Though you might have heard the terms “Paid, Owned, and Earned Media” before today, maybe you never understood the distinctions between them. Spending time to identify what distinguishes every one of us and how it influences digital marketing will help you implement marketing plans more successfully and quickly. And—should this be the first you have heard of these terms—all the more reason to relax into some insightful knowledge.

With so many digital marketing platforms at your disposal, it can be difficult to prioritize owned vs earned paid media in a way that makes sense for your goals—and your budget. Paid, owned, and earned media classifies these channels in a way that supports the development and upkeep of useful marketing plans.

Let us review each one separately before considering their joint possibilities.

Paid Media

Paid media is precisely what it sounds like: you pay for your marketing to show up front your audience.This can encompass everything from search engine and display ads to social media ads, sponsored influencers, and even native advertising.

One excellent approach to gaining a straight return on investment is paid media. It lets you swiftly create leads and guides your audience back to your owned media so you may tend to them and—at last—make a sale. Using analytics allows you to also quite easily assess the success of your sponsored media.The restrictions on all this are that conversion rates on paid media are lower than owned and earned media and you can only scale as quickly as your paid media budget lets.Speaking of those following categories, let’s leap right ahead.

Own media

You own everything with owned media: your blog, your website, and your social media profiles. Though you have ownership over all of this material, you are not paying for it to show before your audience.Since owned media has longevity, it becomes a wise investment in any marketing plan. Day one of a company allows you to launch a website and blog, which you can keep all the way through.

The marketing mix depends on your owned media since it helps you establish long-term partnerships and earn media too.The term earned media is straightforward: you get the marketing that shows up for consumers.This might range from a news announcement on your company to someone on social media discussing your goods.The major advantage of including earned media into your marketing plan is it functions as free advertising. Your company shows up before your audience free of charge.The drawback is that you have no ownership or control over what is being shared; so, you guessed it, there is always a possibility it might be negative media.

Conclusion

Knowing the variations of every media on their own is now crucial since it helps one to mix them for a successful marketing plan. Imagine you wish to post a great offer on social media. You pay for it to appear as an advertisement on that platform, not only promoting it naturally. A social media in fluencer notices the advertisement and promotes it on their account, which shows up before many more people.