When it comes to thought leadership, paid placements are often go-to tools. A well-placed thought leadership piece can help an executive position themselves as a subject-matter expert in their industry.

However, media placement opportunities have changed dramatically. Many outlets have adopted the pay-to-play model. PR professionals should consider several factors before pursuing a paid placement opportunity for clients. Here are a few questions to ask.

What are your clients’ goals? 

You should understand what your clients are trying to achieve with their PR efforts. Is it to grow a customer base? Launch a new product? Position themselves as thought leaders? Whatever it may be, make sure the paid opportunity will help your client achieve their specific goals.

For example, if your client wants to broaden its audience in the human resources industry, pursuing paid opportunities with HR and business publications offers the chance for your client’s thought leadership, services and products to reach new, relevant audiences.

What audiences is your client trying to reach?

When considering a paid placement, it’s critical to thoroughly research the publication. Who is its target audience? How many unique monthly visitors does the platform receive? What is its domain authority (DA)? Where is the content shared (e.g., website, social media, blog, e-newsletters, etc.)?

If your client’s services, products or content does not reach a significant and relevant audience, the return on investment for a paid placement may be low.

Is the content original?

Ensure your investment in paid placements is worth the time, money and resources. The content should be unlike anything that’s been published. Originality ensures audience engagement.

For example, an article on remote work during COVID-19 likely won’t warrant much engagement; the topic has been thoroughly covered over the past two years. When developing content for paid placements (or any placement), it’s critical that it offers a new perspective on a relevant and timely topic.

Is now the right time to publish?

With any placement, timing and alignment with client’s goals are critical. For example, if you’re developing an article targeting the manufacturing industry while your client is focused on accounting services, it may not be the right time to share the content. Instead, save the manufacturing article for when it is a focus of your client’s.

Content should reinforce a client’s current efforts. Big announcements or product launches can be perfect opportunities to leverage paid placements. They can increase your client’s visibility and help introduce their products or services to a new audience.

Do you know the outlet’s key performance metrics?

Measuring the ROI for any paid placement is essential. To do this, you must have access to key metrics about how a placement performed, including views, time spent on the page, link clicks, link shares, etc. Unfortunately, some outlets don’t share this information.

If you don’t have access to metrics, it’s difficult to know if your time, money and resources were smart investments. Access to this information can also help you better tailor future content to target audiences and determine if you want to work with the publication again.

Can content be used again?

Some outlets accept syndicated content, allowing you to reuse existing content. You want to ensure, however, that the paid opportunity allows you to do this.

Even if the publication doesn’t allow it, it’s possible to reuse the content in other ways. For example, the paid placement could be included in a company newsletter that reaches customers who may not follow the publication where it was initially shared. The content could also be shared on social media platforms with links to the original post, or as blurbs or tweets that highlight its main arguments or findings. Content can be repurposed in many ways to maximize the time and effort that went into its development.

Your next paid placement opportunity

Paid opportunities can be powerful ways to highlight your client. But before jumping at them, make sure they reach the right audiences, align with your client’s goals and position your clients as influential thought leaders within their industry.