10 Best Media Planning Tools for Founders [2026 Updated]

1. Basis (Basis Technologies)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://basis.com/
• Overview: An enterprise advertising automation platform that centralizes media planning, forecasting, and activation across programmatic, search, social, and CTV channels. It provides inventory forecasting, automated planning workflows, IO management and cross-channel campaign optimization to reduce manual tasks and accelerate plan-to-activation.

2. Google Display & Video 360 (DV360)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/display-video-360/
• Overview: A full-featured media planning and programmatic buying platform within Google Marketing Platform that supports cross-channel campaign planning, reach forecasting, reserved and open-auction buys, and creative-workflow integrations. It offers reach/frequency forecasting, inventory exploration, automated bidding and unified campaign management for display, video, TV, audio and CTV.

3. Mediaocean (Prisma / Media Intelligence)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.mediaocean.com/
• Overview: An omnichannel advertising platform that connects media planning, buying, finance and reporting with tools for global planning, budget allocation, and planned-vs-actual reconciliation. Its Media Intelligence and Prisma modules enable centralized plan management, audience activation, and integrations with buying/measurement partners.

4. The Trade Desk

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.thetradedesk.com/
• Overview: A leading independent demand-side platform (DSP) for data-driven programmatic buying that supports multi-channel planning across display, video, audio, CTV and DOOH. It provides advanced audience targeting, forecasting, AI-driven optimization and planning/measurement tools used by media planners to design and execute programmatic media plans.

5. Kantar Marketplace (Media planning & Context Lab)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.kantar.com/marketplace
• Overview: A research and planning platform offering media planning, ad testing and digital media optimisation tools (Context Lab) to predict and improve creative and placement performance. It helps media planners run fast ad tests, measure contextual effectiveness, and use proven benchmarks to optimize media allocation and creative decisions.

6. Nielsen Marketing Cloud / Nielsen ONE (Nielsen media planning solutions)

• Type: Paid
• URL: [urlhttps://www.nielsen.com/solutions/media-planning/]https://www.nielsen.com/solutions/media-planning/[/url]
• Overview: Nielsen’s media planning and activation solutions (including Nielsen ONE/Marketing Cloud capabilities) combine audience measurement, segmentation and planning tools to build and activate cross-platform media plans. The system supports audience discovery, activation across channels, and measurement to optimize reach, frequency and campaign effectiveness across TV, streaming and digital.

7. Comscore (Proximic / Media Planner solutions)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.comscore.com/
• Overview: Comscore provides cross-platform planning products (reach/frequency and media planner capabilities) and Proximic targeting data to evaluate inventory, simulate reach/frequency, and optimize plan efficiency. Planners use Comscore for deduplicated audience insights, price/scale simulations and to validate multi-platform media plans.

8. Simulmedia (TV+ / TV+ Planning Insights & Skybeam)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.simulmedia.com/
• Overview: A TV planning and buying platform focused on Performance TV and CTV that uses AI and large-scale audience data to build efficient TV media plans across linear and streaming. Its TV+ platform (and Skybeam self-serve tools) deliver planning insights, audience modeling, activation and cross-platform measurement for TV campaigns.

9. Innovid (including TVSquared measurement capabilities)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.innovid.com/
• Overview: An ad serving, CTV creative and cross-platform measurement platform (expanded by the TVSquared acquisition) that delivers converged TV planning and measurement for linear, OTT and CTV. Innovid helps planners understand reach, frequency and attribution across TV and digital, tying ad serving with independent measurement for planning and optimization.

10. STRATA (FreeWheel / Strata media planning & buying)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.freewheel.com/strata/
• Overview: A long-established media planning and workflow platform for agencies that supports cross-media planning, insertion order lifecycle, financial reconciliation and reporting for TV, radio, print, OOH and digital. Strata (now part of FreeWheel) is used to manage complex campaign workflows, plan budgets and reconcile planned vs. actual buys at enterprise scale.