Paid media is a marketing practice businesses can’t afford to ignore. However, it’s not easy to develop and maintain a successful paid ad campaign. That’s why you need a paid media agency to work with your brand.
Paid media is booming amongst small to medium businesses, as 65% of them opt for this technique. There’s no doubt companies see generous returns from paid ads.
The average CPC rate across all industries is $3.53. And the average CTR for Google Ads is a whopping 18%! Not to mention, 96% of Google’s revenue comes from paid media campaigns.
But here’s the problem – paid media ads are tricky to get right.
For instance, 52% of social media users are more likely to trust a brand and click on its ads if the social channel secures their data, and 24% 0f marketers find it challenging to create conversion-driven content for paid media.
The solution to these setbacks is to hire a paid media agency.
Paid media agencies have the team, services, and industry credibility to design and run custom paid media strategies to accelerate your bottom line.
So, how do you choose a paid media agency? And what can you expect from them?
This review explores the top paid media agencies, the services they provide, their top clients, and why you should opt for them.
Ready to find the best agency for you?
Here we go!
Paid media is a broad term that covers a variety of paid ad placements, like pay-per-click ads, display ads online and in print, and branded content. It’s an external marketing technique where businesses buy advertising space to boost brand awareness and generate sales.
The role of media publications, online and in print, is increasingly crucial since businesses need to work with news outlets that have a strong following if they want to target a wide range of audiences.
Working with a media organization with only a few active followers or catering to a distinct audience will be unsuccessful. Businesses must work with reputable and well-known media companies to guarantee that the right audience is receiving their message.
Summary: What is Paid Media?
Paid media is when businesses use paid ads on platforms like search engines and social media channels to promote their businesses and products/services. Businesses have to buy advertisements, such as pay-per-click ads, display ads, branded content and social media ads.
Source: HubSpot Marketing
There are many channels, and platforms businesses can use for paid media campaigns. A few of these include social media, like YouTube and Instagram, and paid search platforms, like search engines.
Your paid media agency will provide custom services to optimize your campaign for these channels and platforms.
Let’s explore a breakdown of the top paid media channels and the relevant services:
Social media is one of the top channels for paid ads because of the wide reach it offers businesses. You can engage and convert targeted buyers from countless places in the world. Social media platforms also make paid media easier through high-level targeting so your ads reach the right audience.
The top paid social channels include:
The top services offered by a paid media marketing agency include:
Your paid media marketing agency will help you create a custom paid media strategy for your top social channels.
Paid search channels are search engines like Bing and Google. It’s worthwhile to run paid media campaigns on search engines for maximum exposure and reach. Choose search engines where your target audience hangs out the most and which will be the most effective for your business. This is most likely Google.
You can use paid search channels like:
To optimize your paid media campaign for these channels, your paid media agency may use:
The services a paid media marketing agency offers for paid search channels are:
Amazon has become a global hub for e-commerce stores. You can sell anything on Amazon, and it’s easy to reach the right buyers through Amazon ads. If you have an Amazon store, you’re in luck. Your paid media agency will create engaging, customer-centric ads to connect with your audience and highlight your products’ best benefits.
For Amazon paid media campaigns, your agency will:
Like you can use display ads in paid social and paid search, as well as video advertising on YouTube, TikTok, and various streaming platforms like Twitch, your paid media agency can help you develop a strategic plan to use your paid media placements effectively. Doing this keeps your brand in front of your audience, so they remember you and, eventually, convert while minimizing wasted ad spend.
For display paid ad campaigns, your agency will deliver services like:
Summary: Paid Media Channels & Services Breakdown
There are so many paid media agencies finding the right paid media agency for your business is tricky. We’ve narrowed down the ultimate paid media agencies for maximum brand awareness and sales:
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Founded: 2012
Location: Washington DC; and New York, USA
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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PBJ Marketing is a multi-award-winning digital marketing agency that specializes in paid media campaigns on using search, social and display ads. It offers a nice selection of digital marketing services, including social media management, SEO, website design and CRO. These services, when combined with expert paid media campaigns, create a focused and effective digital marketing strategy that covers all the bases.
PBJ Marketing is a digital marketing agency that specializes in paid media, social media management, SEO, website design and CRO. Search, social and display ad campaigns, combined with great website design, and expert SEO and CRO, are a potent combination that drive tangible results.
PBJ Marketing takes a strategic, data-informed approach to developing ad campaigns. Its team of dedicated experts works closely with their clients to gain a deep understanding of their unique business, sector and marketing goals. Their focus is on long-term growth, sustainability and mutually beneficial relationships that are based on results. PBJ Marketing has won numerous industry awards, including awards for their performance in PPC, SEM, SEO, and B2B marketing.
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Founded: 2017
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA; and London, UK
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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LO:LA offers its customers a big agency and in-house experience blended with versatility, personalized service, and “beyond the box” thinking. They guarantee high-caliber work that is innovative and pleasing to the business and its customers.
Based in El Segundo in Los Angeles, LO:LA is one of the best-paid media agencies that assist businesses in promoting their messages to the appropriate audiences. They offer their clients a brand-centric experience to share their brand identity, values, and mission with their targeted customer base.
If you are a renowned firm or a startup with a limited budget, LO:LA offers specialized paid media services, like campaign marketing and management, brand and strategy, and content marketing to boost your efforts.
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Founded: 2008
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Miami, Florida, USA; and Madrid, Spain
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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Hoopla Digital Agency offers its clients the chance to elevate their brands with strong paid media strategies for content marketing, media planning, and influencer marketing. They are a team of experienced people who know how to get the job done and create viral paid media campaigns.
Hoopla has an unwavering commitment to pushing beyond the average and finding innovative approaches to paid media campaigns. The full-service digital marketing agency, situated in Florida, offers a variety of expert paid services to target your ideal customers, engage them and persuade them to convert.
Hoopla provides its clients with enhanced communication, original production tactics, and attractive designs. Brands looking for original and enticing content strategies to target their customers can get in touch with Hoopla.
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Founded: 2007
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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Foundry512 is an advertising firm well-known for its brand experience. The firm uses a custom structure to build brand relationships that ultimately forge an unbreakable bond between a brand and its people. This paid media agency is a top choice for mid-level to large teams.
Foundry512 is all about creating deep relationships between brands and their customers. The agency produces content and stories and generates campaigns that create an emotional connection. The Austin-based advertising agency also investigates a brand’s basic components, transforms them into insight and vision, and pours the molten messages and stories into a specially designed media mold.
You can work with this agency for services like paid media placement, SEO, social media marketing, branding, and authentic customer and brand experience.
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Founded: 1991
Location: New York City, USA
Number of employees: 51 – 200
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DeVito/Verdi is a paid media agency focusing on core services for successful paid ad campaigns. You can work with this agency for sales promotion, PR campaigns, media planning and buying and targeted paid ads.
DeVito/Verdi is a full-service advertising firm that provides its clients with a truth-based creative methodology. Regardless of the services provided, the agency has excelled and has established itself as one of the most inventive in the USA. Since its creation, DeVito/Verdi has been recognized as the Best Mid/Small Size Agency in the U.S. for General Excellence.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 1997
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden; New York, USA; Toronto and Montreal, Canada; Shanghai, China; and Singapore
Number of employees: 206
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Forsman & Bodenfors is an international paid media agency that offers expert solutions for social media marketing, data and analytics, media buying and so much more for awareness and sales.
Forsman & Bodenfors allows businesses to unleash creative excellence and develop human-like connections with their customers. Since its inception, this agency has put a lot of effort into growing to over 200 employees operating in 5 different nations.
This agency has worked with startups to develop them from scratch while helping top-tier companies leverage paid media campaigns that drive results. Working with this Swedish agency will help you put your business on the map.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2008
Location: Santiago de Cali, Valle del Cauca, Columbia
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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With Reinvent Publicidad, businesses get to accelerate sustainable growth through branding, content marketing, social media marketing and paid social media campaigns. This agency serves the Hispanic market, creating content and campaigns in Spanish and English. It is an excellent choice if you need an expert agency to help you reach a Spanish speaking audience through authentic and creative paid social campaigns.
Reinvent Publicidad is a creative firm and paid media firm that assists businesses looking to establish their brand and pursue long-term growth. Since 2008, the advertising agency has worked with B2B and B2C companies from various industries in defining and strengthening their branding efforts.
Its focus on social media marketing and paid social ads, combined with comprehensive creative and editorial services in both English and Spanish, sets Reinvent Publicidad apart.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2012
Location: New Buffalo, Michigan, USA
Number of employees: 2 – 10
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Crane + Grey work is a great choice for nonprofits and foundations in the education, community, fitness, and mental health verticals.
It is an award-winning advertising agency specializing in market strategy and research and delivering paid media campaigns that reflect your brand story.
Unlike many paid media agencies, Crane + Grey takes a specialized approach to understand and share your vision through marketing, paid media, and brand strategy.
Crane + Grey works with foundations and nonprofits, using a combination of market analysis, carefully considered data, strategic planning, and creative, narrative-based strategies. The agency has a firm grasp on analysis and storytelling, enabling them to develop authentic paid media campaigns, and well targeted content and messaging to share your vision.
If you’re a cause-driven organization and need help telling your story and finding strategic ways to share that story, Crane + Grey is a good choice. Working with this agency, you can expect services like vision alignment, creative services, social media marketing, brand storytelling, and content creation for paid media campaigns that drive results.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 1997
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Number of employees: 11-50
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Firehouse is an award-winning advertising and media agency driven by the commitment to disrupt the existing paid media landscape, push the envelope of conventional wisdom, and show clients innovative strategies that speak to their values.
It’s crucial to elicit emotion from consumers for brands to succeed. Firehouse assists in giving brands purpose to achieve this from their customers. The professionals at Firehouse work with businesses to develop paid media campaigns, content creation strategies, SEO and SEM strategies, and brand architecture.
Mid-level to large enterprises would find the most value in working with this agency, and you can count on them to make an impact through unique paid media ads that put your business at the forefront of your market.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2004
Location: Los Angeles and New York, USA; Toronto, Canada; London, UK; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Berlin, Germany; and Shanghai, China
Number of employees: 501 – 1,000
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The concept behind bringing about change in the communication business is Anomaly. This advertising agency aims to bring a fresh, creative approach to marketing as a whole, helping businesses communicate their values and storytelling.
Since 2004, this agency has assisted numerous reputable companies, like Uber and Porsche, with finding the best solution for paid media advertising. The firm later received awards for its contributions over the years, including Fast Company’s Most Innovative Award and Ad Age’s 2017 Agency of the Year.
What’s special about this agency is its custom marketing model – the Anomaly model. This approach means this agency focuses on creating business solutions, not just paid ads. They operate on a progressive and entrepreneurial approach to break down traditional silos for paid advertising campaigns.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 1997
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Number of employees: 51 – 200
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With over two decades in the business, Karsh Hagan has worked with many admirable world-known brands like McDonald’s and Mountain Collective to go against traditional paid media practices. This agency delivers custom strategies based on your paid media goals, targeted audience, and brand.
Karsh Hagan is a renowned paid media agency in Colorado. This agency has helped many businesses in different industries leverage campaigns to multiply revenue and drive brand awareness. Karsh Hagan wants their clients to have a lasting influence on today’s world.
They want to help your business leave a mark through impactful paid advertising that reflects your values and connects with your audience. If an environmental or social cause drives your brand or paid media campaign, Karsh Hagan is the perfect agency to build and manage your strategy.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2001
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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On-Target is a marketing and advertising firm that prioritizes delivering outstanding results; thus, it believes in having imagination and strategies to evoke actions beyond conscious awareness. The ideal businesses for this agency are established brands looking for high-level paid media and marketing strategies.
With On-Target, businesses can take their marketing and paid media campaigns to the next level. Over the course of its 21-year existence, the firm has helped numerous companies from various industries expand by delivering a wide range of marketing solutions.
You can work with On-Target for media buying and planning, social media marketing, inbound marketing, paid media campaigns, and brand strategy. For its work creativity, On-Target has been honored as Houston Business Journal’s Top Ad Agency and one of Houston’s Fast 100 Fastest Growing Companies.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 1980
Location: Columbus, Ohio; and Miami, Florida, USA
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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Split Reef takes complete responsibility for digital requirements, enabling brands to focus on their primary activities. The advertising firm is committed to working strategically to help businesses reach new heights in the digital sphere through PPC campaigns, web development, digital marketing, and web design.
Split Reef is a cutting-edge, results-driven digital agency that will help your business establish and grow an online reputation. Professional developers and marketing specialists at the agency put in a lot of effort to provide clients with value-driven paid media campaigns to connect and convert their target audiences.
For brands that want paid media and development solutions, Split Reef is a top choice. You can work with this agency to design and develop websites, web applications, and so many more digital products.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2011
Location: Long Island, New York, USA
Number of employees: 2 – 10
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Through digital and traditional interactions, Fusing Marketing brings customers and businesses closer together. PPC ads are a focus area for Fusing Marketing, and the agency provides a wide range of tools and services to enable businesses to compete with other market sharks.
Fusing Marketing is one of the top paid media agencies in New York. The agency makes an effort to stay on the innovative side of the rapidly changing digital marketing industry. It provides businesses with custom strategies and solutions for SEO, social media, PPC ads, and digital campaigns.
You can also count on Fusing Marketing for web design and development services to accelerate your online presence. Adding credibility to this agency, they are Google Adwords, Certified Analytics, and Bing Ads partner.
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
Founded: 2017
Location: Miami, Florida, USA
Number of employees: 11 – 50
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Wegacha uses a creative marketing strategy to provide its clients with problem-solving solutions for paid ad campaigns. They vary from other marketing companies with their performance-driven, a-la-carte services and bespoke marketing strategies.
Wegacha is a well-known advertising and marketing firm in Miami. Businesses love it because they have digital-driven strategies for pretty much every online campaign. Whether you need an agency to develop custom paid media campaigns or accelerate your branding and SEO, Wegacha has what you need.
As if this agency couldn’t get any better, they’re also certified partners of Shopify, GoodFirms, and UpCity. E-commerce businesses and startups would find the most value in this paid media agency.
Paid media is an essential marketing practice to get your brand in front of targeted buyers and boost your sales. Paid media marketing agencies use channels like search engines, social platforms, YouTube, Amazon, and display advertising for paid media campaigns.
If you’re looking for a great paid media agency for your brand, consider any of the agencies we have reviewed here and start using paid ad campaigns that convert!
Paid media refers to the marketing practice of buying ad placements on various online and print media channels like search engines, social media, and print publications. Paid media ads can be any ad that is paid for, such as pay-per-click ads, branded content, display ads, video ads, and more. Read the full review to learn more about paid media and what it involves, as well as the top paid media agencies to consider.
Paid media agencies offer services that include paid media strategy, targeting, creative services, campaign configuration, tracking, reporting, analytics, and campaign optimization. Read this article for the top paid media agencies and a breakdown of the key paid media services they offer.
Yes, you do! Paid media agencies understand the best channels to use for maximum results. These agencies will do customer research and create audience-centric content, and manage your paid media campaigns from strategy to monitoring and optimization. Read the full review for the best paid media agencies to consider, the services they offer and why we think you should choose them.
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