Rate checks
Current rates per channel, paper, station or site, set against rate cards and your earlier bookings.
Home / Services / Advertising / Media buying
Advertising · Media buying · TV, print, radio, outdoor, digital
Mediabuying
Since 201565+ in-house team6 cities
Media buying for brands that book TV, print, radio, outdoor and digital space. Most of your budget goes to media owners, so check every booking before you pay.
A strategist calls you in one working day.
/ 01 Media buying
Every rupee of media, booked and checked.
Most of an advertising budget goes to media owners, so a media bill with no proof behind it is money you cannot defend. PromotEdge books and checks TV, print, radio, outdoor, cinema and digital ads, so you get enquiries and sales, not just airtime.
Planning decides where, when and how much; buying turns that into confirmed spots, pages and sites at a fair price, and makes sure they run. No plan yet? Start with our media planning and we do both.
We book national and regional TV, newspapers and magazines, FM radio, hoardings, transit and screens, cinema, and digital media, through our media partners.
- 2015working with Indian brands since
- 65+in-house team: strategy, creative, media and tech
- 4pillars under one roof: strategy, advertising, digital, on-ground activation (BTL)
- 6cities: head office in Kolkata, teams in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Guwahati and Bhubaneswar
/ 02 What you get
From rate talks to a clean audit.
Units differ by medium: TV, radio and cinema per 10 seconds, print per square centimetre, outdoor by the month, digital per impression, click or lead. We confirm units and terms in writing for every booking.
Terms in writing
Rate, position, bonus, payment terms and cancellation windows agreed before money is committed.
Release orders
A written release order (RO) for every booking: dates, size or duration, position, rate, discount, billing.
Material dispatch
Films, spots and artwork sent to each media owner in the right format, with a version check.
Proof by medium
TV telecast certificates, print tear sheets, radio airing logs, dated outdoor photographs, platform and ad-server reports.
Make-goods and claims
Missed, cut or shifted ads claimed back as replacement spots, space or credit.
Bill reconciliation
Every invoice matched with its release order and proof before you pay a rupee.
Post-campaign audit
What was planned, bought, aired and paid, in one report, with what we would change.
/ 03 What usually gets in the way
Where media money quietly leaks,and the way through.
“We paid the rate card. Others paid less.”
A rate card is where talks start. You see the card rate, the rate quoted to you and any bonus in writing before we confirm.
“The channel says our spots ran. We can't check.”
You get the telecast certificate for every spot, checked against ad-monitoring data where it exists. Missed spots are claimed back as make-goods (free replacement spots).
“Our ad landed on page 14, next to a competitor.”
Page, position and edition go into the release order, and we check the tear sheet (the printed page) on the day.
“Five vendors, five invoices, none matching the plan.”
One release order per booking and one reconciliation a month. Invoices are matched before they reach your accounts team.
“Digital reports show crores of impressions, but sales didn't move.”
Impressions only count how often an ad appeared. We buy against the result you care about and cut placements that bring nothing.
“We locked the whole year's budget in one go.”
We push for cancellation windows, room to shift money between channels, and a smaller first booking to test a channel.
Send us your last media bill and one release order, and we will tell you plainly what we see. Get a free growth plan
/ 04 How we work
From planto settled bills.
We can't do magic alone: the faster you approve the plan and send the artwork, the faster the media runs.
- 01
Plan or brief
We start from your media plan, or build one with you: who to reach, where, when, and the result the spend must bring.
- 02
Rates and options
Current rates and offers from media owners, side by side. Rates move fast, so every option carries a date.
- 03
Ask and approve
We ask for better rate, position, bonus and terms. You approve line by line, card rate beside quoted rate.
- 04
Release orders and material
An RO goes out for each booking, and the ad material goes to each owner in its format.
- 05
Watch it live
Spots, pages and sites are tracked as they run. Misses are raised with the media owner the same week.
- 06
Reconcile and audit
Proof is matched with bookings and bills. You get a closing report: what ran, what it cost, what we claimed back.
Tell us what’s not working. We’ll send you an honest one-page growth plan, free.
Go deeperMore on this
How we deliver it, and why
How your business model changes the plan
For healthcare groups we plan from the area around each clinic or diagnostic centre. For industrial makers we start from dealer towns, and for real-estate projects from the catchment around the site. A brand with one city and one medium may not need a buyer at all.
- Put every booking on a release order. A promise on the phone cannot be checked; a paper can. One RO per booking.
- Fix rate and position in writing. Position changes an ad's value as much as price does. Card rate beside quoted rate.
- Collect proof as ads run. Misses raised in the same week can be made good; at the end they rarely are. A proof file per booking.
- Match every bill to order and proof. Your accounts team pays once, for what ran. A monthly reconciliation.
- Buy against enquiries. Airtime is a cost; enquiries are the return. Cost per enquiry by medium.
Go deeper: who measures and sets the rules in India
Industry bodies
AAAI, formed in 1945, calls itself the official national organisation of advertising agencies. MRUC, a not-for-profit since 1994, runs the Indian Readership Survey for print, plus outdoor and radio studies. BARC India measures TV audiences; its promoters are IBDF, ISA and AAAI. ABC publishes circulation figures by state, district and town. ASCI is the self-regulator for ad content.
Source: AAAI, MRUC, BARC India, ABC and ASCI own sites, read 10 October 2026
AI in media buying: today and next
Today: Google Performance Max
Google says one Performance Max campaign can run across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps. Exact-match Search keywords take priority over it, and you can add brand exclusions and negative keywords.
Source: Google Ads Help, Performance Max, read 10 October 2026
Today: Meta Advantage+
Meta says Advantage+ applies AI automatically across a campaign's audience, placement and budget.
Source: Meta for Business, Advantage+ page, read 10 October 2026
Next
Our view: digital buying will keep getting more automatic. TV, print and outdoor will still be negotiated and proved by people, so release orders and proof stay.
Not sure which media suits your budget? Tell us your goal and ask. Talk to us
/ 05 Industries
Where this works best.
01
Construction equipment
Contractors trust the machine their peers run on site more than any brochure.
02Building materials
The person who pays for the cement is rarely the one who picks the brand.
03Industrial & manufacturing
Procurement checks you out long before your sales team is invited to talk.
04Automotive
A buyer's interest fades fast when the enquiry reaches the right showroom late.
05Real estate
Enquiries are easy to buy, but the sale is won or lost at the site visit.
06FMCG
Your ad works for a rival if your product is missing from the shelf.
What we believe
We believe in process. Good results should repeat, not happen by luck.
/ 06 Cost
What media buying costs.
We don't publish a price list. The media is billed at the rates agreed with each media owner, each shown to you before you sign off. Our own charge for planning and buying is quoted separately.
What affects the cost
- Which media, and how many channels, papers, stations or sites
- National, regional or city-level buying
- Season: festive months and big cricket tournaments push TV rates up
- Booking length, and how far ahead you commit
- Premium positions such as front pages or prime time
- How much monitoring and reporting you need
How we quote
- We talk about your goal, your markets and the media money you plan
- We look at what you book today, and the rates and proofs you get
- We write a media plan with a release order for each booking
- You get a quote within 2 working days: our charge on one line, each media rate on its own line
What you get in the quote
- The media plan, channel by channel and city by city
- Net rate and release order for every booking
- Proof of performance, make-goods tracked and claimed
- Bills checked against the order, our charge shown separately
GST is added on top: usually 5% on newspaper space and 18% on most other media and on agency fees. Compare quotes on the net rate of every booking, with the agency's own charge on a separate line.
/ 07 What happens next
What happensafter you ask.
For projects we think we can help, this is how it goes.
- 01
A strategist calls you
In one working day: a 30-minute call with one of our strategists about your business and what is not working.
- 02
You get a 1-page plan
A short, honest plan: what to fix first and what we would do. It is free.
- 03
A quote, if you want one
If you want to go ahead, we send a quote within 2 working days.
We confirm the timeline in the quote. Contracts start at 3 months, with 30 days' notice to stop.
Brands and people are named only as public examples. They are not PromotEdge clients or endorsers unless stated.
Keep exploring
Related pages.
The same work in your city and your industry, and the services that go with it.
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Proof and reading
What people say
In their own words
“PromotEdge has been a unique creative group amongst unique creativity world. …”
Rajat ChatterjeeHead Business Development at Birdman Chemeng Pvt Ltd.“I commend PromotEdge as a content and advertising partner. I applaud their top-notch team, swift problem-solving, and outstanding digital media work for my brand. I express my happiness and eagerness for a long-term partnership.”
Priyanka GuptaDirector at Nitya Gold & Diamonds“I really want to thank Sayantan and his team from PromotEdge because what I find good in them is that, the team. When the team is wonderful, the outcome will definitely be wonderful. …”
Abhijit BhattacharyaFormer Captain Indian VolleyBall Team; and Founder of Brahmaputra Volleyball League
No pressure. No sales pitch.
Tell us where your media money leaks.We'll show you the plan.
Straight answers.
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It books advertising time and space: TV spots, newspaper space, radio spots, hoardings, cinema screens and digital impressions. Planning decides where, when and how much. Buying turns the plan into confirmed bookings, issues release orders, collects proof that ads ran, claims back misses and checks the bills.
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Three ways are common: a commission from the media owner, traditionally 15% of gross media value for recognised agencies; a fixed fee with media passed on at net cost; or a fee plus a results bonus. Ask any agency, us included, for the net rate of every booking. Our own charge is quoted separately.
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A release order (RO) is the agency's written instruction to a media owner to run your ad: dates, size or duration, position, rate, discount and billing. Never accept a booking without one. A make-good replaces an ad that didn't run as booked, usually as a free spot or space later.
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Ask for proof of performance for every booking, not only at the end. TV: the broadcaster's telecast certificate, ideally checked against ad-monitoring data. Radio: the station's airing certificate. Print: a tear sheet from each edition. Outdoor: dated photographs. Digital: platform and ad-server reports.
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Yes. Our servicing team is based in cities across India. Regional TV, local editions and city FM often give the most for the money, so we plan and book city by city and language by language. We work hybrid, visit regularly and sit with your team when a job needs it. Our in-house team of 65+ people does the work.
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There is no single best agency. The right one shows you its work in writing: the net rate of every booking, its own charge on a separate line, a release order and proof for each booking, and bills matched to both. Ask two or three agencies for the same plan and compare.
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Judge it on business numbers, not airtime: enquiries and cost per enquiry (what you pay, on average, for one). TV, print and outdoor can't count who looked, so we add QR codes or a campaign-only phone number, and compare enquiries where ads ran with where they didn't.
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That depends on the medium more than the agency. A city radio burst or a few newspaper insertions can be bought well on a modest budget; national TV needs far more. If you only run Google and Meta ads on a small budget, you need a sharp campaign manager, not a buyer. We'll say so honestly.