Earned media is publicity gained organically from promotional efforts, like press coverage, social media mentions, and search engine rankings.
But why is earned media important? And how can you get more of it?
In this post, we’ll explore:
Earned vs. paid vs. owned media
Why earned media is important
Examples of earned media
How to get earned media
Earned media vs. paid media vs. owned media
If money changes hands at any point, that’s not earned media. It’s paid media. Examples of this include TV and radio ads, billboards, sponsorships, and online advertising (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.)
If you have complete control over the asset or channel, that’s not earned media either. It’s owned media. Examples include anything published on your website, newsletters, etc.
However, not everything is so clearly defined. When it comes to things like SEO, it becomes a little muddier.
To rank on Google, you need to create content, which is owned media. But you can only influence where Google ranks that content and for what keywords it ranks for. You don’t have full control over it.
For that reason, in our opinion, SEO is earned media.
It’s all about control. You can control both paid and owned, but you can’t control earned media. And since you can’t fully control where you want to rank in Google (you can only influence it), it’s earned media.
The workload like this whatsapp number list allows both the vendor and the affiliate to focus on. Clicks are the number of clicks coming to your website’s URL from organic search results.
Why is earned media important?
Earned media is what every business strives for, and there are two main reasons for that:
1. Earned media is often cheaper over the long-term
In 2019, when Parachute launched its new wool mattress, the company opted for earned media over paid media. It seeded the product with editors and influencers, which resulted in tons of articles and Instagram Stories from people who tested the mattress.
parachute review
In total, they spent around $20,000 on PR and product gifting. According to Ariel Kaye, Parachute’s founder, they would have had to spend at least $2 million on Facebook Ads to get the same number of impressions as they did from this earned media campaign.
And unlike paid media—where you have to spend more for more impressions over time—earned media is the gift that keeps on giving.
Press articles often link back to the product or company, which improves their SEO. And these articles may also rank in search and send referral traffic over time.