Why You May Need a Content Calendar For Paid Campaigns

If you create content, you need a content calendar. I know—not an earth-shattering revelation!

What about a calendar specifically for your paid content?

Should it be part of your regular editorial calendar? A separate calendar? Do you even need a paid content calendar?

The answer to the first two questions is: How you structure your marketing calendar is up to you and your company’s needs.

The answer to the third question is: almost definitely.

Read on to learn what a paid content calendar is, why you should consider having one, and which tools we recommend for creating your own.

What Is a Paid Content Calendar?

It may seem self-explanatory: A paid content calendar is a calendar you use to plan for paid content, right?

Well, it’s a little more complicated than that because paid content works differently than other types of content.

It’s usually more direct and sales-oriented than other kinds, and unlike your other content, which is likely owned (even if it does end up also being earned), it can exist on multiple platforms.

A content calendar for paid ads doesn’t strictly plan what you want to post; it plans when and where you want to post it, as well as how much you want to spend doing so.

What’s the Difference Between a Blog Content Calendar and an Ad Content Calendar?

A blog content calendar is for owned media, specifically on a blog, while an ad content calendar is for paid content.

Your blog content calendar likely goes through a somewhat lengthy process from start to finish, starting with initial information gathering, going through researchers, writers, and editors, being published, having quality assurance checks, and so on.

A paid content calendar focuses more strictly on the buyer’s journey with the goal of making sales. It’s the schedule you follow when you plan to get information directly in front of people.

Sometimes these two types are on the same calendar; sometimes, they’re separate. It depends on what you want them to do.

5 Reasons to Use a Content Calendar for Paid Ad Campaigns

Using a paid content calendar is a good idea for many companies, whether it’s connected to or separate from their regular content calendars. Here are five reasons why.

1. Pre-Plan Your Entire Ad Campaign

You can use a paid content calendar not only to determine dates and times but also to finalize where you’ll post your ads and what they’ll say.

For instance, Hootsuite does this (with Google Sheets) when planning its social media campaigns and determining what topic, site, copy, and link to use when it’s ready for the ads to go live.