Paid, owned and earned media explained for small businesses

Key takeaways

Paid, owned and earned media are the three ways a business gets attention. Paid media is attention you rent, owned media is attention you hold through your own channels, and earned media is attention other people give you. Social media is unusual because it can be all three.

• Paid: adverts in any medium. Stops when the money stops.
• Owned: website, email list, signs, van. Yours to keep.
• Earned: reviews, recommendations, shares and press.
• Small budgets go furthest when paid feeds owned and earned.

What do the three terms mean?

Paid media is any space or airtime you buy. Owned media is any channel you control without paying a media owner each time. Earned media is any mention you did not pay for or publish yourself. The model is useful because it cuts across the old and new divide: each type exists both offline and online.

• Social media marketing vs traditional advertising: what works better for SMEs?
• Traditional vs digital marketing: where social media fits

What are examples of each?

Each type has traditional and digital forms. Seeing them together makes it easier to spot where your effort is concentrated.

• Paid, traditional: print adverts, radio, leaflets, billboards.
• Paid, digital: social adverts, boosted posts, search adverts.
• Owned, traditional: shop sign, van livery, brochures.
• Owned, digital: website, email list, Google Business Profile.
• Earned, traditional: word of mouth, a local press story.
• Earned, digital: reviews, shares, tags and recommendations.

• Van signwriting and shop signs: the advertising you own
• Word of mouth vs social media: can referrals be scaled?

Where does social media fit?

A social media account sits between owned and rented. You control what you post, but the platform controls who sees it and can change its rules. Paid social adverts are plainly paid media. Comments, shares and tagged photos from customers are earned. One channel covers all three, which is part of its value to a small firm.

• Organic vs paid: how it changes your platform choice
• User-generated content for UK small businesses

Which type should a small business build first?

Build owned media first, because everything else points to it. A clear website, a complete Google Business Profile and a tidy social profile give paid adverts somewhere to send people and give happy customers somewhere to leave a review. Paying for attention before those are in order wastes money.

• Google Business Profile vs social media: what comes first?
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

What does each type cost?

Paid media costs money each time. Owned media costs time and upkeep. Earned media costs good service and the nerve to ask for reviews. Paid social can be tested from £300–£500 a month, and most UK SMEs using an agency pay £950–£2,500 a month for managed social media. Staff time costs about £16.27 an hour at the National Living Wage.

• How much does advertising cost a UK small business?

How do the three work together?

They work as a loop. Paid media brings new people in. Owned media convinces them and captures their details. Good service turns them into earned media, and their reviews make the next paid advert more believable. Break any link and the others cost more.

• 1. Paid advert reaches a new household.
• 2. Website or profile answers their questions.
• 3. The job is done well and a review is requested.
• 4. The review appears beside the next advert.

• How to combine social media and traditional advertising

What are the trade-offs?

Paid media is fast and stops instantly. Owned media is slow and lasting. Earned media is the most trusted and the least controllable. A business that relies only on paid is renting its customers. One that relies only on earned grows at the speed of chance. The safe position is a base of owned, topped up with paid.

• The advertising channel scorecard: pick where to spend

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see with firms that feel advertising is expensive: nearly all the budget is paid media, sending people to a thin website and a profile with four old reviews. Redirecting a small part of the spend into the owned and earned links usually lowers the cost of every enquiry the adverts bring.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Checklist: auditing your three types

• List what you pay for, own and have earned.
• Check every paid advert points somewhere useful.
• Update the website and profiles before spending more.
• Ask each satisfied customer for a review.
• Reuse earned praise in paid and owned channels.

Next step

Sort last year's marketing into three columns. If the owned and earned columns are short, start there before buying more adverts.