Marketing Paid Media: How to Implement an Effective Campaign for Your Business

What are the most effective strategies for using your marketing budget to attract target customers seeking your products or services? There are seemingly endless marketing and customer outreach options, but the results vary depending on the platform you are using and the target demographic you are trying to reach.

Marketing paid media can be a great way to test different platforms. Then, you can identify the most effective methods to bring in the ideal customers who are ready to purchase your products and services.

But it is essential that you are strategic about your approach to ensure you are getting the ROI you desire from these marketing efforts. As you dial in the right paid media strategy for your unique needs, you will see the upfront investments turn into customers who not only buy right away – but keep coming back when they are ready to buy again in the future.

What Does Paid Media Mean in Marketing?

Paid media refers to external marketing exposure for a predetermined paid placement fee. You pay to have your ad or content placed on other companies’ social media accounts, websites, apps, videos, and more. This strategy is one method that you can use to get your message in front of target customers. Even though there is an upfront cost to place the ad, it’s worth the investment because of the potential revenue gains.

The fundamentals of marketing paid media include:

1. Know Your Target Demographic: Since you are paying for every display or click, make sure that these ads only show to your target demographic. So, you need to research to understand who is searching for the products and services you offer. Then, create a customer persona with information such as the type of content they prefer, online platforms where they spend their time, and ad formats that appeal to this audience.
2. Test Different Paid Channels: It’s a challenge to find the most effective paid advertising on your first try. So, be open to trying different channels. Make sure you are tracking the data and measuring results every step of the way so you can dial in your marketing paid media going forward. In the beginning, diversify your spending on the platforms your customers are using most often. Then, determine the most effective channels and focus your spending.
3. Be Creative with Ad Design: Consider what your ads actually look like and how customers will respond to the colors, images, and text. Copywriting and image selection can make a big difference. So, the best approach is to use creativity in designing ads that will resonate with your target audience. Then, split test these ads to find the most effective combinations.
4. Manage Your Paid Media Budget: It’s easy to get carried away with your spending if you aren’t deliberate about setting a budget for your campaigns. How much do you want to be spending each month? Use this number to identify your target spending on a weekly and daily basis. Then, set your paid advertising thresholds to ensure you always stay within the desired budget.
5. Start Slow Before Building Larger Campaigns: In the first 2 or 3 weeks, it’s best to run low-cost ads so that you can test the market. This early testing gives you the opportunity to optimize your strategy before you start dedicating a larger budget for your paid advertising investment.
6. Encourage User-Generated Content: One way to help your brand grow is by using paid media that leads to user-generated content. Even though this content is earned, paid media can be a great way to start the trend. Pay for ads to build a solid base of customers. When these people are satisfied with your products and services, they will begin sharing their experiences through organic content – which builds social proof for your brand.

The ultimate goal with any type of advertising is usually three-fold: to increase brand awareness, bring in new leads, and increase revenue and profits. Paid media is a foundational strategy that can contribute to all of these efforts.

How a Paid Media Strategy Differs from Earned and Owned Media

In order to understand paid media, you also need to have clarity about how this strategy differs from the two other types of media channels: earned and owned.

• Owned Media: When developing your online brand, creating and promoting content on your own digital profiles is one option. For example, this content might be published on your own website, blog, YouTube channel, or social media pages. Publishing owned media means that you are targeting existing customers who already know your brand. The goal is to foster long-lasting relationships, so your audience keeps coming back when they are ready to buy again in the future.
• Earned Media: The basis of this form of marketing is word-of-mouth sharing. Developing viral content is one way that you can gain fast traction among subscribers and other people who share similar interests. One option is to promote user-generated content (UGC), such as discussions, mentions, or recommendations, through the user’s own social media profiles and/or website.

As you can see, these two other media channels are quite different from a strategy that uses paid media specifically.

Does Paid Media Work? Benefits You Can Expect

There are a variety of reasons why paid marketing paid media is a vital part of your online campaigns:

• Bring More Customers to Your Website: Paid media is an on/off switch that brings customers to your website. When you run paid ads, it allows you to reach a larger audience to ensure that people see your content.
• Build Brand Awareness: Every time someone sees an ad displayed, it is an opportunity to increase your brand awareness – which helps your business to grow over time. Paid media offers a fast and effective way to spread information about your company and brand.
• Target Your Ideal Customers: One notable benefit of a paid marketing strategy is that you can be deliberate about choosing the ideal demographic you want to reach. These paid marketing platforms offer different filters and settings so you can select the exact persona that sees your messaging.
• Track Your Marketing Results: It doesn’t matter if you spend money on paid social media ads or another form of advertising. Make sure that your investment is turning a profit. Paid media allows you to track the data so you can see how money is coming in through these campaigns.

The results are undeniable. Suppose you want to maximize the benefits of paid media. In that case, it makes sense to tap into the expertise offered by a marketing firm that specializes in social media marketing and other forms of paid media. Leveraging professional services allows you to maximize your ROI because you are tapping into already proven and reliable systems.

What Are Examples of Paid Media?

Looking at paid media marketing examples to find the best strategies to implement in your campaign can be helpful. There are different types of paid advertising opportunities depending on the platform that you choose:

• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Search Engine Ads
• Social Media Ads and Posts
• Branded Content
• Display Ads
• Pop-Ups
• Video Ads
• Newsletter Sponsorships
• Shopping Ads
• Billboard Ads
• Commercials
• Other Types of Multimedia

While each of these marketing paid media strategies is effective on its own, the best approach is to leverage different forms of paid media to achieve optimal results.

Is Paid Media Effective?

As with any type of marketing, there is no guaranteed way to ensure that the content or ad you share will become popular. You can do your research and find other marketing paid media ads that are working, then use this information to increase the likelihood of success with your own campaign.

But the key to success with an ongoing campaign is to track the data. Pay attention to see what is working. Then you can adjust your strategy going forward to improve your current campaigns.

These ongoing adjustments and strategy improvements can lead to undeniable results in the future. For example, a good marketing paid media campaign can offer a domino effect, with the previous and current marketing outreach resulting in future sales.

Are Paid Social Media Ads Right for You?

Are you trying to decide whether paid social media ads or other types of marketing paid media is best for your brand? If you don’t have much experience with digital marketing, then it makes sense to lean on the expertise of a team that understands the industry.

Fresco Data is here to help. We stand out from the competition because of the unique approach we use with our in-house data. Not only do we offer common paid media support for businesses of all sizes, but we also have email lists and other proprietary information that delivers results you can count on.

For a personalized marketing paid media strategy, simply reach out to our team for a complimentary consultation. We bring years of experience to your marketing campaign, offering strategic methods that help you connect with leads who are searching for your products and services. Reach out at your convenience to learn more about the ways that we can assist.