The Ultimate Guide to Paid Media

When you create a piece of valuable content, whether a blog post, eBook, or webinar, you want to promote it to as many people as possible.

If you need to reach new customers and get the edge over your competition, paid media is an excellent option.

The fantastic thing about paid media platforms is that there are so many of them to consider. No matter who your target audience is and what you want to sell, you can find the perfect solution for your business.

If you’re asking the question, “what is paid media?” I’ve put this paid media guide together to help. We’ll look at the different types of paid media, how to create ads people want to click on, and how to implement the perfect paid media campaign.

What Is Paid Media?

In a nutshell: paid media is any marketing channel you spend money to feature on.

The digital marketing channels you use to promote your business can be split into three categories; paid, earned, and owned.Earned media is unpaid publicity that your business gets from other people and websites. For example, an editorial in a publication, a blog post created by an influencer, even social media shares and mentions from your customers.

Owned media is content that your business manages and controls. This includes your website, blogs, social media accounts, and any documents you create.

Paid media is when you pay a third-party company to promote your message on your behalf. This includes channels like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and video advertising on platforms like YouTube. You can choose from several different types of paid media depending on your marketing strategy.

Types of Paid Media Marketing

A clear advantage of paid media is that many different platforms and ad types are available. This means that if you know which websites, social media platforms, and devices your target audience use, you can easily reach them.

Here are some examples of paid media and the benefits of each.

Search Engine Advertising

Search engine advertising is when you pay to promote your ads in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com.

You choose the keywords you want to appear for, state how much you’re willing to bid, write your advertisement, and the search engine does the rest.

Search engine advertising, also known as search engine marketing, is fantastic for targeting specific keywords and phrases. As a result, you can use adverts to appeal to people who are ready to buy, increasing your chances of a successful sale.

If you’re willing to bid enough money for a keyword, you can appear right at the top of the first page, above the competitors you outbid and the organic search results.

Display Advertising

A display ad is a paid media ad that uses images, video, and text to encourage visitors to click on a link to a website.

Display advertising can take the form of banners on a website and sponsored advertising, but the most well-known type is Google Display Ads.

The Google Display Network consists of over two million websites and mobile apps that businesses can display their ads on—reaching 90 percent of web users worldwide. When someone clicks on an ad, Google Ads and whoever hosted it share the spoils.

What are the benefits of display advertising? As display ads are image-led, they’re great for targeting people scrolling on their mobile phones. These people might not have the time to digest a text-based ad, but a bright and colorful ad will encourage them to stop scrolling.

Display advertising is also excellent for raising brand awareness. As customers see the same ad repeated across various websites, they gradually become more aware of your business.

As the average person needs to see a brand at least seven times before they make a purchase, this increases the chances of conversions in the future.