Paid Media allows you to reach audiences that otherwise are not reachable. An effective marketing strategy should include more than one tactic. Therefore good marketers will be able to converge Owned, Paid and Earned Media to create a genuinely disruptive result.
This blog will focus on explaining what Paid Media is, examples of them, and how a Paid Media strategy might look.
What is Paid Media?
You have probably already heard of Owned, Paid and Earned Media, and other digital marketing jargon. However, Paid Media is not a new thing; it is perhaps one of the oldest marketing techniques. Put simply; Paid Media includes anything that you pay a publisher or sponsor to promote your content. Today, it provides display ads, pop-ups, video ads, paid search results, and social media posts.
Paid Media is especially effective if you want to increase brand awareness, or reach a new segment of customers instantly. It is also helpful to generate more clicks and traffic. Keep in mind that more clicks and traffic doesn’t necessarily correlate with an increase in conversion.
Paid Media Examples
With Facebook, you have many options for paid advertising, and usually, they are very market-specific. Facebook allows you to set your objective, choose your audience, budget, and where your ads are going to be displayed. There are also several options to where you present your ad besides the homepage; these can include but not limited to Facebook Marketplace and Suggested Videos. The main types of Ads on Facebook:
- Paid Targeted Advertising: These are single space ads that show up on users’ news feeds.
- Carousel Ads: These are swipeable series of images filling a single ad space.
In some ways, LinkedIn is similar to Facebook, especially when it comes to the type of Ads available. You can place sponsored content in users’ feeds on desktop and mobile. LinkedIn also offers Sponsered InMail. It allows you to send the content directly to users in their pop-up dialogue box; however, these messages are only delivered once a user is online. Therefore it can quickly catch the attention of the user and increases the chance of a response.
Twitter has tailored several advertisement solutions that suit various needs, and these can include:
- Awareness Campaigns: These are aimed towards increasing brand awareness by increasing your tweet visibility. Here you pay per tweet impression.
- Tweet Engagements: Here, you are only paying for engagement, and all impressions are free. You choose which tweets you want to promote and to who.
- Followers Campaign: If you want to grow your followers on Twitter, this might be the right tool for you. Your account gets promoted on different locations on Twitter, including Home Timelines and Search Results. Your account will be marked with promoted.
- Website Clicks: These campaigns are enhanced to drive traffic to your website. It utilizes “Website Cards” to increase the chance of people clicking through to your site.
Youtube
On Youtube, your advertisement possibilities are truly diverse, and you have most likely come across several of them on your own. The ads available on Youtube include:
- Bumper Ads:
- Google Preferred:
- TrueView InStream
- TrueView Reach
- TrueView Action
- TrueView Discovery
- Masthead
You can read more about these types of ads here.
Alternatively, you can also partner up with Youtubers to promote your brand/service/products.
PPC
PPC or Pay-Per-Click is probably the first thing that comes to mind when mentioning Paid Media. These are paid listing positions on the first page of SERP; you pay for every instance your link gets clicked.
If you want to read more about PPC and how its different than SEO, click here.
Display Ads
These are pop-ups, wallpaper ads, banners that can be found on any webpage. Display Ads are usually very affordable; however, users tend to ignore them or instead block them.
Paid Media Strategy
Your strategy should reflect the type of business and your audience. If you are a B2B company, your approach will likely be different than if you are a B2C.
For example, if you are a B2C, it might be best to utilize platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
However, for B2B, we have found that leveraging platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter work best for increasing exposure and generating leads.
Conclusion
Paid Media is different than Owned or Earned Media, but it can be part of a full marketing strategy. It can be leveraged to increase Earned Media, or drive traffic instantly to your website.
The most crucial aspect is always tailoring the marketing strategy not to end up paying more than earning.
If you need help planning out your Paid Media campaign, leave a comment below or simply click here.
