As a business owner or marketer, you have probably heard that advertising is crucial to the success of your business. However, have you considered the two different types of advertising: paid and organic? While both are valuable in their own right, it’s important to understand the differences between them and how they can benefit your business.
What are Paid Ads?
Paid ads are a form of digital advertising where businesses pay to display their ads to potential customers. These ads can appear on various online platforms such as search engines (e.g. Google), social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn), video-sharing sites (e.g. YouTube), and other websites.
These types of ads offer an immediate flow of traffic and leads, which can be incredibly valuable for businesses looking to generate quick results. However, paid ads can require a significant investment in monthly ad spend to achieve these results, especially depending on your business’s niche.
Additionally, paid ads require constant spending to maintain traffic and leads. Once you turn off the faucet, the leads will stop flowing. This is why it’s important to have a consistent budget for your paid advertising efforts to ensure they continue to produce results.
What is Organic Marketing?
On the other hand, organic marketing includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media posting, and content creation such as videos, blogs, and podcasts. While organic marketing may not provide the immediate results of paid ads, it is a long-term growth strategy that can continue to drive traffic to your business even if you take a break from it.
Organic marketing is also an excellent way to educate your audience, build a community, and position yourself as an authority in your industry. This can help you achieve goals like growing traffic to your website, informing prospective clients so they can make educated buying decisions, and building trust in your brand.
Paid Ads vs Organic Marketing
While both paid and organic advertising have their benefits, a good marketing strategy places equal emphasis on both methods. However, if you’re just getting started or don’t have a large budget for advertising, it’s best to focus on organic marketing first.
The easiest way to get started with organic marketing is to create content on your website, such as blog posts, videos, or podcasts. From there, you can create social media posts that link back to your website content, which will drive traffic to your website from social media platforms.
This method lends itself very well to traditional word of mouth and direct outreach marketing, which prioritize building relationships and opening lines of communication with your target audience.
Once you’ve built up a healthy flow of organic leads, you can start to invest in paid advertising to enhance your efforts. By utilizing both paid and organic advertising methods, you can achieve a more comprehensive marketing strategy that produces long-term results.
Consistency is key
Ultimately, the key to a successful marketing strategy is consistency. Whether you’re focusing on paid or organic advertising, it’s important to have a consistent budget and effort to ensure that you continue to produce results.
The goal should be to increase the number of touch points with your prospective clients. This will ensure that you stay top of mind and are not just an afterthought. There is no such thing as too much exposure!
In conclusion, paid and organic advertising both have their advantages and can benefit your business in different ways. While paid advertising offers quick results, it requires a significant investment and constant spending to maintain its effectiveness. Organic marketing, on the other hand, is a long-term growth strategy that can continue to drive traffic to your business even if you take a break from it. By utilizing both methods and having a consistent marketing strategy, you can achieve long-term success for your business.
