Tools and providers
Part of Media buying tools and suppliers for 2027, compared in the right order
Prove the exports before you sign a media agency software licence
Select agency software by mapping the work, proving access and exports, checking UK data controls, and agreeing ownership before any licence is signed.
Media buying software selection starts with the tasks, not the brand. Select software only after mapping the tasks it must carry. Start with the brief, buying permissions, approvals, measurement, invoicing and exit. A familiar platform is a poor choice if the advertiser cannot control its accounts or recover usable records when the agency relationship ends.
What to take away
- Map the tasks software must carry before you sign, starting with the brief, permissions, approvals, measurement, invoicing and exit.
- Write each requirement as an action so a supplier can demonstrate it using the proposed edition.
- Label evidence by levelpublished documentation, live demonstration, written commitment or proposed development.
- Request sample exports before purchase and check whether identifiers, costs, timestamps and approval history are included.
- A licence that traps essential records at termination carries a real switching risk.
Turn work into testable requirements
Interview the people who will brief, approve, operate, reconcile and audit campaigns. Ask where the current process loses time or evidence. Then write each requirement as an action: an approver must see the final asset and destination before release; finance must reconcile billed media to an authorised order; an analyst must export stable campaign identifiers.
Turn work into requirements
- Interview briefers, approvers, operators, finance, auditors
- Find where process loses time or evidence
- Write each requirement as an action
- Classify mandatory or negotiable
- Exclude suppliers failing mandatory workflow
Classify requirements as mandatory or negotiable. Channel coverage, access control and legal obligations may be gates. Interface preferences seldom deserve the same weight. If a supplier cannot demonstrate a mandatory workflow using the proposed edition, exclude it and record why.
Check the evidence behind a feature
Use the product owner's current documentation for every named capability. Google explains several conversion tracking routes, including website, app, call and offline actions. That page supports a feature check for Google Ads, not a claim that its reported conversions establish causation.
Four evidence levels
Evidence level
- Published documentation
- Feature exists
- Live demonstration
- Works in demo
- Written commitment
- Contractual promise
- Proposed development
- Roadmap only
What it proves
- Published documentation
- Not your edition
- Live demonstration
- Not contracted setup
- Written commitment
- Not yet built
- Proposed development
- Not available
Ask the bidder to demonstrate the exact account type, permissions and export that the contract will provide. Separate four evidence levels in your notes: published documentation, live demonstration, written commitment and proposed development. Do not treat a roadmap answer as an available function.
Planning estimates also need labels. Google's Reach Planner documentation describes modelled forecasts for supported video campaigns. Record inputs and forecast date if it enters a decision. Delivery should later be compared with the forecast without rewriting the estimate as an observed result.
Examine control, security and portability
List administrators, ordinary users, recovery contacts and service accounts. The NCSC's SaaS security guidance gives UK organisations questions about authentication, logging, integrations and incident readiness. Apply them to the intended setup and retain the answers.
Request sample exports before purchase. Check whether identifiers, costs, timestamps, approval history and configuration are included in useful formats.
How to prove an export before signing
The software in scope may be a buying platform such as Google Ads or a demand-side platform, or an agency buying and billing system such as Mediaocean's Prisma. Whichever it is, run the same proof on the edition you will license.
- Name the formats.Ask which routes the edition supports: a CSV or spreadsheet download from the interface, a scheduled report delivered by email or file transfer, and an API. Write down which of these the contract includes, because some routes sit in higher editions.
- Use your own test campaign.Ask the supplier to export one campaign you set up in a trial or sandbox account, not a prepared demo file.
- Check the columns.A usable export carries a stable campaign and line identifier, the order or insertion order number, the date and time of each change with its timezone, booked and delivered cost in the billing currency, the approver and approval time for each asset, and the configuration that was live.
- Reconcile one figure.Match the exported cost for one line to the invoice or order for the same period. If the two cannot be matched from the export alone, the export is not fit for audit.
- Re-import or open it elsewhere.Load the file into a spreadsheet or the system you would move to. Identifiers that change on export, merged cells or missing headers are failures.
- Keep the evidence.File the sample, the date, the edition and who ran the test with the shortlist decision.
Then write the result into the licence. Ask for an exit clause that names the export formats and the records included, a timeframe for returning data after termination, deletion of your data once it is returned, and help with transition. A supplier that will demonstrate an export but will not commit to it in writing has told you how the exit will go.
Establish who owns tags, feeds, audiences and historical files. A licence that works during the contract but traps essential records at termination carries a real switching risk.
Keep privacy tied to the actual use
Advertising tools may place or read information on devices. The ICO's storage and access guidance discusses cookies, pixels and similar technologies under UK rules: the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) for storing or reading information on a device, and the UK GDPR for the personal data that results. Product documentation cannot decide compliance on its own. Give a qualified reviewer the proposed purposes, data flows, consent design and suppliers.
Desk-research boundary
The editorial review on 5 September 2026 examined the linked public records. It did not use trial accounts, test integrations, buy licences or interview users. No provider paid for inclusion. A procurement team should therefore validate the chosen edition with its own scenario and contract before relying on this guidance.
Sign-off questions
Approve a shortlist only if each mandatory task has evidence, permissions are understood, security questions have owners, and a usable exit is documented. Recheck product pages before contract signature because availability can change. Keep unresolved privacy, commercial or technical claims visible rather than filling them with assumptions.
Before the final decision, ask an ordinary user and an administrator to follow the proposed route independently. Their questions often expose missing instructions or over-broad access. Capture defects without turning ease of use into a universal score. The question is whether this team can complete its defined work safely, consistently and with an auditable record.
Before you act
- Interview the people who brief, approve, operate, reconcile and audit campaigns.
- Classify requirements as mandatory or negotiable before evaluating suppliers.
- Check current documentation for every named capability.
- List administrators, ordinary users, recovery contacts and service accounts.
- Request sample exports before purchase and check their contents.
- Recheck product pages before contract signature.
Common questions
How should a buyer test whether a feature actually exists?
Use the product owner's current documentation for every named capability. Ask the bidder to demonstrate the exact account type, permissions and export the contract will provide. Separate published documentation, live demonstration, written commitment and proposed development, and do not treat a roadmap answer as an available function.
What should a buyer check about control, security and portability?
List administrators, ordinary users, recovery contacts and service accounts. Apply the NCSC's SaaS security guidance questions on authentication, logging, integrations and incident readiness to the intended setup and retain the answers. Request sample exports before purchase and check whether identifiers, costs, timestamps, approval history and configuration are included in useful formats.
What are the limits of this desk-research review?
The editorial review on 5 September 2026 examined the linked public records. It did not use trial accounts, test integrations, buy licences or interview users, and no provider paid for inclusion. A procurement team should validate the chosen edition with its own scenario and contract before relying on this guidance.
