Marketing leaders are challenged to squeeze every ounce of value from their ad investments. That includes what you spend on promoting your content — a necessary yet unpredictable component of effective content strategy.
Paid content promotion has always been a bit of a guessing game. But for many years you knew where your efforts were likely to make the biggest impact — search engines and popular social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
That’s not necessarily the case anymore. In the face of mounting challenges like AI-powered search experiences, diminishing trust in social media, and ad fatigue, the ROI of these platforms is more questionable.
“There are lots of strategies and tactics from five years ago that still work, but most of them are more expensive today, especially when it comes to paid amplification,” says Josh Krakauer, CEO of Sculpt, a B2B social media agency.
Rest assured viable paid promotion opportunities still exist. But you may need to look in new directions to find them. Start by seeking channels and platforms that best align with your goals and keeping an open mind about the results you can realistically expect to achieve.
Here’s how experts suggest approaching this landscape to maximize the impact of your efforts.
Paid search: It pays to be precise
If you’ve done a Google search lately, you’ve probably noticed Google’s AI attempts to answer your question with no clicking required. As AI shakes up the search landscape, your strategy for promoting content in this space needs to shift.
Prioritize conversion goals over traffic
“People who click on paid media from Google typically want to take an immediate action, like calling a plumber because they have a leak,” says Chad Pollitt, an internet marketing consultant, author, and speaker.
In other words, he says, refrain from putting media dollars into broadly targeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns that could result in accidental, wasted, or fraudulent bot clicks. Cost-per-engagement and cost-per-action campaigns provide better outcomes. “You can’t really get scammed with a cost-per-action campaign. Either somebody pays you money for that product or service or they don’t,” Chad says.
Giovani Gonzalez, founder of The Social Rook, a digital advertising agency, agrees that using paid search for quality leads and conversions makes the most sense. “If you’re doing lead generation for a service, we recommend providing qualifying questions on a landing page to ensure lead quality,” he says. He notes his team also leverages tools like Calendly’s routing product. After answering qualifying questions, prospective customers are sent to your scheduler to set up a call.
Make AI work for, not against, you
To optimize for cost-per-engagement campaigns, Chad recommends using AI in a tool, such as a demand-side platform (DSP), to decide where to put your money. “A DSP takes your budget and starts moving it to where the engagement is actually happening in real-time. If you just focus on those platforms that work, with the demographics that work, it can help minimize your waste, fraud, and abuse,” he says.
Some marketers are turning to Google’s Performance Max, which goes beyond paid keyword search to reach all of Google’s channels, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Giovani says 80% of their Google Ads budget starts with standard search. Once that works, they redirect the budget into other avenues using tools like Performance Max. He explains that he likes to “season” new accounts with enough conversions and data to get a better understanding of who the ideal customer is.
After that, the machine-learning tool can really help scale campaign success. “We’ve had accounts where Performance Max is now dominating spend, as it’s driving the most results,” Giovani says.
Be human-centric
People are better at recognizing ads that use AI-generated copy and are drawn to content that feels more authentic and personalized. Sculpt’s Josh Krakauer says, “Whenever we directly address an audience in our ad creative or copy, there’s a lift in click-through rates and conversion rate.
“For example, instead of the copy saying, ‘Check out this new product that can do XYZ,’ it might say ‘Hey, B2B marketers, here’s a product that will make your job easier.’”
Paid social: Get heard above the noise
Engagement on major social platforms can still be effective — if your ads grab the attention of your target audiences. That’s a rising challenge, as consumers are adept at selectively scrolling and scanning their feeds and jumping from platform to platform to find content worthy of their engagement.
Even if marketers develop a successful formula with a platform or two, things can turn on a dime — from the Apple iOS 14 update that rocked the world of Meta advertisers to the big regime change at X (formerly known as Twitter) to the potential TikTok takedown.
Despite the volatility in this space, paid social remains an excellent way to target specific demographics, which is why marketers will pay a premium. “When the mission is to get your content or message in front of a group of decision-makers or future customers, paid social allows you to do that with precision and accuracy, and that matters,” Josh says. “The trade-off is it comes at a cost, but it’s a cost that you can control.”
Make a platform pivot
As paid content promotion costs climb, being more selective with your budget, including experimenting with niche options, can be worthwhile. For example, Josh sees a lot of engagement potential in Reddit — and for now, it may be less expensive to advertise there. “More of [its] results are showing up in Google searches. That means that having your brand or product or content featured in those Reddit posts is super valuable — if you can find a way in,” he says. “We see more people interested in testing Reddit advertising in specific subreddits that have a niche related to their category.”
Kenneth Daniel, Jr., national multicultural marketing manager at global automaker Stellantis, is a big fan of platforms like Reddit and Pinterest. He offers one big reason why: Consumers express and share parts of their lives on these platforms. “If you can integrate your brand and integrate your product to alleviate consumer pain points in an authentic way that builds trust, you win,” he says.
Kenneth says Pinterest is especially useful for B2C brands because it centers around people planning their life milestones. “If you’re getting a new house, having a child, or planning a graduation party, you can leverage Pinterest to plan those life events.” Brands can then use the data collected by Pinterest for targeted advertising, partnerships, and sponsorships.
Seek new ways to engage
Giovani’s team recently worked with a conversational AI company, Quiq (formerly Snaps), to turn run-of-the-mill Facebook ads into a real-time sales pitch for Tiffany & Co. Instead of the ads saying, “learn more” or “shop now,” the ads invite potential customers to message the brand, and then an AI bot takes over.
These campaigns are among their most successful paid promotions. “The conversation with AI leads you to a point of purchase at the end of it,” Giovani says. “Our Tiffany & Co. holiday campaign generated $5 million in sales from a $100,000 ad spend.”
LinkedIn is a must for B2B
While B2C brands receive strong value from their promotions on niche-focused social platforms, Josh calls LinkedIn the most effective platform for B2B brands to amplify content marketing. “LinkedIn has the best first-party data when it comes to firmographics or the ability to reach people based on their professional identity and occupation. It’s where B2B companies spend the majority of their time on social media,” he says.
LinkedIn offers advertisers options, including sponsored messages in people’s inboxes and sponsored content in users’ feeds (the most common type). “The second post you see on your feed is an ad. It looks like the organic content, which is why it’s so powerful,” Josh says.
Here’s an example: This promoted post from Fisher Investments offers its target audience a valuable content asset — a downloadable guide on how to generate income from a high-value investment portfolio. To generate more interest, the paid promotion also notes members of the user’s LinkedIn network who follow the brand.
Embrace affordable video options
With some social platforms doubling down on video ads (think Reels and TikTok-style influencer spots), many brands shy away, assuming these campaigns to be cost-prohibitive.
But Giovani says video promotions don’t have to be overproduced or cost a fortune to make a big splash. “One of the best campaigns we ever ran was for Giant Hoodies. It was five seconds of a kid in his kitchen holding a hoodie. With that ad alone, we scaled an account, and it was just shot on a mobile phone.”
Paid content partnerships: Earn credibility and trust
A rise in fraudulent ads and data privacy concerns have reduced user trust in social ads, but consumers still tend to trust recommendations from their favorite influencers.
Paid influencer campaigns can help give brands more credibility. In fact, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Creator Economy Opportunity report, 44% of advertisers planned to increase their investment in creator content in 2024. “As marketers, we should leverage influencers who can help amplify our brands and audience in communities to either strengthen relationships or make it known that, ‘Hey, we play in this space,’” Kenneth says.
Even in the B2B world, paid influencers can have an impact. Josh says those with an audience of professionals who engage with their content and pay attention to their new ideas are enticing for brands.
For example, Josh’s team finds electrical contractors who create content about their jobs, careers, and preferred products. He engages them to promote a client’s offerings in the commercial electrical space. Josh also uses professional experts for his martech client’s campaigns. “We look for influencers who talk about improving your skills as a digital marketer and trends in e-commerce,” he says.
Madeleine Loeb Da-Ros, vice president of marketing for financial solutions provider Snap Finance, says her team has set aside budget to test the paid influencer waters this year. However, she acknowledges the real risks involved: “We’re in a highly regulated industry, so going through the whole influencer sourcing and vetting process is really quite daunting,” Madeleine says. Despite the heavy lifting, she’s confident that partnering with an influencer who aligns well with the brand can drive strong results.
Leverage the power of like-minded media outlets
Marketers, particularly B2B, can also succeed by promoting their content with the help of trusted media and trade publication outlets. For example, Questline Digital, a content marketing agency for energy and water utilities, purchased sponsored content packages on the energy industry’s largest news site, Utility Dive, to share its thought leadership content.
Marketers can also explore opportunities to gain direct access to the audiences of their brand and media partners. “One of the most valuable forms of paid content distribution is list rental,” Chad Pollitt says. Approach organizations that have robust email lists and offer to pay them to promote your content to their list. “I’ve done this before and watched my leads just go up and up and up to the right instantly,” he says.
When promoting content, it pays to play it smart
The impact of any paid content promotion depends on your goals. Even if you don’t experience an immediate sale or conversion, you could experience long-tail value in terms of top-of-the-funnel metrics like brand awareness.
Paid content continues to remain an integral component of marketing strategy, with the most successful brands continually looking for the best ways to allocate those dollars. Madeleine explains, “Years ago, you could have some really great content and get that exposure. Right now, you don’t reach the eyeballs you need to reach unless you’re paying for those eyeballs.”
