Spend Money to Make Money: Your Complete Guide to Using Paid Media

Here’s the deal, paid media is a nearly $18 billion industry globally. For the digital newspaper industry, that amounts to almost $5.6 billion per year.

However, what about Facebook and LinkedIn ads? Nowadays,these are the key to generating the highest return on investments for business owners.

Want to give your company a little boost? Here’s your complete guide to using paid media in this day and age.

What is Paid Media?

Are you asking yourself, “What is paid media?”

Essentially, today’s online advertising methods are a unique blend of: 

– Paid media

– Earned media

– Shared media

– Owned media

This so-called “PESO” model is the key to paid social media advertising. When you combine all of these elements together, it can create the perfect marketing machine.

Paid media is basically anything that has to do with advertising on social media. That includes sponsored posts, email blasts, and video ads too.

How can earned media help your company make money?

The answer is simple. Earned media takes on more conventional forms. That’s why newspaper, magazine, and journal ads are the most common types of earned media. Not only that, but digital and printed press releases are a big part of earned media too.

With shared media, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram can promote brands and engage with users. Surprisingly, everyday things like Facebook Live and Instagram Stories streams are a great example of shared media.

That’s not all. Owned media is the ultimate form of advertising for businesses. That’s because it included everything from your company’s site to your blog.

Using all four of these marketing techniques at once is the most effective way to expand your audience. Not only that, but you can even become a leader in your field if you use the PESO model correctly.

Why You Should Use Paid Social Media

Paid media is the ticket to creating the perfect marketing platform for your company.

Why is this so important?

Because it’s often too shaky to rely on organic customer reach alone. That’s because of the whopping amount of information that can be found online. Not to mention hard-to-understand algorithms can bury your advertising at the bottom of the Google search results.

So, how do you get paid to advertise on social media?

Essentially, you’ve got to spend money to make money. If you don’t use any of your own resources, then there’s little chance that your brand will be noticed. That’s why most businesses pay to promote their companies through paid media.

As if that wasn’t enough, paid media is also the most predictable way to get your company’s marketing to a wider audience as well. You have to pay a fee to make sure that your advertisement gets out there.

There’s no reason to miss out on millions of potential customers who interact with social media platforms every single day.

Investing in paid social ads is also the most affordable way to gain exposure for your company. That’s because most platforms utilize customer-friendly pay-per-click models. 

In other words, your business only has to pay for your advertising campaign if a customer actually clicks on your ad. 

Trends in Paid Media

Curious about what’s trending in paid media? Recently, companies have been using:

– Artificial intelligence automation

– Virtual chatbots

– Influencer advertising

First of all, one of the biggest trends in paid media right now is artificial intelligence automation. 

In reality, artificial intelligence is nothing new. In fact, it’s already been used for years in the marketing industry. That’s why experts predict that intelligent content will be all the rage in the very near future. Another perk about artificial intelligence is that it can help your company to prevent fraudulent marketing too. 

Artificial intelligence can actually give business owners up-to-date statistics about their client’s information. That way, you can make sure that your advertising hits the exact audience that you intended.

Secondly, virtual chatbots are the best way to keep potential customers engaged on your company’s website.

When you use a chatbot on your business’ website, you’re allowing your customer to get in touch with your company right away. Not only can chatbots save you time, but they can save you money too. How can you beat that?

Despite this fact, some consumers still prefer to speak to a customer representative when they have a question. We highly recommend that you add chatbots to your current support team to see maximum results. Bonus points for adding a chatbot link to your paid Facebook advertising!

What would paid media be without influencer advertising?

Influencer advertising is the most effective way to gain higher organic audience and customer engagement. All you have to do is team up with a popular social media influencer to promote your products. Don’t forget to use your influencer’s data to gauge your paid media campaign.

Increase Your Video Content

Wondering how to generate more web traffic fast? Increase your company website’s video content immediately.

Soon enough, the majority of Internet users in America will be strictly searching for video content. What does this mean? Essentially, you can boost your business’ email blasts simply by adding the keyword “video” to the title. That means higher clickthrough and open rates.

Research also shows that most online users would rather watch a quick video about your company’s product than read a whole article about it. Ever used Instagram TV?

If so, then you’ll know that it’s super essential to post video content on this platform, because it allows you to easily share your brand’s products with your audience. 

You can also let your users swipe up to buy your products too.  Unfortunately, Instagram Stories requires you to have at least 10,000 followers before this feature can be accessed.

Want to advertise on YouTube? Check out The Creator Insider channel. This will show you everything you need to know about mastering your YouTube marketing campaign. Plus, the makers of The Creator get exclusive interviews with real YouTube creators and managers as well.

As if that’s not enough, YouTube Premiers is another great way to reach a larger audience. Although it has a lot of similarities to Facebook Live, YouTube Premiers can help your business to select the exact time that you want your ad to be broadcasted. 

Most importantly, YouTube Premiers allows content creators to tune in to their video broadcast at the same time as their audience. That way, you can chat with your fans too. Why not make videos an integral part of your campaign strategy?

Advertising on Facebook

Do you want to learn how to use Facebook advertising? Then you’re in luck.

Facebook ads are a wonderful way to achieve three goals:

– Boost your brand’s awareness.

– Increase audience consideration.

– Raise online conversion rates.

You know the score; businesses make money from boosting their brand awareness. In other words, the name of the advertising game is getting more customers to look at your product, and the best way to do this is with a Facebook ad.

For those looking to increase their audience consideration, you need to provide an app or a video on your page to keep them engaged. That way, you can create new client leads. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with answering your customer’s questions through Facebook Messenger too. 

As for online conversion rates, high online conversion rates can help your business generate way more sales. Additionally, you can drive more traffic to brick-and-mortar stores as well.

Here are the best places to start:

– Facebook photo advertising

– Facebook video advertising

– Facebook story advertising

With Facebook photo advertising, you can add up to 125 characters of text to your marketing campaign image. Additionally, you can include a link description and headline too.

We can’t emphasize this enough: there’s no harm in plugging your company’s project with a “Shop Now” or “Send a Message” button.

Facebook video advertising can include anything from brief video ads for your cell phone, to four-hour marketing videos for your computer. 

How do you know what to do?

Just keep your Facebook video ads simple and to the point. If you are looking to heat up your socials, it doesn’t hurt to research different marketing tips until you find the right one for you.

Advertising on Instagram

If you have ever advertised on Instagram then you know that Instagram is the #1 way to connect with a younger demographic. If millennials are your business’ target audience, then you’d be crazy not to market on Instagram.

Similar to Facebook, there are a couple of different advertising tactics: 

– Photo and video advertisements

– Carousel advertisements

– Collection advertisements

If you are wondering how to use photo and video advertisements on Instagram, here’s the breakdown. When you create a photo or video ad for the first time, it will look just like a regular Instagram post.

The difference is that it will have the word “sponsored” on the upper right-hand corner. Add a special call-to-action button to get higher customer engagement on your advertisement.

Just make sure that your photo or video advertisement stays true to your brand’s style, because your audience is more likely to connect your company name to the ad.

What about using Carousel ads on Instagram? Essentially, carousel ads allow users to click through several different pictures at once.

All you have to do is use photos that are similar in nature for your Instagram carousel advertisement. By keeping consistency throughout your images and text, you’ll be sure to connect with the right audience. 

Instagram collection ads uses cover photos, videos, and image shots to demonstrate your product. When users click on your Instagram collection ad it can redirect viewers to a so-called “Instant Experience.” In case you didn’t know, it’s impossible to add a headline to your business’ Instagram collection ad. However, your company can include 90 characters of text instead! 

Paid Media = More Customers

The information is clear, companies that use paid media have more customers.

Not sure to boost your customer engagement rates? Take a look at advertising strategies like paid media, earned media, shared media, and owned media. 

Also, try using trendy marketing methods like artificial intelligence automation, virtual chatbots, and influencer advertising.

Finally, you need to stay up-to-date by including more video content on your company’s web page.

Furthermore, Facebook is still at the top of the list of paid social media campaigns. You can’t go wrong with investing in Facebook photo advertising, video advertising, and story advertising. However, if you are more of an Instagram fan, check out Instagram photo and video advertisements. Not to mention Instagram carousel and collection advertisements too.

If you are still confused on which method to go for, contact us for a free marketing review.