Lightstream
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Services > Media Planning & Buying

THE RIGHT MEDIA.
AT THE RIGHT PRICE.

Good media planning starts with one question: where will your advertising dollars work hardest? Lightstream researches the audience, recommends the right mix of digital and traditional channels, negotiates placements, and manages the buy. From billboards and broadcast to search, social, and connected TV, we help banks, credit unions, and health systems reach the right people through zero-commission media buying. Smarter placements, sharper negotiations, and no markups have saved our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars in media costs.

Plan Your Media Buy

WHAT WE OFFER

Every Channel Has to Earn Its Place.

We’re channel agnostic. We recommend media based on your goals, audiences, geography, timing, and budget, not on which channels or vendors pay us more. Traditional and digital get the same transparent, zero-commission treatment.

Media Strategy & Audience Planning

We define who you need to reach, where they live and work, what influences them, and which channels are most likely to deliver, then recommend a mix built around your objectives, markets, timing, and budget.

Billboards & Out-of-Home

Static and digital billboards, transit, and place-based signage. We evaluate location, traffic, audience fit, visibility, availability, and cost, then negotiate the placements that make sense in each market.

Broadcast, Audio & Print

Local and regional television, radio, streaming audio, and print, when they fit the campaign. We compare coverage, audience composition, schedules, and pricing instead of treating traditional media as an afterthought.

Digital Media Planning & Buying

Paid search on Google and Microsoft, paid social on Meta and LinkedIn, programmatic display, online video, connected TV (CTV/OTT), and digital out-of-home. Each option is judged on its role in the customer journey and its measurable contribution, not just impressions or clicks.

Vendor Negotiation & Placement Management

We request and compare proposals, negotiate rates and added value, review placement details, coordinate schedules and insertion orders, and confirm that vendors deliver what they promised.

Budget Allocation & Performance

We allocate budget across channels and markets, plan flight dates and frequency, set realistic measures of success, and review delivery and results with your campaign team, recommending changes when the evidence supports a better use of the budget.

Why Our Model Matters

Zero Media Commissions.
Zero Conflicts of Interest.

Most media buying arrangements pay the agency a commission or markup tied to how much you spend. Lightstream works differently. We bill our standard hourly rate for the time spent researching, planning, negotiating, and buying media. We take no media commissions and add no markup to media costs.

That leaves us free to recommend a billboard instead of a digital ad, print instead of streaming, or a smaller buy instead of a larger one when it’s the better choice. The recommendation follows your business goals, not what earns the agency more.

Expertise Matters: Over the past few years, our rationalized placements, sharper negotiations, and zero commissions have saved clients hundreds of thousands in media costs, while delivering better results.

What you Pay

  • Our flat hourly rate, billed monthly with line-item detail
  • Media costs at cost, with no markup. We can pay media invoices on your behalf or you can pay vendors directly, your choice.
  • Every rebate or credit earned on your media goes to you

What you don’t Pay

  • Media commissions
  • Percentage-of-spend fees
  • Retainers or long-term contracts

Our Process

A Smarter Plan. A Better Buy.

Research, recommendations, negotiation, and accountability in one place. The result is a media plan you can understand and a buying process you can trust.

1

Discover

Clarify goals, priority audiences, markets, timing, budget, past performance, and success measures. Research audience habits, geography, and competitive activity.

2

Plan & Negotiate

Recommend the channel mix and budget allocation, compare opportunities, negotiate rates and placements, and present a clear plan for approval.

3

Place & Review

Coordinate buys, verify delivery where available, monitor pacing and results, and recommend next steps. We work closely with whoever manages your creative and campaign execution, whether that’s Lightstream, your internal team, or another agency.

Talk With a Media Strategist

Project Spotlight

St. Luke’s University Health Network: Driving Patient Volume Across a Growing Health Network

Lightstream partners with St. Luke’s University Health Network to plan and buy media that supports service lines, new locations, and major initiatives. Combining digital advertising, streaming TV, radio, print, and outdoor, we tailor each campaign to its audience, geography, and budget. Our team manages strategy, vendor coordination, placements, and reporting, helping St. Luke’s connect with the communities it serves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Questions From Marketing Teams

Media planning decides whom to reach, which channels to use, where and when ads appear, and how to divide the budget. Media buying turns that plan into actual placements: selecting vendors, negotiating price, purchasing, and coordinating delivery. Lightstream handles both.

No. Zero-commission media buying is how we work: we take no media commissions and add no markup to media expenses. The only thing we charge is our hourly rate for the planning and buying work. Depending on your preference, we pay the media invoices on your behalf or you pay vendors directly, and every rebate or credit earned is passed along to you. That keeps our advice independent of the size or type of buy.

We start with your audience and objectives, not a preferred platform. Because we don’t earn commissions from media vendors, no channel pays us more than another. We may recommend billboards, radio, search, social, connected TV, print, or a combination.

Yes. We plan and purchase static and digital billboards, transit, and place-based out-of-home media. We assess locations, target markets, estimated exposure, pricing, and scheduling so outdoor advertising has a clear role in the overall plan.

Yes. Many clients bring us in to plan and buy media alongside an internal marketing team or an existing agency. If you also need creative, landing pages, campaign coordination, or measurement, our campaign team can take that on.

It depends on the channel and the objective. We use audience estimates, market coverage, delivery records, traffic or response trends, and campaign-specific tracking such as unique URLs, phone numbers, or offer codes. We won’t present estimated billboard exposure as if it were a measured conversion.

Make Every Media Dollar Work Harder.

Let’s build an independent media plan, negotiate the right placements, and put your budget
to better use with zero-commission media buying.

Let’s Plan Your Media