Paid Media

Paid media is “Advertising.” Its media you pay for because you don’t own it and haven’t “earned” it. Common types of Paid Media include search ads, video, branded content, and display ads. Paid media is a vital part of any digital marketing strategy, allowing for a broad range of powerful targeting and retargeting techniques, massive amounts of exposure (volume) and fundamentally novel creative opportunities. Paid Media is crucial to revenue growth and brand awareness.

Blog Posts

Maximizing Your Online Presence for Small Businesses: A Guide to Using Google Ads, Google My Business, and Merchant Center to Increase Sales & Conversions

The three kings of Online Business drinking absinthe. The Three Kings of Online Business. Google My Business, Google Merchant Center and Google Ads are a powerhouse trio for any business with an online presence. By using these tools together in a coordinated way, you can create a strong presence on Google and connect with potential customers in a variety of ways. Google My Business Astronaut on the moon in a canoe looking for your business.First, let’s look at Google…

How To Set Up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – Step by Step Guide

GA4 is the latest iteration of Google Analytics. GA4 is a whole new ball game. The biggest difference is that the entire ecosystem is event-based. So how do you set everything up? Like most things, there are several ways you can do it, but I’m only going to walk you through the preferred method for most people. For this demo, I’m going to assume that you are working with a website (vs. an App) and are using Google Tag…

How to Use Google Ads Scripts – Free Sample Script

How to Use Google Ads Scripts. A detailed walkthrough of creating a custom script to alert you when sitelinks get disapproved. Google Ads scripts are an extremely powerful and customizable tool that you can use with Google Ads. And while the idea of writing code is an immediate turn-off for some, it’s actually much easier than it sounds. With just a very basic understanding of how javascript works and an ability to use Google Search, you should be able…

What is Google Ads? – Your Step-by-Step Guide

What is Google AdWords? Google Ads, formerly Google AdWords, is how you advertise on Google. You bid on keywords to get your ad shown in search results (and other places). When someone clicks your ad, they go to your site and you pay for that click. Sign up for Google Ads Determine Your Goals Pick Your Keywords Write Your Ads Set Your Budgets and Launch Whenever you search for something in Google, you get two types of results—(1) Organic…

What is AdRank? And How to Build an Optimized Campaign for It

What is Ad Rank? Ad Rank is a score that determines whether or not you will win an auction in Google Ads. It’s a combination of your bid and other factors of quality.  https://youtu.be/82E8PPUZsFU How Ad Rank Works Skip ahead to optimization section Google uses a formula made up of five (5) factors to determine who wins any given paid search auction and how much they pay. It’s called Ad Rank. The five (5) factors are: Max CPC (bid) …

Why is paid media important?

Paid Media is important because it give you tons of power and allows you incredible control. You can target users in ways that are not available anywhere else, such as organic SEO. You also have the ability to gain a massive amount of exposure in a short period of time. Another key element of Paid Media is the flexibility with Creative. With organic SEO, you write your title tags and meta descriptions and hope they show up in search results that way and they are going to work well. With Paid Media, you get to write as many Headlines (title tags) and descriptions (metas) as you want, test what what works and optimize accordingly. A seldom used, but powerful strategy is to use Paid Media as a testing ground for your organic titles and metas. And you can always count on getting exposure. Plus, if you have well-defined KPIs, Paid Media lets you develop highly effective conversion funnels. And like it or not, even if you rank well organically, your competitors can still buy the media above your organic position, taking away your share of voice (SOV). Ever notice that every big brand that ranks #1 organically also has the ad right above it? For the brand, that ad spot is super cheap, so you really should buy it. 

How can I control my Paid Media?

Paid Media has three main levers—the platform (targeting is part of this), the ad unit and your creative. Thinking of Paid Media in these three silos can help you determine where and how to optimize your Paid Media. There are literally thousands of things you can change and adjust with Paid Media, so looking at it in its most basic and simple parts is very important.