Paid media is basically any type of advertising you pay for to reach the right audience. And without a doubt, it’s a big deal! Around 72% of marketing budgets now go toward digital channels, all with one goal: reaching more people and getting real, trackable results.
Paid media examples include Google ads, Instagram promotions, display banners, sponsored posts, and influencer marketing campaigns.
Given how important this strategy has become for brands, we put this blog together. We’ll break down what paid media actually is, share some real-world examples, and explore how influencer marketing fits into the picture.
Keep reading!
What Is Paid Media?
Paid media (also called paid advertising) involves paying publishers or platforms to broadcast your message. It’s actually the opposite of organic reach and includes any advertising you pay for, such as:
- Buying keywords on Google (SEM/PPC),
- Sponsoring posts or ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok,
- Placing banner ads on websites,
- Paying for product placements,
- And even collaborating with influencers for sponsored content.
Here’s a paid media example on social media:
Paid Media vs. Owned Media vs. Earned Media
Paid media is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to how brands connect with their audience. There’s also owned media and earned media—each playing a different role. Here’s a quick breakdown to compare them:
1. Owned Media
Owned media are channels you fully control and publish on. These media are often free to publish on, but they require time and resources to build and maintain.
The main owned media examples include company blogs, product pages, and social media posts. This type usually provides a platform for your content strategy, but its reach depends on organic search ranking and follower base. Check out this Pepsi’s Instagram post as a great example of owned media:
2. Earned Media
As the name suggests, earned media is publicity you gain through others’ interest. You don’t pay directly, but you can influence it through PR, quality content, and customer engagement.
In fact, it’s a kind of social proof! For instance, 5-star reviews, a feature article in a magazine, or a user’s Tweet about your brand are earned media. While it’s “free,” it often requires strong inbound marketing (SEO, viral content) and can be hard to scale.
Here, you can see a customer review of Ainfluencer on Trustpilot as an example of earned media:
3. Paid Media
And, as we discussed earlier, paid media is any ads you pay for. It’s actually an outbound method that relies on advertising networks and expands your reach quickly.
Let’s say this method drives traffic and conversions that owned/earned media alone can’t deliver in the short term!
| Characteristic | Paid Media | Earned Media | Owned Media |
| Cost | You pay to promote your products or services | Free (but earned through effort) | Free (you control it) |
| Control | High: you create the message | Low: others talk about you | Full: you own and manage it |
| Credibility | Lower (seen as ads) | High (seen as trustworthy) | Medium (depends on your brand) |
| Reach Speed | Fast, instant exposure | Slower, builds over time | Varies: depends on your audience |
| Examples | Instagram ads, influencer posts | Reviews, mentions, shares | Website, blog, social profiles |
Note: A balanced marketing strategy uses all three types of media. For example, you can run paid ads to bring traffic to your website or blog (owned media).
If the content is good, people might share it or talk about it online—which is earned media. Each one plays a role, and they work best together.
10 Paid Media Examples
We’ve already touched on a few examples. Now, let’s take a closer look:
1. Search Engine Ads (Google/Bing Ads)
This popular type includes text or shopping ads that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Advertisers bid on keywords related to their products or services, and their ads show up when users search those terms.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a classic paid channel. Google alone processes about 61% of U.S. search queries. So, ranking at the top via paid search can drive huge traffic.
According to the statistics, over 1 million companies are estimated to use Google Ads to promote their products and services. Here’s a Google Ad for shoes:
2. Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads
Visual and video ads on Facebook and Instagram are other examples of paid media marketing. This includes single-image ads, carousel ads, story ads, and more.
Meta’s platform offers a powerful targeting engine that lets advertisers reach users by precise demographics, interests, and behaviors.
Facebook’s ad revenue is predicted to reach $123.73 billion in 2025. That’s a 1.6% increase from the previous year. Instagram is as popular as Facebook! 79% of marketers incorporate Instagram into their strategies. Let’s check out a Meta ad on Instagram by Adobe Photoshop:
3. LinkedIn Ads
Sponsored content and ads on LinkedIn are B2B paid media examples. LinkedIn allows targeting by job title, industry, company size, and seniority.
LinkedIn ads help brands boost their brand visibility and reach business decision-makers and professionals. Surprisingly, LinkedIn’s ad engagement rates are reportedly 50% higher than those of other social media platforms.
4. X (Twitter) Ads
Just like other social media platforms, X (former Twitter) allows advertisers to boost tweets or run video ads to increase brand awareness and website clicks.
Here, you can target users by keywords they use, interests they follow, or even mimic the followers of similar accounts.
X ads are often used for brand engagement and timely promotions. Reports suggest that ads on X reached around 586M users globally as of January 2025.
5. TikTok Ads
Short-form video ads on TikTok are great for reaching younger, highly engaged audiences. They appear in users’ feeds and can be targeted by demographics and interests.
Because TikTok’s popularity skews younger, it’s especially useful for brands targeting Gen Z or millennial consumers.
And, did you know that TikTok’s global advertising revenue is predicted to reach $33.1 billion in 2025? That shows a 40.5% increase from 2024! Here’s a TikTok ad example:
6. Pinterest Ads
Visual ads on Pinterest are great for e-commerce and retail brands looking to capture customers in a discovery mode. They can drive traffic and sales.
Pinterest might not be as big as some other platforms, but its global ad revenue is set to hit $4.2 billion in 2025. That’s a 17% jump from last year. Pinterest ads just look as follows:
7. Display Advertising
One of the common examples of paid media advertising is banner, image, or video ads on websites and apps across the internet.
Display ads usually show up in sidebars or right inside web pages. Brands often buy them through automated systems like Google Display Network. You can see a display ad by IKEA on a website:
They’re great for building brand awareness and retargeting visitors to your site. These ads can include images, videos, or interactive elements—and views and clicks track performance.
8. Native Advertising
Imagine a financial services company publishes a sponsored article on a news site. That’s what we mean by native advertising.
Native ads (like sponsored articles or promoted listings) match the look and feel of the website.
While they’re less disruptive (marked only by a “Sponsored” label), they still engage readers organically.
9. YouTube Video Ads
YouTube video commercials include skippable or non-skippable ads that play before, during, or after videos.
These ads are powerful for storytelling and brand building. They can be targeted by user interest, viewing habits, or contextual keywords (since YouTube uses Google’s ad system).
10. Influencer Marketing
Paying different types of influencers to promote your product is also a type of paid media. The influencer shares a post or video featuring your brand.
Since their followers already trust them, these promos often feel more genuine and work better than regular ads.
To wrap it up, some of the main examples of paid media in influencer marketing include:
- Sponsored social posts like an Instagram feed post or a TikTok video,
- Boosted influencer content, which involves boosting already posted content about a product,
- Whitelist ads. This is when a brand runs ads directly from the influencer’s account,
- Sponsored YouTube videos, like when brands pay YouTube influencers for dedicated product reviews or unboxing videos,
- Paid Stories and Reel ads. Brands create Instagram Stories or Reel ads featuring influencers, often with swipe-up links or stickers,
- Influencer affiliate campaigns. For example, an Amazon influencer shares trackable affiliate or promo links/codes,
- Giveaways and contests. Brands sponsor a contest hosted by an influencer,
- Podcast sponsorships. This means paying a creator/podcaster to mention or endorse the brand during an episode.
Brand-Led Paid Media Vs. Influencer-Led Paid Media: Which One Is More Effective
We’ve already covered some key examples of paid media. Some—like Google Ads—are brand-led, while others—like sponsored Instagram posts—come from influencers.
So, which one’s better? Honestly, it depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
That said, brand-led paid media gives brands full control and quick results. It’s perfect when you want fast visibility or immediate conversions.
On the flip side, influencer-led paid media tends to create stronger trust and deeper engagement with the audience.
In fact, influencer campaigns usually deliver a better ROI: around $5.78 for every $1 spent, compared to about $2 from regular PPC ads. That’s because people generally trust influencers more than direct ads from brands.
So, while brand-led ads are great for direct response and awareness, influencer-led content is better for building real, long-term connections.
To conclude, choose brand-led paid media advertising if you want:
- Immediate sales and lead generation,
- Broad audience targeting and scaling,
- Full control over messaging and testing,
- Predictable and scalable growth,
- Detailed performance analytics.
If you want to achieve the following goals, influencer paid media is the best choice:
- Building brand trust and authenticity,
- Driving organic engagement and word-of-mouth,
- Tapping into niche audiences,
- Generating high-quality, authentic UGC,
- Long-term brand awareness.
The best approach? To mix brand-led ads with influencer campaigns. This way, you get both control and authenticity.
How to Run Influencer-Led Paid Media with Ainfluencer
Running paid media through influencers doesn’t have to be complex. With Ainfluencer, you can set up and manage influencer-led campaigns from start to finish—all in one place.
You can start by browsing Ainfluencer’s opt-in database of 5M+ creators across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Use filters like niche, audience size, location, and more to find the right fit. From there, you can launch campaigns, message influencers directly, and handle everything from offers to payments inside the platform.
The best part? You can turn high-performing influencer content into paid ads, amplify it to a wider audience, and track performance with built-in analytics.
This gives you the targeting power of paid media with the authenticity of influencer content—minus the manual work.
It’s a simpler, faster, and smarter way to run influencer-led paid media. And it’s free to get started.
How to Create a Successful Paid Media Strategy
Whether you want to run brand-led or influencer-led paid media advertising, you’ll need a strong strategy. Take the following steps to create your paid media plan:
1. Define Clear Goals and KPIs
SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) are key to your success. You need to set clear goals, like “increasing brand awareness by 20% among millennials in Q4”. Every brand plans to achieve the following goals and KPIs:
- Brand awareness (impressions, reach, CPM, and ad recall),
- Website traffic (clicks, CTR, CPC, bounce rate),
- Lead generation (cost per lead, form submissions, conversion rate),
- Sales/conversions (cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, total revenue),
- Engagement (likes, saves, shares, comments, views),
- Retargeting (CTR, time on site, frequency, conversions from retargeted users).
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Your goals are set, and now, it’s time to understand who exactly you want to reach. It’s smart to create detailed buyer personas or segments based on demographics, interests, pain points, and online behavior.
Next, you need to refine these personas using first-party data (customer lists, website analytics) and platform insights.
Remember, the more detailed your audience definition, the better you can tailor ads and improve efficiency.
3. Select the Right Platforms
In this stage, you should choose paid media channels that align with your audience and goals. For example, if you’re targeting professionals, LinkedIn or business publications are the best fit.
For those selling visually driven products, Facebook or Instagram might be ideal. And, younger audiences usually hang out on TikTok. Some brands perform testing to identify which platform yields the best cost per result.
4. Allocate Budget Strategically
You’ve got clear goals, and you need a clear, realistic budget as well. It’s best to break it down across your campaigns.
You can go with daily or lifetime budgets depending on your strategy. It’s usually smart to start with lower bids and adjust as you see what’s working.
And don’t spend it all in one place—keep some flexibility. If one campaign is doing better than the rest, be ready to shift more budget toward it. That way, you’re not stuck pouring money into something that isn’t delivering.
5. Create Compelling Ad Creative
People scroll fast, so your ad needs to grab attention and make the value clear right away. For example, you can use a strong call-to-action like “Shop Now” or “Learn More” so people know what to do next.
Make sure the ad actually speaks to the audience you’re targeting. That means visuals that match their interests and copy that speaks to their needs. And don’t forget to switch things up regularly to avoid ad fatigue.
6. Launch with Proper Tracking
Without doubt, accurate tracking is critical to understanding ROI. You need to set up conversion tracking and analytics before launching.
Make sure you’re using UTM tags, pixels, or tracking links so you know exactly where your results—like clicks, sign-ups, or sales—are coming from.
Once your ads are live, take a minute to double-check your targeting and budget settings to avoid any surprises.
7. Analyze and Optimize
Paid media isn’t something you can just set up and forget about. You’ve got to keep an eye on how things are going and adjust based on what the numbers tell you.
Try out different creatives, headlines, and audiences to see what clicks best.
If one group is converting better, it makes sense to put more budget their way. It’s really about constantly testing and tweaking to get the most out of your spending, kind of like tuning a playlist until it hits just right. That’s how you get the best results over time!
7 Pro Tips for a Successful Paid Media Campaign
Paid media can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. When you focus on the basics, you’ll get much better results. Here are some tips to help you run a successful campaign.
1. Target the Right Audience
To do so, you can use all targeting options like lookalikes and geo-targeting. Start broad at the top of the funnel and narrow down with first-party data for retargeting campaigns.
2. A/B Test Everything
Always test different versions of ads by changing one element at a time (headline, image, or CTA). This helps find what drives more clicks or conversions. Scale the best-performing ads.
3. Optimize Bids and Budgets
Automated bidding is helpful, but it doesn’t mean you should just rely on defaults. Adjust bids based on device, time, or location. Move the budget toward campaigns that perform better to get the most value.
4. Design Eye-Catching Creatives
This means high-quality images and short and benefit-focused texts. You also need a clear call-to-action. Remember, simple, clean, and relevant visuals catch attention!
5. Use Retargeting and Remarketing
Retargeting can boost conversions and save your ad spend. It involves targeting people who interacted but didn’t convert, like those who abandoned carts or visited product pages.
6. Optimize Landing Pages
The landing page should deliver exactly what the ad promises. It should load fast, work well on mobile, and have a clear goal, like a signup form or purchase button.
7. Monitor and Adjust Regularly
What’s more, you need to keep an eye on campaign data daily or weekly. Look for trends in clicks and conversions, then tweak targeting, creative, or budget to improve. Pause underperforming ads and invest more in the winners.
Final Words
Paid media doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s really just about knowing your goals, picking the right platforms, and making sure your ads actually speak to the right people.
To see better results, you need to keep an eye on what’s working and tweak things as you go over time.
And if you’re planning to run influencer campaigns, Ainfluencer makes that part super simple. You can find creators, manage everything in one place, and only pay when the job’s done—no guesswork, no stress.
In short: with a clear plan and the right tools, paid media can really work for every brand.
FAQs
Here are a few frequently asked questions about paid media advertising:
1. Is Influencer Marketing Paid Media?
Yes, when you pay an influencer to promote your brand, it becomes paid media. Influencer marketing blends with paid campaigns: you are essentially buying ad space on an influencer’s channel. Many brands use influencer platforms (like Ainfluencer) to manage these paid collaborations.
2. What Is B2B Paid Media?
B2B paid media refers to paid advertising specifically targeting business buyers. Common examples include LinkedIn Ads (targeting companies, industries, and job titles), Google Ads for business keywords, and sponsored content on industry sites.
3. How Is Paid Media Different from Organic Social Media?
Organic social media relies on your content appearing in followers’ feeds without a paid boost. Its reach is limited by algorithms and your audience size.
Paid social media uses ads or sponsored posts to reach specific demographics beyond your followers. Paid ads guarantee placement (for a fee), while organic posts do not.
4. What Are Examples of Paid Media?
Some paid media examples include Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads, sponsored posts, YouTube pre-roll ads, influencer partnerships, and display banners. Basically, any online content you pay to promote.
