Paid media refers to any marketing activity where organisations pay to reach specific audiences across digital channels. In B2B, this often includes programmatic advertising, paid search, sponsored social, native placements, and retargeting. Paid media plays a critical role in scaling reach and ensuring key messages appear in front of high-value accounts at the right moment.
Effective paid media strategies combine audience insight, intent signals, and clear campaign objectives. Rather than relying on broad targeting, B2B marketers use firmographic, technographic, and behavioural data to reach decision-makers with precision. This ensures spend is aligned to ICP fit, buying stage, and business priorities, making paid channels a powerful lever for both demand creation and demand capture.
Paid media also supports measurement across the funnel. When integrated with analytics, attribution, and CRM data, it helps teams understand which channels influence pipeline, where budgets drive the strongest returns, and how to optimise creative and targeting over time.