Most marketing conversations start with tactics. Can you help me with Google Ads? Do we need a new website? Should I be doing media and PR? All reasonable questions, but they skip the bigger consideration. Before you decide on specific tactics it helps to understand how different media types work and their purpose in the context of your industry.
In short, there are three types: paid, owned and earned. A good marketing strategy uses all three, with the right balance, at the right time. It’s a model we use at Threesides to help our clients think clearly about where their marketing dollars are going and why.
Here’s what each one does.
Paid media: marketing to strangers
Paid media is exactly what it sounds like. You pay for space in front of an audience you do not yet own.
This includes Google search and display ads, Meta advertising on Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn campaigns, Bing ads, traditional print and radio advertising, outdoor billboards, and recruitment platforms like SEEK. If you are paying to be seen, it is paid media.
The strength of paid media is speed and scale. Need to launch a campaign next week? Need to reach 50,000 Canberrans in a specific postcode? Need to appear at the top of Google when someone searches for your service? Paid media gets you there fast.
The trade-off is that the moment you stop paying, the visibility stops. Paid media rents attention. It does not build equity.
When paid media works hardest:
- Launching a new company, product, service or campaign
- Driving traffic for a time-bound event or offer
- Filling a role quickly when you are hiring
- Reaching audiences who have never heard of you
Owned media: marketing to clients
Owned media is everything you control but takes times to build.
This includes your website, email newsletter, organic social media channels, blogs, case studies, videos, webinars, pitch decks and podcasts. If you built it and you decide what goes on it, it is owned media.
Owned media takes time to build, but once it is built, it compounds. A well-written blog published three years ago can still be pulling in leads today. An email database you have nurtured for five years will outperform almost any paid campaign you run.
Owned media is also where trust is built. When a prospective client lands on your website, reads a blog, subscribes to your newsletter and eventually picks up the phone, that is months of owned media doing its job quietly in the background.
When owned media works hardest:
- Building long-term brand recognition and authority
- Nurturing leads through the decision-making process
- Retaining and deepening relationships with existing clients
- Establishing your team as experts in their field
Earned media: marketing to superfans and community
Earned media is what other people say about you.
Media coverage, reviews, word of mouth, referrals, podcast interviews, influencer mentions, awards recognition cannot be bought outright and you cannot publish it yourself. You earn it by doing good work and telling a good story.
Earned media is the most powerful of the three, because it carries something paid and owned media cannot: third-party credibility. When a customer leaves a 5-star review, potential customers take notice with a level of trust that a paid ad simply does not command.
It is also the hardest to manufacture. Earned media takes relationships, timing and a genuinely interesting story to tell.
When earned media works hardest:
- Building credibility and trust with new audiences
- Amplifying a genuinely newsworthy story, launch or milestone
- Positioning your leadership team as experts
- Strengthening reputation in a competitive market
Getting the balancing act right
None of these three types of media work in isolation. Paid without owned leaves you spending money to send traffic to a website that isn’t ready. Owned without paid means a great blog no one is finding. Earned without owned means coverage that drives people to a business they can’t properly research.
The question isn’t which one to use – it is how to balance all three.
If you are weighing up where to invest your marketing effort, and wondering whether you are putting enough into earned, owned or paid, we’d love to talk. Get in touch through our new client enquiry form and let’s work out what your marketing mix should look like.