, associations and preference around an organisation, product, service or cause. Advertising may contribute to branding, but branding is broader than any single campaign.

The basic communication process can be represented as follows:

Advertiser or sponsor → message and creative execution → media channel → audience exposure and interpretation → response and feedback

This process is not linear in practice. Audiences interpret messages through prior experience, culture, social relationships and platform context. They may ignore, discuss, modify, parody or redistribute advertising. Digital media further complicate the process because audiences can comment, share, review, block or create content in response to a campaign.

Advertising objectives

Advertising objectives should be linked to business, marketing and communication objectives. Typical objectives include:

• creating awareness of a new brand or product;
• providing information about features, price, availability or use;
• changing perceptions or correcting misconceptions;
• building a distinctive brand position;
• generating consideration or preference;
• stimulating trial, purchase, enquiry, registration or store visitation;
• encouraging repeat purchase and loyalty;
• supporting distributors, salespeople or retailers;
• strengthening investor, employee or community confidence; and
• promoting a public, health, political or social cause.

A useful hierarchy distinguishes cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes. Cognitive outcomes include awareness and knowledge. Affective outcomes include liking, trust and preference. Behavioural outcomes include enquiry, purchase, subscription or advocacy. The stages do not always occur in a fixed order; impulse purchases, habitual buying and socially influenced decisions may bypass extensive conscious evaluation.

2. Advertising Terminology

Professional planning depends on precise terminology. The following distinctions are particularly important.

The term opportunity to see or hear is deliberately cautious. An impression does not prove that a person noticed, understood or believed an advertisement. Measurement should therefore distinguish delivery, attention, engagement, response and business outcome.

3. The Evolution of the Advertising Industry

Early commercial communication

Commercial persuasion existed in ancient marketplaces through signs, announcements, personal selling and public notices. The development of printing made it possible to reproduce messages consistently and distribute them beyond face-to-face encounters. Newspapers and posters created early forms of scalable advertising, although audience measurement was limited.

Mass media and professionalisation

Industrialisation, urbanisation, literacy and consumer manufacturing expanded the need for national distribution and demand creation. Newspapers, magazines, radio and later television allowed advertisers to communicate with large audiences. Advertising agencies developed specialised functions including copywriting, art direction, account management, research and media buying. Media planning became more analytical as advertisers sought to compare circulation, ratings, readership and costs.

Segmentation and integrated marketing communication

From the mid-twentieth century onward, advertisers increasingly used market research to segment audiences by demographics, geography, lifestyle, attitudes and purchase behaviour. Integrated marketing communication emphasised consistency across advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, packaging, events and personal contact. The objective was not merely to purchase isolated exposures but to coordinate a customer journey and a coherent brand meaning.

Digital and platform advertising

The internet introduced websites, search advertising, email, display advertising and online communities. Mobile devices then made communication more continuous, location-sensitive and interactive. Social platforms enabled targeted delivery, public engagement and user-generated distribution. Search advertising created a distinction between demand creation and demand capture: display and video may stimulate awareness, whereas search often reaches people already expressing an information or purchase intention.

Automated auctions, data management systems, retail media and connected television have further transformed buying. However, technological sophistication does not eliminate fundamental planning questions. A precisely targeted message can still be strategically irrelevant, creatively weak, poorly timed or ethically unacceptable.

Contemporary direction

Current practice is characterised by fragmented attention, cross-device consumption, privacy regulation, declining reliance on third-party identifiers, creator and influencer participation, retail media growth, artificial-intelligence-assisted optimisation and renewed interest in attention quality. The industry is moving from simple channel selection toward coordinated systems of content, data, distribution, measurement and governance.

4. Economic and Social Roles of Advertising

Economic roles

Advertising can perform several economic functions:

1. Information: It communicates availability, price, attributes, location and usage.
2. Demand stimulation: It can increase category demand or shift preference between brands.
3. Market entry: New firms can use advertising to become known and reduce perceived risk.
4. Competition: Advertising may communicate meaningful differences, although it can also encourage superficial differentiation.
5. Economies of scale: Large-scale demand may support mass production and distribution.
6. Media financing: Advertising revenue supports many newspapers, broadcasters, websites, applications and cultural products.
7. Price and choice effects: Advertising may increase consumer knowledge and comparison, but its costs may also be included indirectly in product prices.

The economic effect is not automatically beneficial. Advertising may create barriers to entry when established brands can afford dominant visibility. It can encourage overconsumption, promote products with social or environmental costs, and exploit information asymmetries between sophisticated advertisers and vulnerable audiences.

Social and cultural roles

Advertising contributes to popular culture by circulating symbols, narratives, humour, lifestyles and representations of identity. It can normalise social change, support public-health behaviour and fund creative industries. It can also reproduce stereotypes, unrealistic body ideals, discrimination or materialistic assumptions. The social meaning of an advertisement depends on both its explicit claims and the representation of people, relationships and ways of living.

Advertising therefore requires a critical question: Who benefits, who may be excluded or harmed, and what assumptions are being normalised? Responsible planning considers accessibility, language, cultural context, representation, vulnerable groups and the environmental consequences of production and media delivery.

5. Types of Advertising Campaigns

Campaigns may be classified using several overlapping dimensions.

By communication objective

• Informative campaigns introduce a product, explain a problem or provide instructions.
• Persuasive campaigns seek preference, differentiation or action.
• Reminder campaigns maintain salience for established products.
• Reassurance campaigns strengthen confidence after purchase or during organisational change.
• Behaviour-change campaigns encourage safer, healthier or more socially responsible conduct.
• Reputation or institutional campaigns communicate organisational values, legitimacy or performance.

By market scope

A campaign may be local, regional, national, international or global. A global campaign may use a common strategic platform but require local adaptation in language, media habits, regulation, humour and cultural symbolism. Standardisation can create efficiency; adaptation can improve relevance and reduce cultural risk.

By target relationship

• Business-to-consumer (B2C): addresses individual or household decision-makers.
• Business-to-business (B2B): addresses organisational buyers, technical evaluators and procurement stakeholders.
• Government, institutional or non-profit: supports public information, fundraising, legitimacy or behaviour change.
• Trade or channel advertising: addresses retailers, distributors or intermediaries.

By timing and scheduling

• Launch campaigns create initial awareness and understanding.
• Seasonal campaigns align with predictable demand periods.
• Event-linked campaigns use cultural, sporting or commercial events.
• Always-on campaigns maintain continuous presence.
• Short promotional campaigns use concentrated activity to stimulate immediate response.

The correct classification depends on the campaign’s dominant purpose; a single campaign may belong to several categories.

6. Paid, Owned, Earned and Shared Media

The paid-owned-earned framework helps planners understand control, cost and credibility.

Paid media

Paid media is exposure purchased from a media owner or platform. Examples include television spots, sponsored search results, social advertisements, outdoor displays, print advertisements, cinema advertising and paid creator placements. Paid media offers scale, scheduling control and targeting, but it incurs cost and may be perceived as less independent.

Owned media

Owned media consists of channels controlled by the organisation, such as its website, mobile application, email database, packaging, stores, customer service channels and official social accounts. Owned media provides greater control and can support long-term customer relationships. Its limitation is that control does not guarantee audience attention or trust.

Earned media

Earned media is attention or discussion obtained without directly purchasing the specific exposure. Examples include editorial coverage, reviews, recommendations, organic sharing and public conversation. Earned media may carry credibility, but it is less controllable and can be positive, neutral or negative.

Shared media

Shared media highlights circulation through social relationships and platform participation. Consumers, employees, creators and communities may redistribute or reinterpret content. Shared media overlaps with earned media, but the term emphasises interaction and network diffusion rather than editorial publicity alone.

An integrated campaign uses these categories together. Paid media may introduce a message; owned media may provide detailed information and conversion facilities; earned and shared media may provide validation and discussion. The sequence is not universal, and a campaign can begin with community advocacy or an owned product experience.

7. The Advertising and Media Ecosystem

Advertisers and clients

The advertiser owns the commercial, institutional or social objective and provides budget, information, approvals and accountability. Client responsibilities include defining the problem, identifying business constraints, approving strategy, ensuring truthful claims and protecting customer data.

Creative agencies

Creative agencies develop the central idea and executions across formats. Their work may include research interpretation, copywriting, art direction, design, production, experiential activity and content development. Creative quality should be judged not only by originality but also by strategic relevance, comprehension, distinctiveness, accessibility and production feasibility.

Media agencies and planners

Media agencies research audiences, evaluate channels, negotiate inventory, construct schedules, manage budgets, coordinate trafficking and assess delivery. A media planner translates strategy into a defensible contact plan. The planner must balance reach, frequency, context, attention, cost, timing, audience duplication, brand safety and measurement quality.

Media owners and publishers

Media owners create or distribute content and sell access to audiences. They include broadcasters, publishers, outdoor operators, cinemas, platforms, search companies, streaming services and retail networks. They provide audience data, inventory, specifications, brand environments and performance reports.

Technology and data intermediaries

Ad exchanges, demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, verification firms, measurement providers and data partners facilitate buying and reporting. Their systems may improve efficiency but can introduce opaque fees, data leakage, invalid traffic, algorithmic bias and difficult-to-audit optimisation.

Audiences and consumers

Audiences are not passive endpoints. They select media, interpret messages, avoid advertising, provide data, respond publicly and influence others. A planner should examine media behaviour, needs, motivations, cultural identity, device use, attention conditions and power relationships. Audience research must not reduce people to demographic labels alone.

8. Basic Media-Planning Measures

Quantitative measures help planners compare schedules, but each measure has limitations.

Reach, frequency and impressions

Reach is the number of unique people exposed at least once. Frequency is the average number of exposures among those reached. Under a simplified definition:

Here, impressions and unique reach must refer to the same campaign, audience definition and measurement period. This calculation assumes that the reach estimate is reliable and that impressions are counted consistently.

A related relationship is:

If reach is expressed as a number of people, impressions are also a number of exposures. If reach is expressed as a percentage, the result is a percentage-based exposure index rather than a literal impression count unless it is multiplied by the relevant population.

Gross rating points

For a defined target population:

This is a schedule-level measure in which duplication is included. It should not be interpreted as the percentage of unique people reached. For example, a schedule reaching 40% of a target audience at an average frequency of 3 delivers 120 GRPs.

Cost per thousand

CPM is expressed in currency units per 1,000 impressions. It assumes that the cost and impression estimate cover the same inventory and period. A lower CPM is not automatically better: an inexpensive placement may have poor viewability, weak audience relevance, unsafe context or low attention.

Digital response measures

CTR is a percentage and measures click response, not awareness, sales or profit. Similarly, a conversion rate may be expressed as:

The denominator must be specified. A rate based on clicks differs from a rate based on landing-page visits or all impressions.

Worked example

An introductory campaign costs $18,000 and is estimated to deliver 6,000,000 impressions to the target market. It reaches 500,000 unique people. Its CPM is:

Its average frequency is:

The schedule is therefore inexpensive on an impression basis, but a frequency of 12 may be excessive for a short awareness campaign if it produces annoyance or inefficient duplication. The planner should investigate reach distribution, attention quality, incremental reach and outcome evidence before increasing activity.

9. Planning Logic: From Business Problem to Media Schedule

A professional planning process normally includes the following stages:

1. Diagnose the situation. Examine the market, competition, product, customer problem, previous activity and available evidence.
2. Define the communication task. Specify the desired cognitive, affective or behavioural change.
3. Identify and prioritise audiences. Distinguish primary, secondary, influence and exclusion audiences where relevant.
4. Develop the strategic proposition. Clarify what should be communicated, why it matters and what proof supports it.
5. Set budget and constraints. Consider funds, timing, geographic availability, production capacity, regulation and organisational risk.
6. Select the channel role. Decide whether each channel should create awareness, explain, demonstrate, reassure, convert or retain.
7. Build the schedule. Allocate placements by audience, context, timing, reach, frequency and cost.
8. Coordinate creative and media. Ensure that the message fits the environment and that formats support comprehension and accessibility.
9. Measure and optimise. Monitor delivery, quality, response and business indicators without confusing correlation with causation.
10. Evaluate and learn. Record what worked, for whom, under what conditions and with what limitations.

The process is iterative. Research may change the target audience; budget may change the channel mix; platform performance may reveal poor-quality inventory; and consumer feedback may require creative or governance changes.

10. Illustrative Case: “FreshStart” Reusable Water Bottle

This is a fictional illustrative case designed for educational use.

Background

FreshStart, a small regional manufacturer of reusable water bottles, is introducing a durable bottle made from recycled materials. The company has limited funds and competes with well-known international brands. Its objective is to generate qualified website visits and establish a credible environmental position without making unsupported sustainability claims.

Problem

The initial client proposal is to place advertisements broadly across social media because the channel appears inexpensive and provides rapid reporting. However, the target market is diverse, and the company has little evidence about which audiences are most responsive. A broad digital plan may generate clicks without building trust or demonstrating product quality.

Analysis

Research identifies two priority groups: university students who need an affordable daily bottle and environmentally conscious commuters who value durability. The communication task is not simply awareness. It is to make the product credible, explain its practical benefit, and encourage consideration. The company possesses owned assets—a website, email list and retail-partner displays—but has limited earned visibility.

Approach

The planner recommends an integrated programme:

• short paid video demonstrations showing durability and cleaning features;
• search advertising for people actively seeking reusable bottles;
• owned website content explaining materials, care and evidence for environmental claims;
• email communication to existing customers;
• point-of-sale displays at partner retailers;
• product seeding to carefully selected local creators, with sponsorship disclosure;
• public relations outreach based on independently verifiable product information.

The budget is divided by role rather than by fashionable channel. Paid video provides reach and demonstration, search captures existing demand, owned content supports evaluation, and creator or editorial activity may provide third-party credibility. The campaign uses frequency controls and excludes unsafe content categories. Measurement includes verified impressions, completed video views, qualified visits, add-to-cart activity, sales by region and a small brand-lift survey.

Outcome

The first review finds that paid video delivers broad exposure but limited site engagement. Search produces fewer impressions but a higher proportion of qualified visits. Retail displays perform strongly in areas where distribution is available. The company reduces low-quality video inventory, improves landing-page evidence and increases search coverage. It also revises environmental wording from an absolute claim to a specific, documented claim about recycled material content.

Learning points

1. Channel selection should follow communication roles, not platform popularity.
2. Low CPM does not guarantee useful attention or commercial value.
3. Owned content is essential when the product requires explanation or proof.
4. Credibility depends on evidence, disclosure and accurate environmental claims.
5. Evaluation should combine delivery, engagement, brand and business measures.
6. A small advertiser can compete through relevance, clarity and disciplined allocation rather than scale alone.

11. Ethical, Legal and Governance Responsibilities

Advertising professionals have obligations beyond client performance. Key responsibilities include:

• Truthfulness: claims must be accurate, supportable and not materially misleading.
• Disclosure: paid endorsements, sponsorships and creator relationships should be clearly identified.
• Privacy: personal data should be collected, used, stored and shared lawfully, transparently and proportionately.
• Targeting fairness: systems should be checked for discriminatory exclusion or exploitative targeting.
• Children and vulnerable audiences: additional care is required where comprehension, consent or resistance to persuasion may be limited.
• Intellectual property: images, music, trademarks, user content and data must be used with appropriate rights.
• Brand safety and suitability: placements should be monitored for harmful, illegal, extremist or misleading environments.
• Accessibility: captions, readable design, alternative text, colour contrast and inclusive language should be considered.
• Environmental responsibility: production, travel, physical materials and digital delivery have environmental costs.

Rules vary by jurisdiction, sector and medium. Practitioners should consult applicable advertising standards, consumer-protection law, privacy law, platform policies and professional codes rather than assuming that one global standard applies.

12. Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Contemporary Practice

Artificial intelligence can assist with audience analysis, copy variation, media forecasting, bid optimisation, transcription, translation and creative testing. It can also produce fabricated content, amplify bias, expose confidential information, infringe intellectual property or make decisions that cannot be adequately explained. Human accountability remains necessary.

Good governance requires documented data sources, permission and privacy checks, human review, testing across audience groups, clear disclosure where synthetic content could mislead, and procedures for correcting errors. Automated optimisation should be assessed against meaningful outcomes rather than allowing a platform to define success solely as cheap clicks or maximum delivery.

The growth of connected television, retail media, digital audio, creators and commerce platforms creates new opportunities for integrated planning. At the same time, fragmented measurement makes it difficult to determine unique reach across channels. Planners should state definitions, identify data limitations and avoid presenting modelled estimates as direct observations.

Challenges and Limitations

Media planning is constrained by uncertainty. Audience estimates may use different definitions; impressions may be duplicated across devices; viewability does not equal attention; clicks may be accidental or incentivised; attribution models may over-credit easily measured channels; and sales may be affected by price, distribution, seasonality, competition and word of mouth. Correlation between exposure and purchase does not by itself establish causation.

The planner should therefore triangulate evidence. Useful sources may include audience research, platform delivery data, independent verification, brand studies, web analytics, sales data, experiments and qualitative feedback. No single metric captures the full contribution of advertising.

Chapter Summary

Advertising is paid, identifiable and purposeful market communication, while media planning determines how communication reaches selected audiences. Advertising may inform, persuade, remind, reassure or encourage behaviour, and its effects can be cognitive, affective or behavioural.

The industry evolved from signs and print to mass broadcasting and then to digital, mobile, social, automated and data-supported systems. Its economic roles include information, demand stimulation, competition and support for media production; its social roles include cultural representation, public education and identity formation. These benefits coexist with risks involving manipulation, stereotyping, overconsumption, privacy and unequal power.

Campaigns can be classified by objective, market scope, relationship, timing and scheduling. Paid, owned, earned and shared media describe different forms of control, cost and credibility that should be integrated according to communication roles. Advertisers, creative agencies, media agencies, media owners, platforms, technology intermediaries and audiences form an interdependent ecosystem.

Reach, frequency, impressions, GRPs, CPM, CTR and conversion rate are useful but limited measures. Effective planning begins with a business problem, defines a communication task, prioritises audiences, assigns channel roles, develops a schedule and evaluates delivery, quality, response and business outcomes. Ethical practice requires truthful claims, privacy protection, disclosure, fairness, accessibility, brand safety and responsible use of data and AI.

Key Terms

Advertising: Paid, identifiable communication intended to influence an audience.

Advertiser: Organisation or individual that sponsors and is accountable for advertising.

Audience: People who may receive, notice or use a communication.

Target audience: Priority audience selected for a campaign.

Media planning: Process of selecting, scheduling and evaluating communication channels and placements.

Media vehicle: Specific outlet, programme, platform or placement used to carry advertising.

Reach: Number or percentage of unique people exposed at least once.

Frequency: Average number of exposures among reached people.

Impression: One recorded opportunity for an advertisement to be seen or heard.

GRP: Gross rating point; reach percentage multiplied by average frequency.

CPM: Cost of delivering 1,000 impressions.

CTR: Click-through rate, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.

Conversion: Desired action attributed or associated with communication.

Paid media: Exposure purchased from a media owner or platform.

Owned media: Channel controlled by the organisation.

Earned media: Unpaid attention or publicity obtained through third-party or public activity.

Shared media: Content circulation through social participation and networks.

Flighting: Alternating periods of campaign activity and inactivity.

Brand safety: Protection against association with unsuitable or harmful environments.

Attribution: Method of assigning credit for an outcome to contacts or channels.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the four defining characteristics of advertising?
2. Distinguish reach from frequency.
3. What is the difference between paid media and owned media?
4. Identify two economic roles and two social roles of advertising.
5. Why does an impression not necessarily prove that an advertisement was noticed?

Long Answer Questions

1. Explain the evolution of advertising from mass media to platform-based digital communication. Identify important opportunities and risks at each stage.
2. Discuss the roles of the advertiser, creative agency, media agency, media owner, platform and audience in a contemporary campaign.
3. Explain the paid-owned-earned-shared media framework and show how the categories may work together in an integrated campaign.
4. Analyse the ethical responsibilities involved in audience targeting, creator advertising, environmental claims and personal-data use.
5. Describe a complete media-planning process from business diagnosis to post-campaign evaluation.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A campaign delivers 2,400,000 impressions and reaches 300,000 unique people. Calculate average frequency and explain whether the result is necessarily efficient.
2. A local public-health campaign has a limited budget and must reach young adults, explain a channel strategy using paid, owned, earned and shared media. Justify the role of each category and propose suitable measures.
3. A platform reports a very low CPM but the campaign produces few qualified visits and appears beside unsuitable content. Diagnose the problem and recommend changes to measurement, buying and governance.

Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which statement best defines advertising?

A. Any unpaid conversation about a product

B. Paid, identifiable communication intended to influence an audience

C. The internal process of designing a product

D. A method of calculating media cost

Correct Answer: B. Paid, identifiable communication intended to influence an audience

Question 2

Which measure refers to the number of unique people exposed at least once?

A. Frequency

B. Impressions

C. Reach

D. CPM

Correct Answer: C. Reach

Question 3

A schedule reaches 40% of a target audience at an average frequency of 3. What does it deliver?

A. 43 GRPs

B. 120 GRPs

C. 400 GRPs

D. 1,200 GRPs

Correct Answer: B. 120 GRPs

Question 4

Which is an example of owned media?

A. A newspaper review written independently

B. A sponsored television commercial

C. A competitor's social-media post

D. The advertiser's official website

Correct Answer: D. The advertiser's official website

Question 5

What is the main purpose of CPM?

A. To measure brand favourability

B. To compare the cost of 1,000 impressions

C. To calculate unique reach only

D. To measure the number of conversions per click

Correct Answer: B. To compare the cost of 1,000 impressions

Question 6

Which campaign objective is primarily cognitive?

A. Increasing product awareness

B. Increasing repeat purchase

C. Generating a completed purchase

D. Changing brand preference

Correct Answer: A. Increasing product awareness

Question 7

A campaign delivers 1,200,000 impressions to 200,000 unique people. What is its average frequency?

A. 2

B. 4

C. 6

D. 8

Correct Answer: C. 6

Question 8

Which party normally develops audience schedules, evaluates inventory and manages media delivery?

A. Media agency

B. Retail customer

C. Product distributor only

D. Independent auditor only

Correct Answer: A. Media agency

Question 9

Why should a low CPM not automatically be treated as campaign success?

A. CPM always measures sales directly

B. Low-cost impressions may have poor relevance, viewability or brand safety

C. CPM can only be used for print media

D. A low CPM proves excessive frequency

Correct Answer: B. Low-cost impressions may have poor relevance, viewability or brand safety

Question 10

Which practice is most appropriate when using paid creators?

A. Hide the commercial relationship to preserve authenticity

B. Use unsupported claims if engagement is high

C. Disclose the sponsorship and verify the content and claims

D. Allow the platform to make all ethical decisions

Correct Answer: C. Disclose the sponsorship and verify the content and claims