When it comes to understanding marketing language, some terms are “nice to know” and some are “must know”. The terms paid, owned and earned media fall into the second category. They’re vital components of marketing strategies. They help make your options clear.
In this article, we’ll help you understand exactly what paid, owned and earned media are, the difference between them, and how they affect each other.
That way you’ll be able to assess your current marketing materials and assets – and where the opportunities are for marketing your business in the future! Make sure you measure all your marketing efforts so you can easily tell which types of media are performing best for you, and where there’s room for improvement.
What is the difference between paid, owned and earned media?
Paid media is content you pay to place in front of an audience as an ad or sponsorship, while owned and earned are free. Owned media is content you create and control, like your Facebook page or your website, while earned media is content others create about you, like reviews or Instagram posts.
Understandably there are often questions about what kind of media a particular part of marketing is. Sometimes it’s not that clear because things like social media have multiple options for marketers! Let’s clarify a few common confusions:
Is PR paid, owned or earned?
PR (public relations) is earned media. You can pay for PR services or engage with the public yourself; content like your press releases are owned media. But when people talk about your press releases, products and services, quotes, brand, business or company, that’s earned media.
Are influencers paid, owned or earned?
Influencers can be all three. An ‘owned media’ influencer is a thought leader within the business talking about the business. An ‘earned media’ influencer is a fan who is really passionate about your brand. A ‘paid media’ influencer is the traditional kind – sponsored by the brand to collaborate with, or talk about, the brand.
Is SEO paid, owned or earned?
SEO (search engine optimization) is owned media. Strictly speaking it’s a process you carry out on marketing content you own – your website. It involves a lot of free techniques and optimizations you can carry out in order to help your website rank better on search results pages.
Is social media earned or owned?
“Social media” can be paid, owned and earned media. Typically speaking, your social posts are owned marketing content; you create them and publish them for free. You can also create social ads; that’s paid media. Finally, your fans and customers can talk about you on social – which is earned media!
Why you need to use paid, owned AND earned media
People respond best to multi-platform marketing campaigns. Why?
For one, our attention spans are often short. We don’t spend a lot of time on one piece of content or one platform.
But if we see the same thing referenced on multiple platforms, across multiple posts and ads, we’re more likely to remember it. If we see our friends and people we respect talking about it, we’ll be more likely to get interested. See? That’s paid, owned, and earned, right there.
To be honest, our lives are built around many different digital platforms. Very few people spend all their time in one place on the internet. We’re getting quicker at adopting new ones too.
Think about when you’re looking to book a restaurant: you might check Google Maps for restaurants nearby, Yelp or Facebook for reviews and menus, Instagram for pictures of the food, and so on. A good business is present everywhere a customer might look for them, making use of paid, owned and earned media opportunities.
To learn more about how to make paid, owned and earned media work for your digital business in 2021, book a demo with our marketing experts. If you’re already up and running, you can track your social, search and website performance and analytics all in one place with Digivizer. Start your free trial today.