Reference library · Media planning
Media Mix (Channel Mix)
Media mix (channel mix) is the percentage split of a campaign's budget across channels such as TV, video, social, search, display, and OOH. It is set during planning based on audience reach and cost efficiency per channel, then rebalanced mid-flight as delivery and conversion data come in.
Formula
Worked example
Total budget: EUR 400,000. Initial mix: TV EUR 200,000 (50%), Digital video EUR 140,000 (35%), OOH EUR 60,000 (15%). After two weeks, blended CPA is EUR 31 on TV and EUR 18 on digital, so the planner shifts EUR 40,000 from TV to digital. New mix: TV EUR 160,000 (40%), Digital EUR 180,000 (45%), OOH EUR 60,000 (15%), same EUR 400,000 total. The shift raises the plan's blended efficiency without cutting OOH's reach contribution.
How it is used
Planners set the initial mix from reach curves and historical channel costs, then check it against a shared KPI (CPA, CPM, incremental reach) at each flight review to decide whether to shift share. Rebalancing should use incremental or MMM-adjusted figures, not raw last-click numbers, because channels interact instead of converting independently. The recurring mistake is treating the mix as a one-time split rather than a live allocation, so it never gets adjusted after launch, or adjusting it purely on last-click CPA and starving the upper-funnel channel that was driving the conversions being credited elsewhere.
The common mistake
Rebalancing the mix on last-click CPA alone defunds the upper-funnel channel that was generating the demand the lower-funnel channel is converting.