Differences Between Paid, Owned, and Earned Media

In business and marketing, there are three main categories that media can fall into: earned, paid, and owned. 

Paid media is advertising that your business pays to promote on external platforms. For example, traditional television and radio ads are paid media. Paid ads on Facebook or Google are also paid media — just digital. 

Earned media, like paid media, also appears on platforms that your business does not own. The difference is that you don’t pay for earned media. As the name suggests, you earn it. Earned media includes positive press coverage, reviews, and third-party mentions of your business on social media. If people are talking or writing about your business positively without being paid to do so, that’s earned media. Compared to other types of digital marketing efforts, earned media is very much out of your hands beyond doing a good job and hoping people take notice. 

Finally, owned media is content that your business creates and manages internally. Owned media may include blogs, original social media content, podcasts, videos, webinars, and your website content. You have full control over your owned media but have to generate visibility for it yourself. Leveraging owned media is one of several affordable marketing strategies you can use to grow your business.

Types of Paid Media

There are many different types of paid media, so you have plenty of opportunities to find ones that work for your business. Consider these examples:



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You can pay social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to promote your ads to users who fit your target customer profile. The platforms find people who fit the parameters you set for your target audience and show your ad in their social media feeds. 

Paid social media advertising differs from organic social media marketing because you pay to get your content in front of customers immediately rather than growing your audience for free.



Search Engine Ads

Search engine ads appear before the organic results when people search related terms in Google or other search engines. Selecting the right keywords is the key to succeeding with this type of ad.



Display Advertising

Display ads generally include images or graphics and appear while people are browsing the internet. If you’ve ever been reading an article online and see ads on the sides of the page, those are display ads. Display advertising is a great option for businesses trying to reach a wide audience, but you can also target based on the customers’ locations, demographics, and other factors. 



Video Advertising

Video advertising appears before, during, or after online videos, like those on YouTube. If you think your target audience will overlook text or image-based online advertising, video advertising might be the right choice for your business. Just note that producing these videos is more expensive than other types of paid media ad creation.



Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is paying a social media personality to promote your brand’s products or services on their page. If you select influencer partners who speak to your target audience, this form of paid media helps you establish credibility and drives strong results.



Implementing a Paid Media Strategy

If you’re going to pursue paid media to promote your business, you need a strategy in place. Make sure you address the following key considerations.



Setting Clear Goals

The first thing to do in any marketing campaign, including paid media campaigns, is to set clear goals. Determine what exactly you’re trying to achieve, and then use those goals to guide the rest of the decisions you make about your campaign. 

Common goals for paid media campaigns include:

• Increasing brand awareness
  
• Generating leads
  
• Driving traffic to your website
  
• Enhancing customer relationships and engagement
  
• Boosting conversions

Once you know what you’re working toward, establish digital marketing KPIs you’ll use to measure your success toward those aims. For example, you might track the number of monthly visitors your website gets if your goal is driving web traffic.



Budgeting for Paid Media

Next, you need to set a budget. With many paid media platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads, you can set budgets for your entire campaign and also smaller budgets for daily spending or cost per click in pay-per-click campaigns.

Costs vary significantly across different types of paid media, so make sure to look into all your options and how much you’d need to pay. 



Choosing the Right Channels and Formats

Different paid media channels work for different businesses. Try to figure out which platforms your target audience uses most and advertise there. For example, a business whose target customers are young people might decide to advertise on TikTok, where most users are under 35. 



Crafting Compelling Ad Creatives

Finally, don’t overlook the importance of creating a great ad. Write engaging ad copy that draws people in immediately, and if you use any images, make sure they’re high-quality and professional. You may only have a split second to catch the audience’s eye, so make your ad as attention-grabbing as possible. 



Leverage Paid Media in Your Digital Marketing Efforts 

Leveraging paid media to promote your business has never been easier or more affordable. And Optimize is here to help you do it. Optimize will craft a customized paid media strategy for your business to ensure you get the most out of your advertising budget. Reach out today to start driving results.



FAQs About Paid Media