Your "Earned Owned and Paid Media" Cheat Sheet

Ever heard of earned, owned, paid media, but unsure of the difference, or what each of these really mean?

It's simple; media channels can be broadly split into the following three categories;

Let's break them down and look at the pros and cons of each:

EARNED

Earned media is unpaid activity that’s not on your own channels, i.e. press coverage, where a journalist thought something about your business is newsworthy enough to write about, or influencer support (similarly someone who loves what you’re doing enough to voluntarily want to tell their audience about it) and even customer advocacy, with word of mouth marketing as its own form of earned media.

P R O S :

• The biggest benefit to earned media is the credibility it carries. People are 77% more likely to buy from a trusted recommendation than not. (Nielsen found that consumers were 77% more likely to buy a product if their friends recommended it).

• As this isn't paid media, the only budget you'd need to allow for may be for the services of a PR agency.

• Press coverage can have great reach, and adding the title logos to your site can add an extra level of cache to your brand.

C O N S :

• The biggest downside to earned media is that you don’t call the shots. As it’s not your platform or publication, and as you’re not paying for the coverage, the content, angle, details, format, and timings are not up to you.

OWNED

Owned media include channels you “own” - such as your brand’s own social media accounts, your website (SEO including blogging), your own email database built up through newsletters, long-form content on channels like Medium, perhaps even your own podcast…

P R O S :

• Unlike earned media, you have total control of what, how, when, where, and why you post.

• As the name suggests, the other big pro to this media bucket is that it's YOURS! (Especially with email, where people have given their consent to share their data).

C O N S :

• It takes time to build your own online communities, so be patient!

• The reach can be limiting, unless you partner up with suitable collaborators to divide & conquer.

PAID

Paid media is any form of marketing with budget behind it. Often synonymous with performance marketing (which encompasses social ads, PPC, display, retargeting… ) this can also apply to things like sponsored content, influencer partnerships, conference activity, even billboards! These are all forms of paid media.

P R O S :

• Paid media often allows the same level of control as owned media, but with the firepower to turbocharge performance with some budget behind the activity.

• Performance marketing offers a level of transparency / visibility of data, immediacy of results, and low barriers to entry.

C O N S :

• In a pay-to-play game, the winner is often the brand with the deepest pockets…

• Ads can plateau over time without a solid brand strategy and great creative.

• This only makes up a handful of channels, so it's important to diversify for that all-important "multiplier effect" in campaigns.

Curious to learn more? Get in touch today.

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