Organic vs Paid Marketing: What Should You Choose?
Marketing
Are you torn between investing in organic or paid marketing for your business? This can be a difficult choice to make, especially since digital marketing is constantly changing.
Organic marketing focuses on building an audience naturally through content, while paid marketing uses paid ads to reach the same audience. When diving into marketing, it’s hard to tell which content strategy will yield better results. This indecision can lead to wasted resources, missed opportunities, and marketing stagnation.
But what if there was a way to help you simplify this choice? By comparing the pros and cons of both, you can choose the strategy that best fits your business goals. In this blog, we will explain these differences to help you decide which one you should choose between organic and paid marketing.
What is Organic Marketing?
Organic marketing attracts unpaid internet traffic to your social media page or website. It involves creating informative and value-based content that resonates with your target audience.
Here are some organic marketing examples:
- Guest Blogging
- Social Media Marketing
What is Paid Marketing?
As suggested by its name, paid marketing generates traction through paid advertisement. It involves sponsoring posts and ad banners for social media platforms. Another way is to buy clicks from platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
Here are some paid marketing examples:
- Facebook ads
- Instagram ads
- Podcast advertising
- Google ads
Organic and Paid Marketing: Key Differences
Sometimes, organic and paid marketing strategies target the same platforms. You can pay to place ads on search engines or social media, and you can also create organic SEO content on these platforms.
The two, however, differ in terms of the tactics employed. Here are four significant differences between organic and paid marketing:
Ranking Strategies: Paid Vs. SEO-driven
Organic marketing involves creating and publishing content on different channels. You can optimize it, so your target audience finds it without paid promotion. In other words, you don’t have to spend a dime to put this content in front of your target audience.
Paid marketing involves funding paid campaigns or sponsorships. They put ads in front of your target audience. These ads can promote just about anything from a blog post to a website, and from a landing page to a product page.
Further, you may have to pay for writers and designers. You’ll also need optimization tools and other resources to make the best content.
On the brighter side, many of these costs are one-time payments. Some organic tactics can keep driving traffic for a long time. They need little investment, at least compared to paid marketing.
Duration of Results
It may take months or even years, but your organic content will consistently climb the search rankings. The same applies to other free marketing channels. These include social media and music streaming. The longer duration is primarily because google promotes authoritative content, which takes time to build.
On the other hand, paid marketing yields faster, sometimes nearly instantaneous results.
Once you start a paid ad campaign, your ads can appear in front of your target audience right away. Yet, it’s not an instant result kind of approach. Paid marketing also involves a lot of trial and error.
Getting good results will take much consistency and patience.
How Long can Traffic be Sustained?
Organic marketing takes time to deliver results, but the results can last a long time. Organically generated visibility and traffic can last for months or years after publishing. This is especially true if you’re taking the time to update and optimize older content.
Sure, some paid tactics, like sponsored posts and videos can keep working after payment stops. However, paid ad campaigns only deliver results when you continue to fund them. When you stop funding your paid ads, they stop generating visibility and traffic.
Pro Tip: Even though organic marketing results can be long-lasting, they aren’t necessarily permanent.
Search engine rankings fluctuate regularly. Search algorithms also change periodically. These changes may affect rank in small or big ways.
So, it’s generally advisable to monitor your organic rankings. With data analysis, you can continuously adjust your content to meet with your audience’s needs.
Organic Marketing Benefits from the ‘Trust Factor’
Another difference between organic and paid marketing is trust.
When users find your content on their own, they may quickly trust its legitimacy and authority. If Google sees your content as valuable and relevant, chances are, the users will too.
But, when your content appears as a sponsored post or paid ad, some potential viewers might skip the content due to their skepticism.
These users can tell if the content is being promoted to sell them a product or service. So, they might not see it as unbiased or valuable to their search.
To differentiate between organic and paid content, platforms label paid marketing results as “Sponsored” or “Ad.”
For example, Google PPC ads have the “Sponsored” tag.
Organic search results, on the other hand, do not carry such a label.
Organic Marketing vs Paid Marketing: Which to Choose and When?
The decision to opt for organic or paid marketing depends on what your brand or client’s needs are. They are both authentic marketing strategies serving many purposes. However, they work best when combined.
Organic marketing, for instance, requires creating authoritative and high-quality content. This is a surefire way to acquire new leads and customers.
However, with paid marketing, you can run ads on platforms like Facebook, Quora, and Google. This will boost your high-ranking content and give you a further boost in reach.
Both organic and paid marketing are essential marketing strategies that are known to yield results. It is tough to differentiate between them as both strategies have their benefits. Brands must utilize more than one strategy to reach their target audience.
Do you also wonder when the best time to use either is?
When Should You Use Paid Marketing?
There is no right or wrong time to use paid advertising. In fact, at WrittenlyHub, we often suggest running multiple marketing strategies simultaneously to achieve the best result. However, if you can only commit to paid marketing at a time, you may consider going for it when:
- Your content directly and immediately answers potential search engine queries.
- You want to improve brand awareness and increase your visibility.
- You want to extend the reach of all your organic content.
- You want to target a specific audience who has previously shown interest in your content.
- Repurpose to amplify your high-performing existing organic content.
An example of a successful paid ad is Ralph Lauren’s ‘The Denim Edit’ campaign. The campaign showed RL’s new jeans, jackets, and shirts; it also featured branded videos on styling.
This strategy aimed to give more exposure to both products and branded content. The campaign integrated product promotion with captivating styling tutorials. It conveyed a complete brand story while maximizing cross-promotion.
Amazon is another example of a global brand whose success story relies on paid ads.
When Should You Use Organic Marketing?
You can opt for strategic organic marketing at any time. However, it is specifically recommended when you want to:
- Attract online traffic to your website and social media pages on a tight budget.
- Gradually and consistently build a connection that lasts a lifetime with your audience and turns them into paid customers someday.
- Build a loyal customer community by creating fun, educational, and shareable social media content.
- Create an audience that you can always target with paid ads.
Dollar Shave Club’s viral “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” trend is a thriving organic marketing example. Michael Dubin, the company’s founder, created the campaign to disrupt the shaving industry. It was also a chance to offer a cheaper alternative to expensive razors. The campaign recorded monumental success and propelled the brand to new heights.
Final Word
The choice to use organic or paid ads for your clients depends on their goals, budget, and target audience. The key is to understand each approach’s unique advantages and use them simultaneously to achieve your goals.
No digital marketing campaign is complete in the absence of a well-rounded organic marketing campaign. However, you need a lot of top-tier content to make your marketing work. This way, your brand’s visibility and reach increase, and you can target leads that will eventually convert into paying customers.
You can assemble a dream team of professional content writers if you sign up with WrittenlyHub today.
People Also Ask
1. Is organic marketing cheaper than paid marketing?
Yes, organic marketing is cheaper than paid ads regarding direct financial costs. You cannot put an exact price on organic marketing. This is because the cost depends on the quality of the organic marketing assets you choose to invest in.
The cost (and effectiveness) of organic marketing depends on how much expertise you dedicate to it.
However, paid marketing involves direct costs for ads. Whether it’s PPC (pay-per-click), social media ads, or other forms of online advertising, these costs can add up quickly, especially in competitive markets.
2. Can I measure the performance of organic marketing?
Yes, you can measure organic marketing. You can use metrics like traffic and conversion rates to measure content performance. People use tools like Google Analytics and social media analytics to track performance.
3. How do I strike a balance between marketing efforts?
Balancing efforts involves allocating resources based on your current goals. Typically, businesses start with paid marketing to drive initial traffic and lead. Afterward, they shift to organic marketing once it begins to yield results.
4. How long will it take to see the results of organic marketing?
Results from organic marketing typically take longer to reflect compared to paid marketing. It can take months to see major improvements in traffic and engagement. But the benefits often last longer.