Don't coast along this summer – make the most of your downtime with CIPR CPD. Our second #SummerOfCPD giveaway is a brand-new guide to the dos and don'ts of integrated Paid Media into integrated public relations campaigns. Covering top tips across paid social, display and search - this four-page primer will develop your skills and knowledge on one of the biggest current trends in modern marketing. Written in collaboration with Threepipe's Benedict Clark, this guide will gain you 5 CIPR CPD points. Find out more at www.cipr.co.uk/summerofcpd

1. An Introduction
To Paid Media//

2. CIPR SKILLS GUIDE: An Introduction To Paid Media 1
WHAT IS PAID MEDIA?
..........................................................................................................
It’s exactly what it says on the tin, it’s media that you pay for! This is mostly comprised of social (e.g.
Facebook), display advertising (e.g. Google Display Network), and search marketing (e.g. Google PPC).
WHY USE PAID MEDIA?
.........................................................................................................
Paidmedia canprove useful in anumber of different ways.
It can help to drive eyeballs to owned content and in turn generate earned media, as well as creating a flow
of trafficonto ownedmedia properties.
The likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, through their advertising platforms, can give you the
opportunity to pay to promote desired content and also to create increased traffic and therefore potentially
conversions.
It is becoming increasingly common to pay influencers to share content through social streams which can
greatly increase reach by piggybacking on their social following. In some cases influencers will generate
brand relevant content themselves.
Traditional paid media streams such as display advertising and search marketing are a more directly
relevant route to generate users to the site, which is useful to create traffic and in turn create website
conversions.
TopTip:
It should be noted that paid media need not be seen as a stand-alone but rather as a part of a triumvirate
alongside ownedand earnedmedia. An effective marketing strategy should include alltheseaspects.
WHAT PAID MEDIA SHOULD I USE?
.........................................................................................................
The first thing to establish when deciding on a paid media strategy is a clear idea of the goals that you
are trying to achieve.
Not all paid media avenues are applicable to all types of goals and in order to ensure an efficient use of
budget, it is important to know what routes are appropriate to utilise.
Whilst there are no hard and fast rules on it, another important consideration is the level of budget that
you are willing, or indeed able, to invest.
Even if the correct avenues are selected and matched to the appropriate goals, unless there is a
sufficient level of investment, it may still fall short of being able to achieve significant penetration in that
area.
Top tip:
Make use of and take advice from those with experience in this area, there is plenty of material that can
be found online to help in researching.

3. // Goal
// Brand Awareness
// Content Promotion
// Lead Generation/Traffic
// Conversions
// PAID SOCIAL // DISPLAY // SEARCH
X X
X
X X X
X X
CIPR SKILLS GUIDE: An Introduction To Paid Media 2
WHAT PAID MEDIA SHOULD I USE?
.........................................................................................................
Whatis your client goal?
When it comes to paid media there is a tendency to assume that this needs to be automatically linked to a
direct return from revenue. But this needn’t necessarily be the case, the generation of revenue occurs from
bottomof thefunnel activity,paid mediais equally adeptat feeding the funnel.
Paidmediacanhelpyou achieve your client goal regardlessof which of the belowapplies.
You should askwhetheryour client wantsto achieve:
1. BrandAwareness
2. Content promotion
3. Leadgeneration/Traffic
4. Conversions
Toptip:
Client goals can cover multiple of the above, by constructing your approach properly, nuances and slight
differenceswithin the samepaid mediaapproacheswill allowyou toachieve themall.
HOW SHOULD I CHOOSE MY APPROACH?
..........................................................................................................
When it comes to picking the correct aspects to make use of the below is a rough guide, but it should be
noted that one that different types of paid media can be used for multiple goals with slight differences
within the individual approach.
Top tip:
Make sure you know your audience and where best to find them.Different platforms can offer access to very
different audiences,for example both Facebook and LinkedIn fall under paid social but,differ greatly in the
users that gives you accessto.

4. www.cipr.co.uk/cpdThis article is worth 5 CPD points
CIPR SKILLS GUIDE: An Introduction To Paid Media 3
HOW DO I MEASURE SUCCESS?
.........................................................................................................
Makesureyou usetracking to seetheimpactof what you havedone regardlessof what thegoal is.
Whether you are looking to generate views for content, traffic to websites or create conversions on
websites,thesearealltangible andmeasurableusing thecorrect technology.
Most websites will have a form of analytics present (often Google analytics).By correctly tagging up activity
you will easily be able to see how traffic driven to the websites behaves, such as areas of the site visited and
timespent on thesite.
If your goal from paid media is to generate conversions you need to be able to prove that you are achieving
this.Mostadvertising platformswillprovide tracking code thatenablesyou to dothis.
Toptip:
Split tracking links down to a reasonably granular level so that you can see the true value of which parts of
your paid media are achieving what.
IN SUMMARY
..........................................................................................................
1.Consult withclient toestablishcleargoals
2.Chooseappropriateapproaches basedon the client goals
3.Choosepeople withappropriateskillsand experience to execute this
4.Give yourself plenty of leadtime before campaign launch
5.Choosethecorrect platformswithin eachpaid media channel toreachthe right audience
6.Carefully consider creative to beused and tailor it toyour audience
7.Usetracking linkstoanalyse effectiveness of campaign
8.Testdifferent creative/copy within approachesto learn from fornexttime round
9.Optimise thecampaign asit goes along bymoving around budget to whereworks
Bonus tip:
Boost coverage around earned PR content by running complementary display campaigns in
corresponding online titles and pick out key words from releases to target through contextual display
advertising(keywordtargeting).
This guide was produced by Benedict Clark, Threepipe.