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Online Campaign Planning for Digital Media Part 2: The Building Blocks of Digital Media Planning
- theo5416
- Sep 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 19
Once a business understands the shift from offline to online channels, the next step in campaign planning is learning the core metrics that guide decisions. These metrics are the building blocks of digital media planning. They allow marketers to compare performance across platforms, allocate budgets effectively, and measure true return on investment.
In this post, we will break down the most important terms, explain what they mean, and show how they fit into the larger picture of campaign success.
Impressions and CPM
An impression is simply when your ad is displayed on a screen. To calculate costs at scale, marketers often use CPM (Cost per 1,000 impressions).
For example:
If your CPM is 100 THB and your budget is 10,000 THB, you can buy 100,000 impressions.
This is often the starting point for measuring brand awareness campaigns, where reach and visibility matter more than clicks or conversions.
Clicks, CTR, and CPC
A click is when someone interacts with your ad by tapping or clicking.
CTR (Click-Through Rate) measures how many people clicked compared to how many saw the ad.
CPC (Cost per Click) tells you how much you paid for each click.
Example:
If you buy 100,000 impressions and get 890 clicks, your CTR is 0.89%.
If your budget was 10,000 THB for those clicks, your CPC would be about 11.2 THB.
These numbers help determine whether your creative and targeting are resonating with your audience.
Conversions and CPA
A conversion is when someone takes a desired action after clicking your ad, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or registering for an event.
Conversion Rate = conversions ÷ total visitors.
CPA (Cost per Acquisition) = budget ÷ total conversions.
Example:
If 890 visitors produced 22 conversions, your conversion rate is 2.4%.
If your 10,000 THB budget delivered those 22 conversions, your CPA is 454 THB.
Conversions and CPA are critical for measuring campaign ROI.
Engagement and CPE
Engagement goes beyond clicks — it includes likes, comments, shares, and other interactions with your ad.
CPE (Cost per Engagement) = budget ÷ total engagements.
Example:
If your 10,000 THB budget produced 3,000 engagements, your CPE is 3.3 THB.
Engagement is especially important for campaigns focused on brand storytelling, community building, or viral reach.
Reach, Frequency, and Cost per Reach
Reach = the total number of unique users exposed to your ad.
Frequency = average number of times each user saw the ad (impressions ÷ reach).
Cost per Reach (CPR) = budget ÷ unique reach.
Example:
If you spent 10,000 THB to reach 50,000 people, your CPR is 0.20 THB.
If those impressions totaled 100,000, your frequency is 2.
Managing reach and frequency ensures that ads are shown enough to be memorable without overspending or annoying audiences.
ROI: Measuring True Success
Finally, marketers must look at Return on Investment (ROI). This measures whether the money spent on advertising actually delivered profits.
ROI Formula:(Gross Profit – Campaign Cost) ÷ Campaign Cost
Example:
If your campaign generated 50,000 THB in profit from a 10,000 THB investment, your ROI is 4X.
ROI ties all other metrics together, showing whether awareness, clicks, and conversions actually create business value.
Final Thoughts
The building blocks of digital media planning — impressions, clicks, conversions, engagements, reach, and ROI — give marketers the tools to measure and improve performance. By mastering these metrics, businesses can make informed decisions about where to spend, how to optimize, and which channels are delivering the best results.
In the next part of this series, we will connect these building blocks to the digital marketing funnel and show how to design campaigns for awareness, engagement, and conversion.
If you would like to dive deeper into this session, you can watch the full lecture here:
Want to see how your own campaign performance measures up? Click below to request a free Insight Audit from AIQ and discover opportunities to optimize your digital strategy.
