Buy side
Also: buy-side
The buy side is the buying side of the advertising market: advertisers and everyone who plans and buys media exclusively on their behalf. Opposite it is the sell side – sales houses, publishers and platforms that sell ad inventory.
The True Effect view
Many media agencies formally sit on the buy side but also earn from the sell side through commissions, kickbacks and trading deals. That creates a conflict of interest: whoever earns on every placement sold has little reason to cut placements that don’t work.
True Effect is 100 % buy side. We are paid exclusively by our clients, with fixed fees and full budget transparency. So there is only one criterion for a placement: its effect.
Example
A sales house grants an agency free spots or rebates for a large budget, and the agency doesn’t pass them on to the advertiser in full. Formally it buys on behalf of its client – economically it is on the sell side too.