Paid Media Strategy: A Comprehensive Approach

The world has become driven by apps, and people spend hours a day scrolling through their feed. The shift to B2B digital marketing has lead companies to invest billions of dollars every year into paid media campaigns. Effective marketing helps to build brand awareness, increase sales and engage with customers.

In a high traffic media market, companies need to boost their posts. Companies need to finance posts to get attention in prospective clients’ feeds.

Up to 80% of social media today is paid media. Companies need to be clever with their marketing tactics to make a sizable impact online.

Companies connect on a digital platform through earned, owned, or paid media. For optimal marketing, you should enlist an expert in media strategies. This can allow you to develop a comprehensive approach that works for your company.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

The digital landscape has shifted towards app-based interactions, leading companies to invest heavily in B2B digital marketing and paid media campaigns to enhance brand awareness, drive sales, and engage customers.
Effective use of earned, owned, and paid media types in marketing strategies allows businesses to develop comprehensive approaches that enhance visibility and engagement, with a significant emphasis on paid media due to its dominance in social platforms.
Paid media, being a direct evolution of traditional advertising methods, offers targeted exposure and control over audience reach, making it crucial for companies to invest in to ensure their content stands out in the crowded online space and to foster customer loyalty and retention.

Earned, Owned, and Paid Media

The three types of media are earned, owned, and paid. Companies leverage owned, earned, and paid media to make a marketing strategy. By mixing these three media types, marketers can develop a comprehensive media strategy.

Through converged media, advertisers can propel company engagement and visibility. Content creators work to create dynamic, eye-catching content. Content creators cater to social media platform algorithms to boost your companies’ bandwidth.

Earned Media

Earned media is organic content that spreads through the internet or word of mouth. Its content is typically in the form of reviews, social media comments, or blogs. This content is highlighting a product of the company.

Earned media relies on the relationship between customer and company to further promote a business.

Owned media is a company’s original content. Companies build their brand and social media to engage with clients and showcase their products and services. The company has built an online infrastructure as an extension of its brand.

Owned Media

A benefit of owned media is the ability to track and quickly capitalize on any form of earned media. On Instagram, companies can DM customers who have given a positive review. This can foster a strong relationship and a sense of company loyalty.

Companies can also use different marketing efforts such as SEO-supported content. SEO content helps enhance web traffic around their owned media platform.

Companies can keep social media algorithms in mind to help create search engine optimized content. Companies can create content that will generate more traffic because of specific algorithms.

Paid Media

Paid media is a cost-effective paid method of brand advertising.

This is closest to the traditional form of marketing. Companies pay third-party entities to share their advertisements. They do this to reach a larger audience and can engage new clientele.

Benefits of Paid Media

It may seem as if a company’s owned and earned media should be enough. Earned and owned media can help it grow through positive reviews and word of mouth. But it is also necessary to enlist the use of paid media, to engage new audiences outside of your traditional base.

Sponsoring content with paid media allows companies to reach broader audiences. This is through sponsored social media posts, financing influencers, and ad placements.

Higher Engagement Rate With Target Audiences

Paid advertisements grant companies total control over who sees their ad. This allows them to optimize their ad through enhanced targeting.

There are also marking methods to build out your base, this is done by targeting individuals who have marked similar interests. You can target individuals who have positively engaged with your owned media or similar content. This ripple effect can be very beneficial for a synthetic grassroots marketing campaign.

Social media platforms use an algorithm to help generate “for you pages.” For you, pages are generated by collecting interest on an individual’s preferences.

Companies can place their paid media in the feed of individuals with set preferences. Targeting lets marketers have the target audience in mind when crafting the advertisement. Sometimes these placements are gender-specific or geographic to give the company the best bang for its buck.

Gain More Exposure

Companies are also able to boost brand awareness by generating online brand exposure. Companies generate brand awareness through both dynamic and informative advertising.

By becoming a widely recognized brand, prospective clients become familiar with your company. You begin to develop a virtual relationship. Through boosting owned advertising, companies can foster a relationship with prospective clients.

It is important that companies leverage paid media to bridge the gap that owned media has left. Social media algorithms prioritize posts from family and friends. It is difficult for organic ad placements and shares on social media platforms to have an impact.

Companies need to finance the ads rather than expect growth through organic media. To stay competitive, companies must engage in competitive marketing strategies on social media.

Customers are likely to purchase from a company that they are familiar with. This is also true with companies customers have engaged with on social media.

Due to the sheer volume of posts coming from someone’s social network, it’s important to put money behind ads. Funds allow companies to ensure that their posts are being seen in someone’s cluttered feed.

Increase Customer Retention Rates

Companies need to engage and retain customers to turn a profit. Strong online and offline digital marketing can boost companies’ profits. Companies can increase their return on investment and retain customers for long-term profit.

Through online engagement, companies can provide gated content for repeat customers. This can include seasonal offers for frequent shoppers. The use of gated content advertising and targeted marketing can promote customer loyalty.

Establish Credibility as a Brand

Brand recognition comes from both positive reviews and name recognition. Paid advertising allows companies to boost their name recognition. Companies can also foster relationships with prospective clients through online engagement.

Brand loyalty and credibility are very important for any company. Paid media lets companies highlight customers’ reviews and comments. This earned media can be shared to help share positive customer interactions.

Generate Higher Online and Foot Traffic

The bulk of sales for many companies comes from online sales. There’s still value in paid media to boost in-store purchases.

When customers engage with social media ads, they are directed to a companies website. This boosts online sales due to the increase in online foot traffic. However, online marketing campaigns are also beneficial to in-store operations.

Many companies have relied heavily on online sales during 2020. We have seen a steady return to in-store transactions. There is still an essential need for brick-and-mortar stores as 71% of shoppers spend more in-store than online.

Many consumers make purchases in-store based on social media posts they have previously seen. We can see a direct benefit to in-store operations through online media.

Effective paid media helps to generate a buzz around a new business, even on the local level. Small businesses can use geographic targeting to boost foot traffic. Geographic targeting allows for boosting ads for users within a set geographic area.

Reduces Marketing Costs

Online advertisements are cheap to produce. They can be effectively used within a small advertising budget. Social media platforms allow you to monitor interactions and boost an advertisement easily. This enables you to monitor your ROI for any paid advertisement that you put up.

Many startups and small companies struggle to finance traditional advertisements. Paid media and social media platforms let start-ups can spend their money to boost sales. Companies can finance ads to boost online engagement.

Pay Per Click

In fact, to ensure that paid advertisements are cost-effective, platforms are used to pay-per-click payment models.

The advertisement only costs money for every positive interaction or engagement that it receives. If an advertisement is to be untouched in a consumer social feed, it won’t be a financial burden to the company.

Social media platforms charge different PPC rates based on the product or advertisement being shared. On Facebook, social media prices on paid advertisements can greatly range. Prices vary from 40 cents per click to nearly 4 dollars depending on the industry.

Platform Continuity

Different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat cater to different audiences. They perform different purposes, all are effective in broadcasting a message for companies.

The ability to convert your paid advertisement across different media platforms, allows you to establish brand continuity. You can share consistent messaging as you engage in online marketing. There are many different ways and techniques to use on different social platforms.

By broadcasting a similar message to your audience on different platforms, you are able to have multiple “touches.” A marketing campaign touch refers to any contact between your company and a prospective customer.

Companies are able to skillfully engage with customers. They can do this on different platforms and boost their touches, without bombarding them on a singular platform.

Different Kinds of Uses for Paid Media

Paid media is typically utilized to bring in new customers, by increasing overall engagement with your company or product. By paying other sites or platforms to display their advertisement, companies can capitalize on pre-existing audiences to promote a product.

Companies can skillfully engage with customers on different platforms. They can boost their touches, without bombarding them on a singular platform by using multiple platforms.

Search Engine Advertisements

The search engine advertisements that are used are pay-per-click or pay-per-impression advertisements. These advertisements direct a user to the media owner’s site. The website owners are only charged for positive engagements with the advertisement.

Search engine marketing uses ads that can be seen as top search engine results. Search engine advertisements are similar to native ads and minimally affect a user’s experience.

For search engine advertising, companies identify keywords and generate SEO content creation. If used correctly, the placement of search engine advertisements can drive up website views and sales.

When you use pay-per-impression advertising, you are charged each time your advertisement is shown on a website. Even if the advertising is not engaged with. When financing a search engine advertisement, the cost per impression will be lower. However, you should decide if the investment in PPC is worth it for your business goals.

Banner Advertisements

Many popular websites or streaming services make a lot of money by offering spots for banner placement.

Digital banner ads are visual image-based advertisements that can be seen on a site’s landing page. This advertisement space is embedded into the host company’s page. Banner ads can showcase a rotation of different advertisements.

This is a successful tool for companies that are complementary to one another. For example, if you are a car insurance company may want to invest in banner advertisements on a website selling used cars.

Ad success can be monitored through clicks on the host site. Companies can periodically decide if this is a fitting investment based on the data collected.

Native Advertisements

Native advertisements are ads that are designed to be integrated into the host site. The text font and formatting would be synonymous with the host site and typically appear at the bottom or side panel of a web page.

Native ads are cited to get 53% more interactions than display ads. This is often attributed to the blending that native advertisements do. By blending into a page, they seem like natural content generated by the site.

Individuals often get irritated with ad fatigue and do not want to engage with advertisements, due to the high saturation of placed ads. By blending into the site’s original content, native ads seek engagement out of a willingness and interest in learning more about a product or company.

All social media channels may seem very similar as people spend hours lost in these apps scrolling through their feed. Each social media platform caters to a specific demographic and has its benefits and downsides when it comes to marketing.

Before financing paid media, it is important to understand your product’s target audience and the goals of your advertisement. You need to decide which social media platform or platforms can be best utilized to help you produce your desired effect.

Facebook

Facebook has over 1.3 billion users and is usually seen as chief in the marketing world. This application is designed to build relationships and is great for building brand loyalty. According to demographics, this is best for reaching individuals ages 25 to 54.

Many companies either utilize sitting Facebook advertisements. These ads are on the sides of your feed, or sponsored posts that can be are scattered throughout an individual’s feed.

One of the biggest shortcomings associated with Facebook is the limited reach. There are fewer individuals in the teen and young adult market who are actively engaged on Facebook.

Carousel Advertisments

Carousel advertisements showcase several images or videos from the company within a user’s feed. Facebook allows companies to share up to 10 images with a singular advertisement. The ability to share between two and seven images allows customers to see a wide range of products or a wide range of messaging in a singular ad.

The parameters for Facebook carousel ads include a headline of up to 40 characters, a link description, and text them up to 125 characters. This text can be used to help enhance the video or images attached to the carousel advertisement.

This form of advertisement allows consumers to look through multiple products before clicking. By providing a preview before engaging with the advertisement, ad costs can be lower.

This can be a cost-effective way for companies to share multiple products and save. If customers are not interested even after viewing the different highlighted slides of content, then they will not be charged with a PPC fee.

Dynamic Product Advertisements

Dynamic product advertisements allow companies to utilize Facebook information gathering. When a customer goes through a website and looks at a product Facebook picks up this interaction.

Dynamic product advertisements add search history to your preferences list. They are able to pull images of similar products from that same company to entice a user into purchasing. The access to client information that dynamic product advertisements use helps to increase a company’s web traffic.

This is why when you go on Facebook after online shopping you may see some of the items in your cart appear on your feed. Dynamic Product Ads get up to three times more engagement than normal Facebook advertisements.

Facebook Targeting Metrics

Facebook’s extensive data collection is beneficial for businesses to target their ads based on specific metrics. These metrics include:

Location
Age
Gender
Language Preference
Interests
Recorded Behavior

The ability to use these metrics when placing your advertisement allows you to build an audience profile.

By creating your ideal consumer, you can help boost engagement and make your advertisement as effective as possible. Social media targeting enables advertisers to design their ads for a specific audience.

Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to engage with 140 characters or less. Its 600 million users fall primarily in the age range of 18-29 and it is notorious for fast information and generating a buzz.

Twitter is great for sharing news or generating conversations and hot topics. The ability to retweet and interact with consumers can help to boost companies’ public relations. The biggest downside is that this is not a platform typically used for traditional product marketing.

Promoted Tweets

Twitter allows you to use targeting to share promoted tweets. These can either show up in an individual’s timeline or as suggested result from searches on Twitter. Promoted tweets are used to promote unique content that may increase website traffic or to spread brand awareness.

Due to the 140 character restriction on Twitter, it is not heavily used to highlight products. Companies use Twitter to highlight positive reviews from individuals.

Companies can build off individuals with an established network and credibility on Twitter. This platform is used primarily to increase brand recognition.

Pinterest is a social media platform used for saving content or pinning ideas or photos to your board. This platform is dominated by women, with 80% of its users being female. Because it’s a “scrapbook” style platform, it’s great for image-driven content.

Promoted Pins

Promoted Pins appear in the home feed insert results just like a typical pin. However, they are boosted in order to have a greater bandwidth on the site. This means that they are more likely to show up at the top of a search result.

Promoted Carousels

Promoted carousels are very similar to promoted pins. These are multi-image advertisements that will swipe as a user hovers over the pin. Promoted carousel advertisements will also redirect users to the company’s landing page.

One Tap Feature

Many Pinterest pins are also attached to a URL. This URL can either be a company selling a product, a link to a tutorial video, or a blogger’s website.

Sponsored pins are equipped with the one-tap feature. This means that if the pin is clicked, a user will be redirected to that product or companies landing page. This quick access to additional information can increase sales and will increase web traffic.

Instagram

Instagram is a social media platform used amongst young adults ranging between the ages of 18 and 29. Instagram’s 200 million users make it great for building relationships and generating conversation.

Through the direct messaging feature, companies are able to engage with customers. This platform also relies on image advertisements. Companies can also use owned media and use verbal messaging through the caption as well.

Photo and Video Advertisements

Instagram is also a photo and video-driven application. Photo and video advertisements allow you to generate a single post that can be placed in an individual’s feed.

This consists of a singular video or photo, and add copy and a call to action. Photo advertisements are often highlighting a specific product. Photos can be dynamic and possibly incorporate text or maybe a simple flat light image highlighting a specific product.

Carousel Advertisements

Instagram also offers carousel advertisements. These are cost-effective ways to show different products or services in a singular ad.

Because carousel advertisements allow for 10 images or video ads to be displayed within a single ad space, they can reduce the cost per conversion compared to link ads. Users are able to swipe through different images before deciding to engage with a post.

Story Advertisements

Instagram stories are a unique way to showcase your products with an attached URL. Instagram stories are only seen for a short time. However, making dynamic stories that cause someone to pause rather than click-through can be an asset to a company.

Companies can also create a story and as a form of owned media. Through the use of interactive features like “this or that” or ratings, they can engage with users regularly.

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform with over 690 million users. Users on this application primarily range between the ages of 30 and 49 and are using it for professional use.

LinkedIn is a great way to share news articles and generate conversation. Linkedin is used primarily for business development. There are limited interactions, and most users are not looking for a sale. Users may be interested in a product or service that further improves their resume or professional standing.

YouTube

YouTube is a very widely used social media platform with over 1 billion users. Many people utilize this platform for tutorials or entertainment purposes.

Companies can increase brand awareness through this platform. The ability to skip advertisement videos may make it less favorable from an advertising perspective. YouTube is still an optimal way of advertising for short video messages.

Video Advertisements

YouTube video advertisements are streamed in between user-selected content. Some of the most heavily viewed advertisements are YouTube videos.

With the recent shift from cables to streaming services, traditional commercials are not as cost-effective as they used to be. In order to highlight your company in a video capacity paying for a YouTube advertisement may be the most cost-effective option.

Influencer Marketing Impact

Influencer marketing capitalizes on individuals with a dedicated social following. It leverages their ability to persuade their followers into using a certain product.

Influencer marketing is heavily effective because social media influencers have relationships with followers. This relationship supersedes that at the typical customer-company relationship. It seems more personable with a face behind the products being presented.

Increased Visibility

It can be difficult for a new product to gain recognition amongst specific audiences. By enlisting influencer partnerships, you are able to tap into their pre-existing network to promote your product.

A lot of social media influencers have a very strong base. By just posting about your product, they can drive up web traffic and sales.

Earned Influencer

Some influencers on social media may particularly like your product I want to share with their users. They are not asking for financial compensation for promoting your company on their platform.

However, with earned influencers, you have no control over what they say about your product. Social media influencers might give a negative review of your product. An influencer’s negative review can be detrimental to building a relationship with their followers.

Promotional Codes

You don’t always have to pay influencers with a set fee to create a post. Sometimes you can get influencers to do a positive review by offering a free product or offer a discount code.

Companies sometimes offer specialized promotional codes for influencers to share with their followers. Although companies may slightly be losing revenue by using codes, you will be increasing overall sales and driving up your companies profit.

They use the discount code also allows you to track how specific influencers are. By tracking these codes, you can see an individual influencer’s impact on your sales.

Shoppable Posts

Instagram now provides the feature of shoppable posts. That allows buyers to add products to e-commerce stores directly from photos. Many influencers will tag the products they are using with these links to help boost sales for the companies they are representing.

Growth in Online Advertising

The average individual spends over two hours on social networks daily. The ability to place digital ads can help to increase brand awareness and sales.

Companies capitalize on low expense and premium targeting features for paid advertisements. In 2019 social media advertising grew by 20%. This is because companies have been able to see the results of this low input method of ad placement.

In today’s market, brands that don’t advertise on social media or at risk of failure. Brands must stay in touch through paid media, given the growth in online advertising.

It Can Pay to Use Paid Media

The most successful comprehensive marketing plans include a mix of owned, earned, and paid media. Paid media, however, is the most beneficial for bringing in new sales. It is a tool used in expanding your audience.

Paid media allows companies to promote their content and increase visibility. Through targeted advertising rather than solely relying on the organic customer base.

The ability to effectively utilize social media platforms can help to make your business successful. Using social media is especially important in a heavily saturated industry. The financial benefits from using target paid media can directly correlate to an increase in brand recognition and sales.