How to Use Paid Media, Owned Media, and Earned Media to Grow Your Business
you have a completed, finalized, polished video - congratulations! but now, what should you do with it? (keep scrolling, we'll tell you)
You’ve finished your video - congratulations! Now what? You need to get it in front of your target audience! There are three ways to do this – using paid media, owned media, and earned media.
What is paid media?
Paid media is any content that you pay money for. This can be ads across social media, Google ads, etc. You should first set up a budget for each platform you plan on running ads on, to make sure that you stay within the range of funds that you’ve allocated for each project.
What is owned media?
Owned media refers to any channels that you own, such as your company website or social media channels (social media channels are paid media once you start to run ads, but your standard feed is owned media). Unlike paid media, there’s no monetary limit to your owned media. You should make sure to post your video(s) on your website and across all of your social media platforms.
What is earned media?
Earned media is when your content is shared organically by others. For example, if an influencer shares your video to their story without you paying them to, that’s earned media. People resharing your YouTube video link to their Instagram Stories is an example of earned media. Another way of thinking about earned media is a digital version of word of mouth.
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Where should I put my video?
You have a variety of options when it comes to where you can put your video. You can house it on your YouTube channel and your website, post it on social media in full and cut down into clips, share it with clients (or prospective clients) via email or link it in your email signature - depending on what type of video it is - or run ads with it.
Where can I run ads using my video?
As we said above, you can run ads on social media (LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) - but you can also run OTT ads. OTT (over-the-top) media are ads that run on streaming platforms.
Different platforms have different video requirements. For example, a television commercial won't look exactly the same as an Instagram Story ad. We talk more about the specifics of each in another education article as well.
How can I tell if my videos are successful?
This is the oldest dilemma in advertising - can you prove it worked. There is no perfect way to determine it definitively, but there are metrics to track to help. By putting certain indicators on the videos (a specific promo code, QR codes, phone numbers, tracking links etc.), you can track engagement and leads.
What video metrics should I track?
The metrics that are available to track vary by platform. Video metrics that you can track include view count, watch time, engagement, shares, clicks, and conversions (if a video ad).
It’s also important to note that different platforms define “view” (as well as other metrics) slightly differently than other platforms, so make sure you know what each platform counts as a “view” when you explain your metrics.
YouTube: Watches for 30 seconds
Facebook and Instagram: Counts as a view after 3 seconds
Twitter: Watches for 2 seconds with at least 50% of the video player on the screen
LinkedIn: Watches for 2 seconds with at least 50% of the video in view
TikTok: A view is counted as soon as the view starts playing on someone’s feed
Ideally, you would track all of the metrics possible for your videos, but as you post more and more, you’ll figure out which ones work the best for you. Use the metrics to guide how you create your videos in the future – to figure out what’s working, what’s not working, and what you want to try differently.
