aid media may be one of the most misunderstood types of media in the PESO model. While earned, shared, and owned content have become an integral and respected part of today’s content strategy, paid content still has a bit of the aura of a shyster.

Modern media, however, has transformed paid content from an underhanded trick into a valuable resource that seamlessly fits the needs of today’s business owners. It is designed to help and engage audiences in a discreet and effective way.

For a complete overview of paid, earned, shared, and owned content and how to integrate them into the best PR strategies, check out our post, Everything You Need to Know About Earned, Owned, Shared & Paid Media.

What is Paid Media?
Paid media is content that you pay to promote. This media strategy has come to include:

Paid social media ads
Retargeting
Native advertising
Influencer marketing
Google search ads
This type of media takes your owned content and gives it a little boost to reach new audiences. This strategy has matured over the years in its precision targeting capabilities and its success rate. While some of these PR strategies do cost more than others, prices vary widely and can fit almost any budget.

Social media networks give you the ability to target your audience down to specific interests, web pages visited, age, gender, and geographic location. As part of your public relations tactics, these paid strategies can give you the lift-off you need.

Google Adwords is another great paid content program that allows you to target specific groups of people. Pay to rank for specific keywords — price varies depending on the keyword you choose — and refine your parameters to target only those in your area or industry.

Let’s look at 8 ways that you can build an effective paid strategy and avoid the pitfalls that some run into.

8 Tips for Success in Your Paid Media Strategy
1. Define Goals & Budget
Before you go anywhere with paid ads, you need to set goals. Want more website traffic? More email leads? How about selling more products? Start off with small, achievable goals, and work up to bigger ones.

Most paid ad platforms — such as those used in social media — include a metrics dashboard as part of the package. Follow these metrics closely to see how you can adjust down the road for better results.

Because this is PAID, you should also start off with a fixed budget. When you know exactly how much you have to work with, you can set out a plan that doesn’t exceed that amount. Social media and Google Adwords will allow you to set your budget up front and never go over.

2. Test the Waters
Start off with smaller campaigns that allow you to see what works and what doesn’t. You can test everything from audience segmentation to the kinds of content you promote.

Set a low budget that will give you a feel for what works with your specific audience. On social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, a test run with $100 can go a long way and give you a lot of answers.

3. Make It Work with Your Other Strategies
Your paid strategy should not strike off on its own — instead, it should work symbiotically with your earned, shared, and owned content.

For example, if a piece of content has worked really well on your blog, transform it into a promotional social media ad to get more people back to your website.

Paid promotion also can help your earned media strategy take off. Use social media ads and their refined targeting ability to specifically reach influencers and journalists with your content.

4. Create Helpful Content

Content is content — whether it is owned or paid, it will only succeed if it fits the need of your audience. If you want your paid strategy to work, do your research ahead of time to see what content formats, subjects, and keywords are successful.

Use a tool like BuzzSumo to see what your competitors are doing and find subjects that receive the most engagement on social media. Take a subject you find and make it better. Cover more valuable points, add extra pro tips, or just provide a more in-depth and well-rounded overview of the subject. If you are going to pay to promote this content, make it worth what you pay.

Above all, avoid click-bait tactics that give paid advertisements a bad reputation. Provide real value to those who click through to see your content. Whether it’s a blog post, ebook, infographic, or white paper, make people happy that they clicked.

5. Make Your Value Clear
Let’s face it, we audience members are in it for ourselves — we only click when we see clear value. Think: “What do I offer my audience?” What problems do your potential customers face, and how can you help?

For this, you might turn to your sales team to find out the most common questions people ask or problems that they face. You might also do some social listening to see what people in the industry most often talk about on social media.

Once you know what people are interested in, you can begin to craft valuable content for them. It could be an ebook along the lines of How Secure Are You? The In-Depth Guide to Internet Security for Small Businesses or an infographic such as Your Business Banking Checklist: 10 Elements to a Financially Secure Future.

Every promoted piece of content should address the concerns of your audience, and give them value in exchange for their click.

6. Include Visual Content
If you want to use social media as part of your paid strategy, then visuals will be a big part of your success. People today are more visual than ever. One study found that posts with images produce 650% more engagement than posts with text-only. Bottom line: If your social media ad doesn’t include an image, your audience will most likely skim right by it.

You might even decide to promote content that is specifically visual by nature — such as an infographic, SlideShare or video. In fact, 51% of marketers worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. Tap into these and other valuable content formats for killer results in the social media arena!

Use a free tool like Canva to create stunning visuals, appropriately sized for social media platforms. You can also use video creation tools like Animoto, Powtoon, or VideoScribe to create engaging video ads for your paid strategy.

7. Vary Your Strategy
Don’t put all your content eggs in one paid basket. Many are tempted simply to invest in ads on the top three social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These are great social networks, and they have proved very successful for B2B businesses. But with so many people promoting their content in these arenas, it can get packed out quickly.

Google Adwords is another option to put your brand and your content in front of the right eyes. Target your audience with precision and have all of Google’s audience at your fingertips. Prices will vary depending on the keywords you want to rank for, but this tool will give you plenty of options to work with.

You may find it more successful to promote your content on smaller sites such as StumbleUpon, Outbrain, or Reddit. These sites are usually less expensive, but may have the potential to yield excellent results.

8. Humanize Your Approach
The biggest faux pas of paid advertising are the cheesy self promotion and false claims. Avoid slogans like “The Best Deal of Your Life!” This kind of language immediately turns up your audience’s suspicion radar — after all, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Instead, use friendly, inviting language, such as, “We know many have faced this problem. We’re here to help.” You could even feature a happy customer’s testimonial to offer social proof that you are not just another piece of click-bait. These small actions go a long way toward humanizing your message and making you more approachable.

A Few Points to Remember…

Have a fixed budget in mind when using paid advertising
Test the waters on various platforms to get the right combination for your brand
Humanize your ads and stay away from cheesy slogans that will turn people off
Use visual content to attract people to your content
Paid content doesn’t have to break the bank, and it doesn’t have to be sleazy. Find the right combination of public relations tactics for your brand, and watch the results take off.