Media buyers read a lot of media packs. They've seen every trick: the readership figure that's three times the circulation, the "monthly reach" that adds together everything the publisher has ever touched, the social following that turns out to be mostly bots.
So they discount. Quietly, and often heavily. If your figures look inflated, they'll assume they are, and your honest numbers get marked down along with everyone else's.
The fix isn't bigger numbers. It's numbers people can believe.
Lead with what's audited
If you have an ABC or BPA certificate, it's the most credible figure you own. Put it first, say what it is, and give the period it covers.
"Average net circulation per issue, ABC audited, January to December" tells a buyer exactly what they're getting. "Circulation: 25,000" tells them nothing, and makes them wonder why you haven't said more.
If you're not audited, that's fine, but be clear that the figure is a publisher's statement and say how it's calculated. Don't borrow the language of an audit for a number that hasn't been through one. Our audit preparation service exists partly because an audited figure makes selling so much easier.
Every figure needs a date and a source
A number without a date is a number the buyer can't use. Was that email list size from last month or three years ago? Is that web traffic figure a monthly average or the best month you've ever had?
For every figure in the pack, you should be able to say:
- What it measures. Copies, unique readers, subscribers, sessions, followers.
- When. A date, or a period.
- Where it comes from. Your audit certificate, your circulation system, your email platform, your web analytics, a social platform's own statistics.
You don't have to print all of that in a glossy brochure. But you should have it ready the moment a buyer asks, and a footnote or two with sources goes a long way.
Don't add things up that shouldn't be added up
The temptation to produce one big "total reach" figure is strong. Resist it, or at least be careful.
Someone who receives the magazine, gets the newsletter and follows you on LinkedIn is one person, not three. Adding print circulation, email subscribers, web users and social followers together counts them several times over. Buyers know this. If you want a combined figure, de-duplicate it properly and explain how. Otherwise, show each channel separately and let the buyer do the maths.
The same goes for print and digital editions. If some readers get both, count them once in the headline figure.
Readership multipliers: handle with care
"Pass-on readership" is real. Magazines in an office get passed around. But a multiplier needs research behind it. If you have a properly conducted readership survey, quote it, with the date and method. If you don't, leave the multiplier out. A made-up "four readers per copy" undermines every other number in the pack.
Digital figures: say what you're counting
Web statistics are where media packs get most creative. A few rules of thumb:
- Say which measure it is. Unique users, sessions and page views are very different things. Pick the one that best fits what advertisers are buying, and name it.
- Give the period. A monthly average over the last year is more honest than your best month.
- Say where it comes from. Your analytics tool, your CDN, your ad server.
- Keep bots out where you can. And be honest that no tool does this perfectly.
For email, the number of subscribers matters less than the number who actually engage. If you can show opens and clicks for recent campaigns, and better still which companies clicked, that's far more persuasive than list size alone.
For social, follower counts are what they are. State the platform and the date and move on. They're supporting evidence, not the headline.
Demographics: show the base
Advertisers buy audiences, not copies. Breakdowns by job function, industry, company size and region are often what wins the booking.
But a breakdown needs a base. "45% are senior decision makers" means something very different if it's 45% of the whole circulation or 45% of the readers who answered that question. Say which. If the data comes from qualification questions on controlled circulation requests, say so, because that's a strength: it's data readers gave you about themselves, recorded when they asked for the title. There's more on that in controlled circulation explained.
Keep it current
A media pack produced once a year from a spreadsheet goes stale fast. By the time the sales team is quoting it in October, the figures are nine months old and someone has "updated" a couple of them by hand.
Better to generate the figures from the live data whenever you need them, using the same rules every time, and keep a record of how each one was worked out. That way, when a buyer asks where a number came from, the answer is a click away, not a frantic email to circulation.
What advertisers really want to hear
Under all of this, a media buyer wants to know three things: who will see the ad, how many of them, and whether they can believe you. A pack that answers those clearly, with sources, will often beat a bigger-looking pack that doesn't.
Understatement helps too. A buyer who checks one of your figures and finds it was conservative will trust the rest. One who finds it was inflated won't trust anything.
How Adeptis does it
The Adeptis media pack generator builds the figures from your live circulation and email data, rather than from a spreadsheet. Every figure has an audit view showing its source, and circulation is de-duplicated across print and digital. Web and social figures are entered and shown with their source, so it's always clear which numbers come from where. It also lists what's still missing before the pack is complete, and exports to CSV or PDF.
Because it sits on the same database as your circulation and ABC data and email insight, the demographic breakdowns come straight from your qualification answers, and engagement figures come from campaigns synced from your email platform.
If you'd like to see how your own figures would look, book an Adeptis demo, or get in touch to talk about getting your circulation audited first.
Rob Sherwood is Managing Director of Adept Data Services. He has spent his career in subscriptions and circulation, at WDIS, Optima and CDS Global before founding Adept.