Paid Media: Is it Worth the Price?

What is Paid Media?

Paid Media is defined as the purchase of ad inventory on a media channel or publisher site to broadcast your brand message and reach your target audience(1). This can include digital ads such as google ads, facebook ads, instagram ads, snapchat sponsored stories, and sponsored tweets, as well as traditional advertisements such as newspaper ads, bill boards, commercials, etc. The aspect of this advertisement that differentiates it from Earned and Owned media is that it's in the form of a purchase. The company purchases the ad placement through the media they are utilizing to reach their audience.

How does it impact your company?

According to hubspot.com, 84% of people discover new products through Instagram, which shows how important paid media can be and the types of effects it can have on your company(2). Paid media have historically been used to create advertisements on a platform in which the audience is using it to interact with multiple different companies at once. Branded videos can be integral to a successful paid marketing campaign. According to TheKeenFolks.com, 64% of consumers will make a purchase after watching a branded video(4). Branded videos are any time of product placement, sponsored videos, influencer partnerships etc. These can skyrocket your brand into the spotlight by utilizing influencers and hashtags that curate their content to audiences that alight with your target audience.

What is Product Placement?

Product placement can also be a form of paid media that can heavily increase your revenue rates. For example, Bang energy began a campaign on the social media platform TikTok in 2020 with the help of many social media influencers. This campaign ended up giving Bang energy so much exposure they went viral on that platform as a social media trend.

Product placement can also be used in traditional digital media such as Movie and TV shows. Companies can also negotiate the exact placement of their product within the movie or tv show. For example, Apple has a contract with Disney in place to ensure that any 'villain' in their movies are not allowed to use apple devices or product because it can be seen as bad press or endorsing the wrong characters.

How to Use Each Social Media Platform

Using digital paid media such as social media platforms can increase your ability to create a niche target audience. You can target your audience by using data point such as the targeted age, gender, location, occupation and interests(3) to increase the possibility of getting a revenue turnaround.

Each social media platform has its own niched content that is rewarded with clicks and reach. Twitter uses a more short form of media content, therefor the ads that do better on that site are short form, sponsored tweets. Twitter also doesn't pinpoint it's sponsored content as much as other social medias which allows them to do better. Facebook utilizes its own database called Marketplace to market content through consumers as well as companies trying to market their product. LinkedIn has very professional content which would allow professionals to advertise their services rather than companies advertising their product. Instagram has always been based on visual content which is why product shoots and product placement does the best on this platform. Finally, the new platform Tiktok utilizes short video content. This allows companies to heavily rely on product placement and influencer partnerships to create fun and entertaining videos that also bring in consumers tot he product (2).

Works Cited

(1) https://www.toolbox.com/marketing/programmatic-advertising/articles/what-is-paid-media/#:~:text=Paid%20media%20is%20defined%20as%20the%20purchase%20of,content%20to%20promote%20a%20brand%E2%80%99s%20products%20or%20services.

(2) https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/paid-social-media

(3)https://amatampabay.org/digital-media-worth-cost/#:~:text=Paid%20media%20is%20one%20of%20the%20more%20popular,out%20on%20a%20significant%20piece%20of%20their%20market.

(4) https://thekeenfolks.com/paid-media-trends/#:~:text=Key%20Paid%20Media%20Video%20Statistics%3A%2064%25%20of%20consumers,a%20new%20customer%20through%20video%20content%20digital%20advertising.