What Is the Purpose of an Owned Media? Benefits of Operating One and the Way of Thinking About KPI Design

"We started an owned media for now, but we don't know what to aim for"—not a few companies have this worry. If an owned media is operated without a clear purpose, it tends to fall into a state where costs pile up but no results come out. This article organizes what the purpose of operating an owned media is, then clearly explains the benefits gained and the way of thinking about KPI design for visualizing results.

What Is an Owned Media?

An owned media is, literally, a medium that your own company owns and operates. Broadly, it refers to all media you can control yourself, such as websites, pamphlets, and DMs, but in recent years it is mostly used to refer to a "web medium that utilizes article-type content." This article also explains it in this sense.

Whereas SNS and web ads must keep putting out new information, an owned media is characterized by enabling "waiting" customer acquisition through search traffic. Being able to gather prospects without spending ad money and accumulate them as your company's asset is the reason many companies pay attention to it.

What Is the Purpose of an Owned Media?

The purposes of operating an owned media vary by company, but broadly organized, they converge into the following three. Clarifying which one your company makes the main purpose is the first step to operational success.

1. Customer Acquisition / Lead Generation

The most common purpose is acquiring prospects (leads) through search traffic. By publishing content that answers users' worries and questions and increasing organic traffic from search, you connect to results such as inquiries and document downloads. The major appeal is being able to attract customers without continuously paying costs like with ads.

2. Branding / Awareness Improvement

This is the purpose of raising awareness within the industry and improving brand image by continuously publishing your company's expertise and values. If you can gain the recall of "this company for this field," it leads to differentiation from competitors and trust-building.

3. Recruitment / Fan Nurturing

It is also used for purposes like conveying company culture and the appeal of the people who work there as recruitment PR, or deepening relationships with existing prospects to raise purchase intent (nurturing). It's important to design it not as a mere information medium, but as a place that nurtures interest in your company while solving users' problems.

If operated with a vague purpose, the direction of measures and content won't settle, and only costs swell. Putting "what we operate it for" into words first is the dividing line for success.

Benefits of Operating an Owned Media

Considering the purposes, you can see that operating an owned media has the following benefits.

• Attract customers without ad spend: Customer acquisition through search traffic generates continuous access once you rank highly. Costs to keep running ads are unnecessary.
• Content accumulates as an asset: Published articles remain without disappearing and keep generating PV and results over the long term. There is a tendency for results to grow in proportion to the number of articles.
• Enables branding and differentiation: By publishing information yourself, you show expertise and can raise the company's value and image.
• Maintain continuous touchpoints with prospects: With content matched to the user's consideration stage, you can deepen the relationship and guide them toward purchase.

However, these benefits are obtained when it is designed correctly and operated systematically along a strategy. You need to be prepared in advance that it takes time for results to appear, and that resources to keep producing quality content continuously are also required.

KGI and KPI to Know Before KPI Design

To visualize an owned media's results and run the PDCA cycle, appropriate KPI design is indispensable. As a premise, let's grasp the difference between KGI and KPI.

• KGI (Key Goal Indicator): Refers to the final goal of a business or project. For an owned media, things like "annual number of leads" or "sales contribution amount" fall under this.
• KPI (Key Performance Indicator): An intermediate goal for achieving the KGI. Set by breaking down the KGI, it becomes a guidepost for daily action.

In other words, the basic order is to decide the goal you ultimately want to achieve (KGI), then break it down and reduce it to intermediate goals (KPI). It's the same way of thinking as setting work goals, like "acquire 10 new customers (KPI) in order to increase sales by 100,000 yen (KGI)."

The Way of Thinking About Owned Media KPI Design

Let's introduce three basic ways of thinking to keep in mind when designing KPIs.

1. Build a KPI Tree by Working Backward from the KGI

It's risky to suddenly decide a KPI like "aim for 1 million monthly PV." If "why PV" and "what that PV is for" are vague, achieving it won't lead to results. By first setting the KGI as the final goal and designing in the form of a "KPI tree" that branches out the necessary metrics from the top down, the meaning of each metric becomes clear.

2. Choose Metrics Along the Customer Journey

Choosing KPIs to match the user's psychological stage allows for design without inconsistency. For example, at the acquisition stage, things like target keyword search rankings, PV, UU, and SNS shares are candidates; at the fan-building and consideration stages, metrics measuring engagement, the number of arrivals at specific pages, and conversions become candidates.

Representative KPIs include PV, UU, sessions, average search ranking, read-through rate, page-circulation rate, arrivals at specific pages, CVR, CPA, and number of published articles. Depending on the purpose, you combine these to set evaluation criteria.

3. Confirm Feasibility with the SMART Principle

To confirm whether the KPIs you set are appropriate, the "SMART" perspective is useful. Check whether they satisfy the five: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. In particular, whether it is an "achievable" goal based on past data and resources is important. Unrealistic goals invite team burnout and measure mistakes.

KPIs Change with the Operating Phase

An owned media is a measure that requires long-term stamina, like a marathon. Therefore, the KPIs to focus on also change depending on the operating phase.

• Launch phase: The period around launch. Rather than concrete numerical targets, it's realistic to center on "action goals" such as building the operating structure and the number of published articles.
• Growth phase: Once a certain amount of content has accumulated, you pursue "acquisition" metrics such as PV, UU, and search ranking.
• Maturity / improvement phase: Once acquisition stabilizes, you shift weight toward metrics directly tied to "results," such as CVR and number of leads.

Rather than trying to set perfect KPIs from the start, the attitude of revising them in response to phase changes is the knack for continuing operation over the long term.

Conclusion

The purpose of an owned media can be broadly organized into three: "customer acquisition / lead generation," "branding / awareness improvement," and "recruitment / fan nurturing." While there are benefits such as attracting customers without ad spend and content accumulating as an asset, results require time and resources. And to visualize results, it's indispensable to design a KPI tree by working backward from the KGI and to choose metrics based on the customer journey and the SMART principle. While revising KPIs according to the operating phase, keep up strategic media operation aligned with your purpose.