There’s a saying that advertising is all about telling the world, ‘We’re great,’ while PR earns the recognition, ‘You’re great,’ from others.
In today’s fierce competition for eyeballs and attention, there’s an advantage to layering both advertising and public relations tactics in your communications strategy. At its core, great PR is about storytelling, and advertising can amplify stories that matter in front of the right people, ensuring your brand or organization’s voice is heard above the noise.
Advertising can act as a natural complement to PR in many ways, with different tactics and use cases depending on your goals. Keep reading to uncover how combining these strategies can enhance brand visibility, strengthen your message, and help you engage with your audience more effectively across various channels.
Boost PR Wins with Paid Media
Securing a media feature is a significant PR win, but it doesn’t have to end there. Once you’ve earned that coverage, leveraging advertising can amplify its impact. Sponsored posts on social platforms can help boost coverage, increasing the likelihood that key stakeholders see your media mention. Paid ads offer precise targeting, allowing you to either broaden visibility or focus on specific stakeholders to drive action.
With the power of paid media, your PR wins don’t just get noticed—they get shared with your target audience, leading to even greater engagement. Let’s dive into how combining these efforts can create a unified narrative.
Create a Unified Narrative
When paid ads and PR efforts are synchronized, they create a powerful, unified narrative. Think of PR as the story and paid ads as the megaphone that amplifies it. Using paid media alongside written content, like press releases or thought leadership articles, can significantly boost engagement.
Consider tactics like native advertising, which seamlessly blends your message into editorial content. This approach is highly effective in building credibility and fostering organic connections with your audience, making it a great PR counterpart.
Audience fatigue is a real challenge, which is why delivering your message across a mix of earned and paid channels—tailored to how your audience engages with each—helps keep your content fresh and impactful.
Promote Events and Opportunities
There’s significant effort that goes into planning the perfect event for your client, and you want to make sure the right stakeholders, community members and centers of influence attend. By using paid social, display ads, or paid search, you can target groups beyond your professional network with a likelihood to attend webinars, conferences, or other media events your team is planning. This adds an extra layer of visibility for your event and extends reach to audiences beyond your immediate circles that would be an asset in attendance.
Measure in Real Time
One of the biggest advantages of paid advertising is the ability to track and measure results in real-time. While PR is excellent for building awareness, lead generation campaigns thrive with advertising, offering valuable metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and behavior data.
These analytics reveal how your audience is engaging with your ads, allowing you to track their journey through the funnel, identify where they drop off, and understand which messages resonate most with your stakeholders.
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