Paid media

Paid media is advertising you buy on platforms such as Meta, LinkedIn, Google, YouTube, TikTok and job boards. It is the fastest way to put a message in front of a defined audience, and the easiest place to waste money without noticing.

Which platform fits which job?

Each platform is good at something different:

Most accounts do better with fewer platforms run well than with a thin presence on all of them.

What decides whether a campaign works?

Usually three things, in this order: the offer, the creative, then the targeting and bidding. Platforms now automate much of the targeting, which makes the offer and the creative the main levers an advertiser still controls.

How should you measure it?

Carefully. Platform dashboards credit themselves generously. Compare platform-reported results with what your own analytics and your revenue show, and test whether results hold when spend is paused or shifted.

How does paid media fit with digital authority?

Ads buy attention for as long as you pay. Digital authority is what remains when the spend stops, and it lowers the cost of every campaign, because buyers who already trust a name convert more easily.

What you will find here

The insights below take one platform or one decision at a time: structure, budgets, bidding, creative testing and measurement. Each opens with the direct answer.