The Digital Amplification Tactic That Should Be Part of Every Traditional PR Campaign

Calling all traditional PR pros. Remember that amazing client placement you wished every human on Earth could see? With the help of a content discovery platform, you can make that happen – even on a budget.

While not all PR pros are thinking about digital tactics for their next campaign (and vice versa), as a social/digital pro with roots in traditional PR, I’ve discovered a few scrappy tactics any PR team can plug into their next campaign – no extensive digital expertise needed. One of those is leveraging a content discovery tool like Outbrain or Taboola to amplify an earned media placement, increasing your impressions and expanding visibility on a national level.

Here’s how it works: plug in the online article you want to promote, craft 8-10 titles that you think will prompt people to click-through, and set your budget. The platform will then insert your article as a “Recommended Link” at the bottom of a news story on top publishers like CNN, Yahoo! and more, leveraging highly-trafficked media sites’ audiences to drive clicks to your earned placement.  

(Courtesy the Huffington Post)

 The best part? This tactic won’t break your budget. Amplification starts at around $1,000 per article. And since you only pay for the clicks you receive, your results will increase proportionally with your budget.

Three tips before getting started

1.       Don’t be afraid to optimize. It’s all about the title. If you’re not getting the clicks you want, don’t be afraid to test new titles and see what works best. You’ll be surprised by what might resonate best with consumers.

2.       It’s all about the CPC. Huh? That’s digital for cost-per-click. You’ll set this as part of your budget at the start of your campaign. A good starting point is around $.40 per click, but you can lower that as you see a title perform better than others. This will ultimately determine what kind of results you get for your budget.

3.       Watch your budget. Be sure to monitor your article’s performance closely so you can reduce a CPC if you see an article performing well. Additionally, if this amplification is something you want to sustain over a few weeks, be sure to watch your daily spending so you don’t blow through your budget in a few days. This can happen quickly if a title takes off.

Outbrain and Taboola have partnerships with different publishers, so I’d recommend reaching out to both for their publisher list before getting started. Yahoo! also recently entered the content discovery game with the announcement of its Yahoo Recommends service, although its platform seems a better fit for publishers versus brands.

Happy amplifying!