If you’re also at a crossroads if you’re going to use paid marketing or organic marketing for your business, this one is for you!
But what’s the difference between paid marketing and organic marketing? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Let’s dig in!
Organic marketing is attracting traffic to a website without using paid advertising. It commonly involves creating and distributing valuable content to attract an audience—otherwise known as content marketing. Text, photo, and video content is distributed via organic email and social media channels.
Organic traffic can take longer to build up, but once you start seeing results, it can be a sustainable traffic source over time. Organic traffic refers to the visitors who visit your website through non-paid search engine results. Optimizing your website for search engines, creating quality content, and building backlinks can increase your organic search rankings and attract more visitors.
The most apparent benefit of organic marketing through social media is that it’s free. There is no money down on the table for your business. Organic traffic is also more likely to convert than paid traffic. People who find your business organically may be further along in the buyer’s journey. They’re actively searching for information about your company, product, or service, making it more sustainable in the long run. Once you build a following, you’ll continue to get organic traffic as long as you maintain the quality of your content.
However, organic traffic can take much work to build. One of the most significant drawbacks of relying on organic social media content is that it takes time to create quality content and build a following. To get the most out of organic social media content, you must pair it with investing time and resources into search engine optimization (SEO). It includes keyword research, on-page and off-page optimization, pixel retargeting, and link building. Note that the same principles that make your content valuable to search engines also make it useful on social media, which drives more traffic to your site and signals to search engines that your content is valuable.
So, the first step to creating an organic marketing strategy is to be clear about whom you want to consume your content.
Meanwhile, paid marketing is the process of attracting traffic from paid advertising. It commonly involves buying clicks from platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter, sponsored posts, and banner ads.
One of the most significant advantages of using paid ads is that they can quickly provide results. Unlike building followers through creating content and relying on SEO, which can take months to bring results, you can start seeing traffic from your paid ads almost immediately. Customers like and respond well to them: especially social ads that feel native to the social media feed.
Facebook advertising has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last few years and has many options for detailed audience targeting. People like seeing ads targeted to their interests and are likelier to click on them. Also, you can track and measure the results of paid advertising. When running a paid ad campaign, you can track how many people are seeing your ad, how many are clicking on it, and what they do after they click through to your website. This information is invaluable in helping you to fine-tune your marketing strategy and optimize your campaigns.
However, one of the most significant drawbacks of using paid ads is that they can be costly, especially in a competitive market. The cost-per-click (CPC) can be high. You should also spend much money on your ad campaign before seeing results. Also, it’s not a 1-and-done system. Movements must be constantly monitored and adjusted to be effective. Yet for some people, paid ads are disruptive and annoying, which can be seen as spam, and some may be less likely to trust your brand.
Both organic and paid marketing have their advantages and disadvantages. Determining which is better depends on your specific goals, budget, and circumstances. They’re both legitimate marketing strategies that can be used for different purposes. However, organic and paid advertising is most effective when used together.