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What is paid, earned, shared and owned media?

Feb 08, 2023

Erica Williams

Media is complex. Much more than it used to be. Since the dawn of the internet and rise of social media, the number of media options has exploded. For a marketing manager, they are like pieces of a puzzle, interconnecting and working together.

So, how does a marketing manager make the pieces form a nice, big, beautiful picture, to successfully stand out not only amongst the competition but above the vast array of media noise?

American digital marketing expert, Gini Dietrich, identified four types of media: Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned. She called it the PESO model. Here we look at the four types of media. We describe and analyse each one and discuss how they all fit together.

What is paid media?

With the impact of the internet and social media, paid media now encompasses much more than television, radio, and print media. Often called sponsored content, paid media includes social media and web banner ads.

Paid media is a great way to quickly reach your target audience, but as the name suggests, you pay for the privilege.

Examples of paid media include:

Search ads
Media advertising
Affiliate marketing
Advertorials

You can be specific with your target audience and only pay for your ads to be seen by particular demographics. Think of it as like paying to put an ad for a motorcycle in a motorcycling magazine. You’re reaching the people most likely to be interested in your brand or product.

You will normally use paid media if you have a specific target in mind. For example, if you are launching a new product or a new offer, running a competition or making an announcement. How much you want to spend depends on your budget and this will often determine which platform or channel you use, along with target audience and desired outcomes.

Commonly used channels for paid media include streaming services such as Spotify, YouTube, and digital TV channels.

Tracking paid media

While often difficult to accurately track its effectiveness, paid media is usually tracked in terms of reach by media monitoring. Digital paid advertising is easier to track with Google Analytics. The tracking allows you to adjust your paid media to be more effective.

What is earned media?

Earned media describes the attention you receive from sources that you do not control or pay for. It originates voluntarily from other sources. This includes review sites, media outlets, and blogs that mention your brand. While these mentions are valuable for readers to discover, word-of-mouth mentions from friends or acquaintances are often more beneficial when trying to convert a passer-by into a customer. Earned media is usually seen as independent and therefore trustworthy.

Examples of earned media include:

Word-of-mouth endorsements
Media coverage and publicity
Industry awards
Organic online reviews
Third party testimonials

Tracking earned media

While sometimes difficult to track, earned media can be highly effective for its trustworthiness. Monitoring hashtags is a way to check on your earned media. Icon Visual Marketing has the resources to track earned media by checking the reach and effectiveness of influencers, online reviews, and media coverage.

What is shared media?

Shared media is when your brand or product is mentioned in media, particularly social media. It could be posts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and LinkedIn. Like earned media, shared media may come from any source, including other companies, customers and anyone else who feels compelled to mention your product without your prompting.

Examples of shared media include:

Social media content
Content that relies on sharing

Shared media is usually generated by your customers and followers. You have no control over shared media, which can be wonderful if your product creates a buzz on social media but disastrous if you have an issue that creates negative attention. Things can go viral quickly and it’s out of your control.

Shared media is ideal for engagement, consumer interaction and generating a conversation about your brand. It can often spread to an audience you might not be able to reach through paid media.

Tracking shared media

Shared media is impossible to accurately track, as you have no control of where and when your brand is being mentioned. Many people don’t use hashtags when discussing your brand on social media, and those mentions often fly under the radar.

What is owned media?

Owned media is content over which you have control – you control the content, and you control who sees it. It’s what you create, publish, and share on channels of which you manage. Owned media can be hosted or shared.

Owned media includes:

Websites
Social media accounts
Blogs
Podcasts
Email marketing
eBooks and whitepapers
Newsletters
Videos

Owned media is the best place to showcase your brand and its positioning. This is the media you control, so the overall strategy is to demonstrate what your brand is about and what you have to offer. It’s your best avenue to demonstrate thought leadership.

Each piece of content needs to have a purpose and direction. It should have a single overall message about your brand – to increase leads or brand awareness or educate existing leads. It should fit in at some point of the marketing sales funnel.

Sales & Marketing Funnel

You content should be SEO-friendly. It needs to not only be something people would click to read, but it also needs to be original and of good quality. It should contain images, graphs, infographics, videos or other visual devices to make it authoritative, on topic, interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention, and strong enough for search engines to direct people to.

It should also be measurable. You should be able to see how much interest is taken in your content so you know what attracts and engages people and what does not. The aim is to continually improve your content.

If you would like help publishing your brand’s owned media, Icon Visual Marketing has an expert team that produces owned media content for clients every day.

Tracking owned media

Owned media is the easiest of the media types to track. You can check on clicks on pages of your website and how many people open your emails, and the click-throughs you receive.

How the four types of media work together

In a perfect world, all four forms of media work in harmony to give your brand the desired path down the marketing funnel, that being awareness, engagement, and conversion.

Often, one form of media can drive another. For example, your paid media can be the starting point for earned media. Your owned media can generate shared media.

The greatest value is where the media overlap. It is recommended that you lead with media that provides the best strength for your campaign.

When the four overlap, it means the content you are producing is being seen and shared. It is giving your brand great awareness and engagement, which hopefully leads to conversion and sales. Unfortunately, you can’t force all four types of media to overlap. But with a good strategy and strong creative, you have a good chance to make those pieces interconnect and generate sales.

Making sense of the media mix

Media marketing is a complex web of channels and platforms making it a challenge to master. Under the PESO model, it’s when the four types of media, Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned are used strategically and overlap that you gain the best use of your marketing dollar.

Icon Visual Marketing uses the four types of media to develop a marketing strategy that will serve your brand in the most efficient way. Icon works with you, as part of your marketing department, with experts across all fields of media and the creation of strategies and campaigns.

Keen to learn how we can develop a marketing strategy that works for your business? Contact us today for an obligation free chat.

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