I started my career in SEO and have grown used to my friends and others not quite knowing what exactly it is I do. Now, working in paid media, I thought I’d have an easier professional story to tell – “Look at the thousands of ads you see in your day: I do that.” Yet, I still see question marks form on peoples’ faces when I talk about my work. They understand the ads they see but are unfamiliar with the process of how they come to be.

Throughout this blog, I’ll define paid media and the steps my team at Matter takes to create successful paid media plans for our clients. My hope is that after reading, the next time you’re at a party and you meet someone who works in paid media you’ll say “Oh, I know all about that!”

What is Paid Media?

Different from earned or owned media, which each play a distinct role in a company’s overall media strategy, paid media refers to any form of advertising that requires payment to a third party. This includes various channels where businesses pay to have their content displayed.

Examples:

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Ads on search engines like Google AdWords.
• Social Media Ads: Sponsored posts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Display Ads: Banner ads on websites.
• Traditional Media: TV commercials, radio spots, print ads in magazines and newspapers, and billboards.
• Video/Streaming Ads: Full-screen, non-skippable video ads that appear before, during or after video content like TV shows across connected TV, mobile and desktop.

Purpose: The main goal of paid media is to drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and generate leads or sales through targeted campaigns.

Step 1: Set an Objective for your Campaign

Creating a successful paid media campaign starts with setting a goal.

Paid media can run the gamut in terms of cost and objectives with enterprise-level companies spending millions every month while a smaller shop may spend only a few thousand dollars. Because of this, it’s important to get specific with your goal to most effectively allocate your budget.

Do you want to drive more traffic to your site? Do you need to generate leads for your sales team? Are you looking to educate users on a new product or service? All of these would affect the media we’d suggest buying, the content we’d recommend creating, and the key performance indicators (or KPIs) that we’d recommend analyzing.

Common Paid Media Objectives:

1. Awareness: Increase brand recognition and visibility.
2. Consideration: Engage potential customers and encourage them to consider your brand when making purchasing decisions.
3. Conversion: Drive specific actions that lead to sales or other business outcomes.
4. Retention: Maintain and enhance relationships with existing customers.
5. Lead Generation: Capture contact information from potential customers to nurture them through the sales funnel.

Best Practices for Goal Setting:

1. Be Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve. For example, instead of “increase website traffic,” set a goal like “increase website traffic by 20% in the next three months.”
2. Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish measurable indicators that will help you track progress toward your goals. For example, defining a benchmark CTR or ROAS for your brand so you have something to measure your success against.
3. Set Realistic and Achievable Goals: Ensure your goals are attainable given your resources and timeframe. If your current conversion rate is 2%, aiming for a 3% conversion rate increase in six months might be realistic.
4. Make Goals Time-Bound: Set a clear deadline for achieving your goals such as “Generate 500 leads by the end of Q4.”
5. Align Goals with Business Objectives: Ensure your campaign goals support broader business goals. For example, if a business objective is to increase market share, a campaign goal might be to reach a specific number of new customers in a target market.

Step 2: Targeting your Audience

Determining how to target the audience you want to reach is one of our favorite parts of the process. We dig deep into who they are, what they love, and where they spend their time. Are they foodies always on the lookout for the latest gourmet trends? We’ll target them with mouth-watering Instagram ads. Are they business professionals? LinkedIn is where we’ll find them.

We also consider their interests, the news sites they visit, and their location. Maybe we can reach them with a billboard as they drive to work! We can leverage their online behavior to capture intent-based audiences (i.e. people who are shopping for cars or looking for legal advice) when they’re ready to make a purchase. By combining all these insights, we create a targeted strategy that puts your message in front of the right people at the right time.

Here’s a list of some of the common ways we can target people:

1. Demographics: Age, gender, income level, education, and more.
2. Geographic Location: Targeting specific countries, regions, cities, or even zip codes.
3. Interests: Based on hobbies, activities, and lifestyle choices.
4. Behavior: Online behaviors, such as browsing history and past purchases.
5. Contextual Targeting: Placing ads on websites or content relevant to your product or service.
6. Retargeting: Reaching people who have previously visited your website or engaged with your brand.
7. First Party Data – Contact & Account Lists: Using existing customer or prospect lists to create custom audiences for highly targeted campaigns.
8. Lookalike Audiences: Targeting new users who are similar to your existing customers.
9. Search Intent: Based on keywords people are searching for on search engines.
10. Social Media Engagement: Targeting users who follow or engage with similar brands or content on social platforms.
11. Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising: Location-based ads, like billboards and transit ads, in areas where your target audience frequents.

If you haven’t yet considered who your target audience is, take a look at our blog on how to develop Buyer Personas..

Step 3: Select your Media Channel(s)

Once we’ve nailed down your campaign goal and pinpointed the target audience, selecting the right paid media channels becomes a fun strategic puzzle. We consider which platforms and channels align best with both campaign goals and user behavior. For example, users on Facebook are more likely to click on an ad than those on Instagram, while users on LinkedIn are the most primed for downloading professionally relevant content. Insights such as these guide our platform selection and channel-specific content creation. It’s all about matching the right message to the right moment on the right platform. By mixing a bit of creativity with a whole lot of data, we can ensure the campaign hits all the right notes.

Step 4: Create Ad Content.

At this point we know who we are trying to reach and where we’re trying to reach them, so now all that’s left is developing what we’re going to say. Typically, clients already have an idea of what they want to communicate—maybe their company is launching a new product or they’ve worked hard to develop a valuable piece of content and they want others to see it—and it’s defined at the start of the campaign.

Sometimes, clients have an idea of what they want to communicate based on a product launch or new initiative in the pipeline but here at Matter we take those ideas and upon further research, we gather data points to help drive our best path forward.

However, at this point we take that key idea and brainstorm specific messaging that will resonate with your audience in the allotted ad. Our creative experts then take those ideas and transform them into eye-catching visuals, compelling copy, and engaging videos. We make sure the ads not only look great but also convey the right message and call-to-action. Throughout the process, we collaborate closely, providing feedback and optimizing the concepts. The result? Ads that stand out in the crowded digital landscape and drive real results for your campaign.

Step 5: Launch and On-Going Management

So, you’ve crafted an amazing ad and set everything up—now it’s time for the fun part: launching your campaign! Once your ads go live, it’s all about keeping a close eye on how they’re performing. Think of it like watching a new recipe bake in the oven; you want to check in regularly to make sure everything’s cooking just right. Monitoring involves tracking key metrics like clicks, conversions, and engagement to see what’s working and what’s not. If you notice something isn’t hitting the mark, you can optimize in real time to ensure you’re getting the best possible ad performance. It’s an ongoing process but staying on top of it ensures your campaign stays fresh and effective, driving those awesome results you’re aiming for!

Benefits of Paid Media

Paid media is like giving your company a supercharged boost in the crowded marketing world. It lets you target the right people with laser precision, so your message reaches the folks who are most likely to be interested in what you offer. Plus, it’s a great way to see quick results, whether you’re aiming to drive traffic, generate leads, or build brand awareness. With the ability to track and measure every aspect of your campaign, you can fine-tune your strategy in real-time and make sure your budget is working hard for you. Overall, paid media helps you stand out, get noticed, and achieve your marketing goals faster.

1. Targeted Reach: Allows precise targeting based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location to reach the ideal audience.
2. Immediate Results: Provides quick visibility and immediate traffic, unlike organic methods that may take time to build.
3. Scalability: Easily scalable to adjust spend and reach based on campaign performance and goals.
4. Brand Visibility: Increases brand awareness and presence across various platforms and channels.
5. Control Over Messaging: Offers control over ad copy, visuals, and placement to align with brand messaging and objectives.
6. Performance Tracking: Enables detailed tracking and analysis of metrics such as clicks, conversions, and ROI for continuous optimization.
7. Flexibility: Allows for adjustments and optimizations in real-time based on performance data and market conditions.
8. Complementary to Other Channels: Works well in conjunction with other marketing strategies, such as organic social media and email campaigns.

Interested in Paid Media? Matter’s paid media team specializes in creating impactful paid media campaigns that will expand your brand’s recognition and drive quality conversions. Learn more about our paid media services or contact us today for a customized quote.