Paid Media Channel Context
By Joe Kim, Founder of Frontside Consulting
Yay marketing! If you enjoyed our blog about the “Battleship Method'' you'll understand that what we’re looking for at Frontside Consulting is a match between audience and message. We hate high-pressure sales and, as Jordan Belfort (a.k.a. the “Wolf of Wall Street”) would say, the correct answer to the question how do you “sell me this pen?” is “how long have you been in the market for a pen?” If the answer is “I’m not looking for a pen” then you say, “thank you, goodbye.”
We’re looking for people who are warm leads and a good fit for the product/service you’re offering and actively avoiding those that are not. This is particularly important in paid media where we’re expending ad dollars in order to prospect customers and in most cases, it’s a finite resource we want to conserve as best we can. That being said, the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of the product-marketing fit are defined by our targeting and messaging strategy, but the when and where are determined by some factors that are specific to each channel.
In this blog, I’ll discuss how paid media channels differ from each other and the context that’s needed to understand how to use them effectively.
Google + Microsoft Search
Search marketing is considerably different than other forms of marketing. The most important signal here is the search query. It doesn’t matter if the user fits a particular demographic, geography, or persona, if someone types into the search engine “pretty pink flamingos for sale” they’re probably looking for an exotic pet, no matter what stereotype or interest-targeting method. This makes search marketing a very different channel in that sense—you have the opportunity to use the search query to best target and understand the users’ needs, then meet them. It also means that it’s a responsive, not proactive, channel. There are only so many people searching for “pretty pink flamingos” each month and so the overall volume of sales and leads may be limited. Additionally, since a customer is essentially raising their hands and telling you that they want to buy something, this channel tends to be very close to the conversion and the bottom of the funnel.
Additionally, what device (mobile or desktop) the user is on may provide some context. For example, someone searching for a restaurant from a mobile device may have a more urgent need versus someone searching for a restaurant from a desktop. The user on mobile is most likely looking for a restaurant nearby to dine at immediately, while the one on desktop is probably in more of a planning/reservation space. Allocate your budget accordingly.
Meta
Probably best known for keeping your bathroom break entertained, Facebook and Instagram are generally a distraction and time sink. Got 15 minutes before your next call? I guess we’ll have to see what your old college roommate has done with his beer-imbibing invention.
Because of this semi-passive and feed-driven consumption of content, we see that it’s a channel where users are looking to discover new content or be actively distracted. Look to our guide for producing a great Meta video ad to see what it takes to pull someone’s attention away from cute videos of a kitten living in a pumpkin.
If your content, message, or offer is strong enough, you can pull a user’s attention from their social feed and into the buying cycle, but it’s got to be compelling. It’s also an opportunity to remind them of your offer after they’ve already been exposed to your brand, effectively pulling them back into your sales funnel when they should be filing their TPS reports. While it’s not quite as low funnel as Google or Microsoft search, it’s certainly a position where the user is willing to be pulled away from what they’re doing in order to convert, particularly if it’s a low AOV (Average Order Value) item or a quick purchase that can be made with little consideration.
Planners gotta plan. Do you live your life one calendar invite at a time? Then you probably love Pinterest. It’s the planners’ social media channel of choice and tends to skew female which is unique to most platforms. One of the biggest use-cases for Pinterest is wedding planning where brides put together the look and feel of their special day.
As a planning channel, this is certainly higher up the funnel, so expect conversions to take longer than others and tailor your creative to suit the channel. Yes, there’s some amount of abnegation, doom-scrolling, and content discovery happening in this channel, so don’t count out direct conversion. Those wedding decorations may take some time to purchase considering he hasn’t even proposed yet.
Recipes are another channel idiosyncrasy. Planning a dinner party? Food and beverage-related content tends to do really well in this channel. Just make sure that there’s a clear message about your product or service being offered that’s included in the content.
Style and fashion are also uniquely effective in this channel. Thinking about your new fall look? It’s pretty much a wardrobe recipe. Plan accordingly.
As you can imagine, this is quite a bit further up the funnel than Search or Meta—expect upper level signals to be the value, such as Saves & Engagement. It’s not impossible for someone to convert in this channel as it also has the doom-scrolling use case that Facebook or Instagram does, but not quite to the same extent.
This is social media’s suit-and-tie look. You’re probably logging on after the office party where you had one too many cocktails to find out you’ve embarrassed yourself in front of the CEO and are thinking a new job search may be warranted. Whoops.
Running a B2B business? LinkedIn is your jam. With the ability to target industries & job titles, it’s great for selling your SaaS product to the Director of E-Commerce that your college roommate has actually become after the success of his invention. With businesses using the platform to drive high-value B2B sales, as well as recruiting white-collar professionals, the inventory becomes highly competitive (often with CPM’s 4–8x those of other social media platforms). For that reason, it becomes somewhat niche in high-AOV or specialty markets. Yes, someone may be distracted from scrolling through industry news and secrets by that shiny product you’re selling, but make sure that the LTV or AOV of your product or service is high enough to justify the cost of the expensive ad inventory.
YouTube, Hulu, and Other Streaming Services
Where else are you going to get your niche content? Libertarian political weekly updates? Mr. Beast’s latest shenanigans? Cat videos? Video content at its best, YouTube pulls a vast amount of users’ time and attention and produces more content every day than anyone can possibly consume.
Content consumption is the key here. Unfortunately for the advertiser, typically ads are an obstacle between the user and their desired content. Yes, you can get a very low cost impression, but how much of your message can you get across in the first 5 seconds of your video ad before the user hits the skip button? Or are these video impressions playing into an empty room where someone’s gotten up to grab their fourth pamplemousse La Croix?
Branding and impression volume are usually the play in this channel as CPMs tend to be pretty low, but when someone’s on the side of the road looking up a video on how to change a tire, your offer has to be pretty compelling to get them to stop and check out your line of vanilla scented candles. Expect these channels to be way up the funnel with little to no conversion signal.
There you have it! A little bit of context on the highest-producing paid media channels. If you’re looking for a partner to help you navigate these channel nuances give us a shout!
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