What is the concept of Paid, Own and Earned Media?
It is the unification of the omnichannel strategy into a single profile, integrated across all the media available to us as a brand: paid media (external online media), earned media (such as our own social media profiles) and owned media (our website, app, etc.), rather than thinking about each channel in isolation.
Having a holistic view of all channels allows us to build a coordinated impact strategy within our users’ customer journey, executing the best promotion plan for our brand and/or the products/services we offer to users in the most effective and coordinated way possible, thus generating the best impact experience for our customers.
What are the main characteristics of each of these three terms?
Paid media focuses on the purchase of advertising space in external media. We plan an initial mix of external media such as search engines, social media or any online web/app media that we execute through the programmatic purchase of advertising space from direct purchase tools or DSPs. We allocate a budget to each channel to include ads within it (banners, rich formats or video in different sizes depending on the medium) and optimise based on the results obtained from each one until we find the most effective media mix.
Earned media are our own locations within external media, such as our brand’s social media profiles or any of our own profiles on an online medium for which we do not have to pay to have a presence. A clear example is Telefónica’s Instagram profile. We can post on it at no cost to reach our audience.
Finally, owned media consists of all channels that are 100% ours, which we control and can use to communicate with our users. Here we are talking about our own website, blog or newsletters that we send to our database of users who have accepted our communications.
What are the pros and cons?
With online advertising on paid channels, we can generate a wide reach as we reach the audiences that these media have. This translates into almost infinite audiences where we can promote ourselves. The larger the target audience we have to impact, the better our results will be, as the capacity for optimisation increases and we can be more effective. This feature also allows us to scale up and generate great results in quantitative terms.
However, having to allocate a budget and pay for a presence in these media forces us to know how to choose the initial media mix, as well as to carry out specific optimisation for each channel in order to obtain the highest possible return on our investment, knowing how to iterate to add new channels and eliminate the least effective ones, all in real time.
Owned and earned media, on the other hand, help us to communicate with users who are interested in our brand and/or products and services. These users are already regular visitors to our website or blog, follow us on social media or subscribe to our communications. This communication is therefore more fluid and effective as they are more receptive to receiving our communications, but we have a finite reach. Our followers, subscribers or visitors are who they are, a specific number that may vary, but without major changes in principle.
What synergies are generated between these three types of media exposure?
Social media, as part of earned media, helps us to find out what users think about us, the value of our brand, what is good, what needs to be improved, etc. Tracking user interaction on our profiles helps us to identify opportunities for improvement in how we communicate on our website or in advertising in order to optimise our strategy. For example, if we are clear in our communication, if users need more information, etc., this feedback helps us adjust our strategy on other paid or free channels.
Also, the reviews we receive on our own media, such as an app, and mentions on social media as earned media, help us reinforce the credibility of paid campaigns when we target an audience that does not know us. When these are positive, users who are discovering us for the first time thanks to an advertising impact will be more likely to become potential customers.
Another key synergy is being able to leverage our own media audiences of users who are similar to our brand: visitors, buyers, etc. to enrich the audiences we work with in media buying tools to build LAL (lookalikes or similar audiences) using these high-value users to discover new audiences relevant to our business, thus generating a high return on our investment and achieving our KPIs.
What is the best combination of these to maximise your benefits?
The best combination is the combination itself. Through each type of media, we are able to reach a different audience, so combining them with a consistent message adds great value to the customer and provides a positive experience on their journey towards conversion.
The key to a successful combination is integration, using the strengths of each channel to enhance the results of the campaign and maximise our profits.
The most common combination for achieving our objectives is to amplify the message. To do this, we activate advertising campaigns in paid media with the aim of directing new user traffic to our own media, such as our website. When they land on the site, the key is for them to find valuable content in a unique, easy and coherent experience. This mix will help us achieve our goal of converting visitors into customers. But to get new customers, we cannot forget one essential factor: measurement.
Collecting data from our website will help us understand users’ pain points so we can improve them with optimisations and a solid AB testing strategy. By controlling our website, we can define a different visual user experience depending on the paid channel they come from or even the specific creative that caught their interest in our product, allowing us to generate more conversions and learn from the best combination.
How important are they for marketing?
These channels are essential as they provide us with something unique and valuable for building a solid and effective marketing strategy.
Online advertising in paid media allows us to quickly expand our reach by targeting specific audiences that do not yet know us in a controlled and measurable way.
Owned media is our controlled space. A place where we can communicate consistently and build a lasting relationship with our audience. It is the foundation for building customer loyalty and maintaining a constant and authentic presence.
And finally, earned media brings credibility and trust. It helps us strengthen our reputation and attract new customers organically.
