What Are Paid Media And The PESO Model?
Paid media refers to any paid digital placement, including traditional advertising methods like TV commercials and print ads. More modern paid media examples include social media and Google ads, video ads, and search ads, which we will analyze later. Many people use paid media interchangeably with the cost-per-click (CPC) model. Yet, not all online ads belong to this category. Paid media simply refers to all digital channels and platforms a company utilizes to generate high-quality business leads.
Paying for online ads isn’t the only tactic you should follow to grow your business. Created by Gini Dietrich, the PESO Model® combines different types of paid media with earned, shared, and owned. This powerful combination creates a strong digital presence by sharing your content all over the web. Therefore, you optimize your customer acquisition strategy to bring in more customers from various online locations.
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The Difference Between Paid, Earned, Shared, And Owned
We have explained the meaning of paid media. Earned media is the exact opposite, referring to any brand mentions you generate organically. Reviews, social media mentions, customer interactions, and non-paid media coverage like interviews and guest posts all fall under the earned media umbrella. For example, if you post an article on a publication, they will most probably mention your name when they promote this article on their social media. This type is often confused with shared media, where online users share your content at their own will. For example, people pushing the share button on your posts or sharing their UGC images under your posts are cases of shared media. All of them are wonderful for online reputation management.
Lastly, owned media is everything you own, including your website, blog section, and social media profiles. It’s where you publish your material freely and place sponsored content. Your newsletters and mobile apps are also owned media.
5 Types Of Paid Media You Should Use
1. Social Media Ads
A social media strategy can’t be complete without paid media advertising. Every top platform offers paid ad placements where you can target your ideal buyers, choosing demographics, behavior, interests, locations, etc. Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Snapchat all allow you to post paid social media ads. However, not every platform is beneficial for your business. Based on your target audience, you should identify where they are more active and appeal to them on specific channels. For example, B2B audiences are more likely to be active on LinkedIn than on TikTok. The great thing about social media ads is that they allow you to filter your audience’s characteristics and control your spending.
2. Paid Search
SEO strategies aren’t the only way to dominate Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo. But it’s Google you should focus on the most, as it drives 94.8% of organic traffic worldwide. That’s why Google search ads and product listing ads are two of the best paid marketing examples. These ads appear either on Google or on various websites that belong to the Google network. Most of them are either pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-per-impression (PPI). The PPC model is way more effective from a business and economic standpoint. You simply pay when someone clicks on your ad and is directed to your website or landing page.
When you set your PPC advertising campaigns, you should identify the right keywords with reasonable bid amounts, as you don’t want that to affect your campaign negatively. For example, you create an ad using the keyphrase “payroll software for eLearning startups.” The moment someone searches for this, your ad appears at the top of the page before the organic results.
3. Video Ads
Someone wouldn’t create a separate category for video ads, as they often run on social media channels. However, we wanted to give them their own stage, as they are a powerful tool on their own. Short-form video content is one of the top marketing industry trends, meaning that using video for your ads is a powerful marketing choice. These paid media examples are engaging, increase retention, improve conversion rates, and help you build your brand image. Through videos and storytelling, you can build an emotional connection, bridging the gap between yourself and your customers. The power of looking at someone’s face and hearing their voice is vast, and it allows you to generate targeted leads. Additionally, by utilizing color psychology and emotional music, you can keep audiences on their toes.
4. Display Ads
Traditional display advertising refers to billboards and physical banners. You know, the types you see on electricity poles while walking down the street. In the digital world, banner ads are image-based ads that usually appear on websites for a limited time. Publishers typically include SaaS display ads on their websites in the form of a single image or GIF. The success of these ads is measured by the click-through ratio, meaning how many users clicked on the banner ad. Programmatic advertising is often mentioned in the same conversation about display ads. If the latter is the creative format of this paid media example, programmatic refers to the logistics, including where, when, and how these ads will appear.
5. Native Ads
According to research, native ads receive 53% more attention than display ads, making them one of the best paid media examples. They are either image- or text-based, matching the design and look of the publishing website they appear on. They usually appear in-feed as sponsored or recommended content, promoted listings, promoted stories, etc. Native advertising is particularly popular on Facebook, Instagram, and X. The best part about it is that they don’t stand out as ads, blending in with the organic posts and content easily. This is an excellent tactic for most online marketing strategies if you want to decrease your audience’s ad fatigue.
Successful Paid Media Examples To Inspire You
1. Barbie
The 2023 movie was one of the best marketing campaign examples of the century so far. With an estimated $150 million marketing budget, the studio crafted a “breadcrumb strategy,” offering people a tiny taste of the movie to pique their curiosity and anticipation to watch the final product. They used a combination of earned and paid media, including social media posts and trailers. Every time they shared something new, a new level of audience engagement was reached. They focused heavily on the color pink, something that made many fashion brands follow the same direction. The paid media campaign became an entire movement, where people would show up at the cinema to watch the movie wearing pink clothes.
Mattel, the brand behind the iconic doll, collaborated with many makeup and accessory brands, which further propelled the movie’s success. The movie studio even collaborated with Airbnb to transform a mansion into a real-life Barbie house.
2. Nike
Nike’s “Dream Crazy” campaign might not seem like the ideal B2B marketing campaign example you were looking for. However, if you skip the audience difference, the core remains the same. This paid media example features Colin Kaepernick and aims to inspire athletes worldwide by encouraging them to run after their dreams and stand up for what they believe in. The company’s paid media advertising strategy included TV ads, online ads, and social media campaigns. So, how can this example help you? Nike focused deeply on storytelling and emotional connection. That’s how it engaged audiences and boosted online sales. It resonated with many people, proving how emotions are at the core of marketing.
3. Hilton Hotels
Is a ten-minute TikTok advertisement successful when people’s attention spans are decreasing? It sounds unbelievable, but Hilton Hotels pulled it off masterfully by recruiting Paris Hilton and other popular creators to take people on a journey across the company’s hotels. This paid media example focused on the stay travelers can enjoy while at the hotel, regardless of the destination. But why TikTok? Hilton did their research and discovered that 37% of people planning on staying at Hilton in the next 12 months use the platform at least monthly. Lastly, the ad poked fun at its own duration, increasing engagement further.
4. Apple
Over the years, Apple has come up with some of the most masterful content marketing ideas and paid marketing campaigns. Its “Shot on iPhone” campaign turned everyday people into professional photographers, whose photos were featured on large billboards. They started with earned media by using people’s UGC photos and incorporated them into their paid campaign. The top-quality visuals showed the entire globe that anyone can take beautiful pictures, even without professional equipment. This approach increased not only customer engagement but also iPhone sales globally.
5. KFC
The fast food chain shows that to get more customers, you don’t have to always do what your audience wants. You just have to stick to your brand image by respectfully declining suggestions. That’s what KFC did when customers kept asking for a turkey Zinger burger during the holiday period. The company showed that while it listens to people’s suggestions, it wants to stay true to its strictly chicken core. Any digital marketing expert will tell you that customers want to feel listened to by brands. KFC did listen but decided not to act upon the feedback.
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5 Steps To Build Effective Paid Media Examples
1. Define Your Goals
What do you want to achieve with paid communication? Is it brand awareness, lead generation, sales increase, product launch, or website traffic? Once you define your goal or goals, it’s easier to craft a SaaS growth strategy. Next, you have to build buyer personas so you can choose the best channels to place your paid media. Based on people’s demographics and interests, imagine what they would like to see and where.
For example, if you have employee engagement software, chances are your B2B audience is mostly active on LinkedIn, and engaging carousel posts and short videos might be the most effective. It’s best to conduct a market intelligence report to identify the keywords your competitors bid on to create their paid search ads. It’s best to focus on long-tail keywords that may not have super high traffic but are brand- and product-specific.
2. Choose Your Channels
We have already talked briefly about the channels you can choose from. However, it bears expanding on the topic, as all paid media examples utilize the available channels as efficiently as possible. With Facebook, you can reach wide audiences while creating an uber-targeted campaign. On the other hand, X is better for real-time customer engagement and discussing recent trends that everyone is already talking about.
LinkedIn is a B2B-dedicated platform where you can reach professionals from all over the world and make your corporate content stand out. Additionally, many companies use YouTube to unleash their lead generation techniques through video advertising. With Google PPC ads, you can appeal to clients who are actively searching for a solution and whose research is very specific. Lastly, display networks are the perfect place to retarget your audience.
3. Create Ad Formats Based On Your Budget
The most successful paid social examples don’t cost too much. They just allocate their resources wisely to the most appropriate channels and target the ideal audiences. So, once you know how much money you can invest in paid media, it’s time to choose your ad formats. Let’s start with the simplest choice: static ads. They usually feature strong imagery accompanied by signature brand messaging. Video ads have the potential to be more engaging by sharing your brand story within a few seconds. If you want to play it interactively, you may set up interactive ads by creating quizzes, polls, and surveys. These usually grab the audience’s attention quickly. It also makes them feel like they’re playing a game instead of clicking on an ad.
Let’s not forget about sponsored content that involves articles and posts highlighting your expertise, value, and accomplishments. You can leverage content syndication platforms to share this content with other publishers.
4. Execute Your Campaign
Now that everything is ready to go, it’s time to begin your paid media management. Back in the day, advertisers had to contact publishers and negotiate rates and slots manually. However, we can now forget this method thanks to programmatic advertising. You can buy and sell ad inventory in real time through an automated bidding system. The slots you buy can be for digital out-of-home (DOOH), online, streaming, TV, video, and voice ads. This way, you rely solely on systems that have been designed to make everything easier, rather than waiting for a human reply.
5. Demand-Side Platform And Ad Exchange
Have you ever heard the terms demand-side platform (DSP), supply-side platform (SSP), data management platform (DMP), ad servers, ad exchange, and ad networks? All paid media examples rely on those, and you should familiarize yourself with them. A DSP is a campaign builder tool that helps you choose your target audience and add your ad messaging. Once this is finished, the DSP interacts with an ad exchange to identify the best ad inventory that matches your specific criteria. Think of the ad exchange as an online marketplace, holding and curating digital inventory from various ad networks.
Next, the ad exchange interacts with the SSP to decide which advertiser gets every spot. It also decides which bid to accept according to the parameters you chose. Powered by AI, programmatic advertising provides you with real-time updates, budget optimization tips, and ad fraud protection. Therefore, you can appear in front of the right eyes and get people to buy your product.
Key Takeaway
While the best demand generation practices should always be a huge part of your marketing strategy, paid digital media can often make appearances. Whether you want to promote a new product, enter a new market, or increase email subscribers, paid media strategies are nothing to fear. Combined with earned, shared, and owned media, a carefully crafted paid campaign can make a true difference for your brand image and revenue. Social media and Google are the two most popular choices when it comes to setting up ads. However, you can’t disregard video, display, and native ads, as they can also be tremendously beneficial. Maybe the best types of banner ads will prove to you that display advertising is a solid pathway.
To create memorable campaigns like Nike, Barbie, and Apple, you should start by setting clear goals and audience targets. Choose your channels wisely based on your audience preferences, and start bidding on long-tail keywords that are industry-specific and have high intent. If you don’t have in-house experts, you can trust an agency offering content marketing services and let them take your promotion to a new level. Whatever you do, stay true to your brand identity and build powerful connections.