Paid Media
Do you know what paid media is? Chances are you’ve already participated in acquiring paid media even if you don’t know this term. If you read our recent post on earned media and are guessing that paid media is the opposite, you are correct.
What is paid media?
Paid media is any content that you’ve paid a third party to broadcast as opposed to earned media, which is not paid for. Some examples of paid media are:
- Printed advertising.
- Advertorials.
- Google advertising.
- Social media advertising.
- Sponsorship with a non-profit or school.
- Promoted or boosted social media posts.
Why use paid media?
Any business can buy an ad, but why should they? Paid media can help bring exposure to your practice especially if you don’t have an established audience or want to reach a new audience. Sometimes it can be very easy to reach a new audience without spending any marketing money; however, there may be a specific audience you want to reach that requires a comprehensive approach that includes paid media.
For example, you may want to reach adult children and the parents of potential pediatric patients. Your current patient base is adults over 50, who also represent your main traffic on your website and your audience on social media. You could develop content to try to get your current audience to advocate for your practice with the 25 to 45 age group; however, it may not go very far without putting some money behind the campaign. You can change your website’s homepage content and post on social media in ways that market to the desired group, but what else can you do?
In this situation, you could:
- Boost or sponsor your social media posts. This will push your content further on social media and target a new audience by geographical area, age and gender.
- Purchase advertising space in publications your target audience may look such as the local high school football program handed out at games.
- Purchase radio ads in your metro area that have a high concentration of the listening audience that matches your targeted audience.
The most important thing to remember when building a media plan to meet your goals is knowing your audience and where they will see your content.