Paid Ads vs. Organic Reach: Why Your Business Needs Both
Paid Ads vs. Organic Reach: Why Your Business Needs Both
Understanding the pros and cons of both organic and paid marketing will help you determine the best marketing strategy for your business.
WHAT IS ORGANIC MARKETING
Organic marketing is all about getting your message in front of people naturally, without paying for advertising. It's like growing a garden without any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides – you rely on the natural elements to nurture your plants and help them flourish.
Similarly, with organic marketing, you're relying on things like social media, content marketing, SEO, and word-of-mouth to promote your brand and attract customers.
Instead of paying for ads that interrupt people's browsing experience, you're creating content that people actually want to see and engaging with them on a personal level.
WHAT IS PAID MARKETING
Paid marketing, also known as paid advertising or pay-per-click (PPC), is the practice of paying to promote your products or services. It's like renting a billboard or buying an ad in the newspaper – you're paying for the space to display your message.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ORGANIC MARKETING
One of the benefits of organic marketing is that it can be more cost-effective than paid advertising, especially for small businesses or startups with limited budgets. By creating valuable content that resonates with your target audience, you can build trust and authority in your industry, which can lead to increased brand awareness, website traffic, and ultimately, sales.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PAID MARKETING
One of the key benefits of paid marketing is that it allows you to reach a larger audience quickly and effectively. With paid advertising, you can target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors to ensure that your ads are being seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. This can help you get more visibility for your brand and generate more leads and sales.
Another benefit of paid marketing is that it's highly measurable and allows you to track your results in real-time. You can see how many people are clicking on your ads, how many are converting into customers, and how much revenue you're generating from your ad spend. This allows you to optimize your campaigns and make data-driven decisions about where to allocate your advertising budget.
WHAT ARE THE CONS OF ORGANIC MARKETING
While organic marketing can be a highly effective way to build your brand and attract customers, it's important to acknowledge that it does have its limitations and drawbacks. Here are some potential cons of organic marketing:
Time-consuming: Organic marketing can be a time-consuming process that requires consistent effort and patience. Building a strong social media following, creating high-quality content, and optimizing your website for SEO can take months or even years to yield significant results. If you're looking for a quick boost in traffic or sales, organic marketing may not be the best option.
Limited reach: Organic marketing efforts are dependent on algorithms and the preferences of your audience. This means that your content may not always reach the widest possible audience. Even if you have a large social media following or a high-ranking website, there's no guarantee that your content will be seen by everyone in your target audience.
Fluctuating algorithms: Social media algorithms, search engine algorithms, and other factors that impact organic reach can change at any time. This can make it difficult to predict and optimize your organic marketing efforts, and can lead to fluctuations in your website traffic or social media engagement.
Dependence on external factors: Organic marketing efforts can also be impacted by external factors such as changes in consumer behavior, shifts in industry trends, or the emergence of new competitors. This means that even if you have a solid organic marketing strategy in place, you may still be vulnerable to external factors that are beyond your control.
WHAT ARE THE CONS OF PAID MARKETING
Paid marketing can be an effective way to quickly boost your visibility and reach your target audience, but it also has its limitations and drawbacks. Here are some potential cons of paid marketing:
Cost: As the name suggests, paid marketing requires a financial investment, which can be a significant expense for businesses with limited budgets. The cost of paid advertising varies widely depending on the platform, target audience, and other factors, so it's important to carefully consider your options and set a budget that aligns with your business goals.
Competition: With paid marketing, you're competing against other businesses for the attention of your target audience. This means that you may need to invest more money to stand out from your competitors, especially in highly competitive industries.
Ad fatigue: If your target audience sees your ads too frequently, they may become fatigued or annoyed with your brand, leading to a decrease in engagement or even a negative association with your products or services. This can be especially problematic if you're using retargeting ads or other types of ads that follow users around the web.
Limited lifespan: Paid advertising typically has a limited lifespan, meaning that once your ad campaign is over, your visibility and reach may decrease unless you continue to invest in paid marketing. This can be a challenge for businesses that are looking for long-term, sustainable growth.
WHY YOU NEED BOTH IN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
Businesses should use both a paid and an organic marketing strategy to achieve the best possible results and maximize their marketing efforts. Here are a few reasons why:
Increased visibility: Using both paid and organic marketing allows you to increase your brand's visibility across multiple channels. With paid marketing, you can quickly reach a large audience and generate immediate results. With organic marketing, you can build long-term visibility and credibility through high-quality content, social media engagement, and search engine optimization.
Diversification: By diversifying your marketing efforts, you can reduce the risks associated with relying too heavily on any one channel. For example, if your paid advertising campaign suddenly becomes less effective, you can rely on your organic efforts to maintain your visibility and reach.
Cost-efficiency: While paid marketing can be expensive, it can also be highly targeted and efficient when done correctly. By targeting your ads to specific audiences, you can minimize wasted ad spend and achieve a higher return on investment. Organic marketing, on the other hand, can be a cost-efficient way to build your brand over time and generate long-term results.
Complementary benefits: Paid and organic marketing each have their own unique benefits. Paid marketing can be used to quickly generate traffic and sales, while organic marketing can be used to build trust, authority, and long-term customer relationships. By using both strategies in tandem, you can achieve a more well-rounded marketing approach that leverages the strengths of each method.
Think of it like a balanced diet – just as we need a mix of fruits, vegetables, protein, and carbohydrates to nourish our bodies, businesses need a mix of organic and paid marketing to nourish their brand and drive growth.
Organic marketing is like the fruits and vegetables – it's essential for providing a solid foundation for your business. By creating valuable content, engaging with your audience, and optimizing your website for SEO, you can build trust, authority, and visibility in your industry. This organic approach can help you attract customers who are genuinely interested in your products or services, and create a loyal fan base who will help promote your brand to others.
On the other hand, paid marketing is like the protein and carbohydrates – it provides a quick energy boost to help you achieve your goals more efficiently. By using paid advertising, you can target specific audiences, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads and sales. This approach can help you reach people who may not have discovered your brand through organic efforts alone, and provide a quick return on investment.
By combining both organic and paid marketing strategies, you can create a well-rounded approach that addresses different aspects of your business goals. For example, you might use organic marketing to build brand awareness and credibility, while using paid advertising to drive more traffic and sales to your website. This integrated approach can help you get the best of both worlds and maximize your marketing efforts.
Overall, using both a paid and an organic marketing strategy can help businesses achieve greater visibility, diversify their marketing efforts, achieve cost-efficiency, and leverage the unique benefits of each approach to achieve their marketing goals.
Over the past couple of years, I have spoken to a lot of small business owners who say that they can’t afford to hire an ad agency to do ads for them so they are either not going to bother or try to figure it out themselves… both are BAD ideas!
If you try to DIY them yourself without knowing the foundations and exactly how to do it, you will waste a lot of time and money.
If you don’t bother doing them at all, your business will only grow so far with organic marketing.
I’ve created a free training called ‘How to Run Your Own Hugely Pay Per Click™ Ads (Easily – I Promise!) and Skip Forking Over Thousands to Ad Agencies.’
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Let’s talk a bit about Secret #1 - How to Master the #1 Secret to Skyrocket Your Sales (That Even Some of the 'Big Guys' Miss Out On!)
You've heard through the online 'grapevine' that Facebook™ ads are too expensive for the return you get but here is why that is wrong. A lot of people who try to DIY their own ads have not put a marketing strategy in place first so they aren't targeting the right audience or sending the right message about their products or services which drives the cost of leads up.
This brings me to a story where my daughter decided she wanted to learn how to bake Chocolate Chip Banana Bread by herself. I got out the recipe book and told her to gather all the ingredients and utensils BEFORE she started... that way she wouldn't be scrambling to get them at the same time as making the recipe and risk missing an important ingredient. I also told her to put the ingredients back as she used them so she would be more organized and it would be less confusing.
Now, my husband took it upon himself to make some homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies one day. He told me he knew what he was doing so I went down to my office to finish up some work. The next I know, I hear some banging around and some fairly colorful language coming from the kitchen.
I went upstairs to see what was happening. Well, he hadn't gathered all the ingredients before starting the recipe and he couldn't find a couple of the major ingredients needed. After I found them for him I went back to my office and he finished the cookies with no more problems. Until he took them out of the oven. They did not flatten out and although they were edible they were very cakey. He had put the butter in the microwave to melt and then forgot to add it to the cookie mixture!
So basically, not having the right marketing strategy is a lot like 'baking a cake (or in this case banana bread and cookies) without all the ingredients' – really it's more about not having the right recipe. Which leads to using the wrong ingredients in the wrong way in the wrong amounts. And if someone didn't know any better they'd think, "Ugh, cookies are too hard to make and they don't come out that great anyway." Now, obviously, we know that it is possible to make great cookies, but this is what people do with their marketing every day: they use the wrong ingredients in the wrong order with the wrong amounts and then when they get crummy results, decide that marketing 'doesn't work.' But it's not the marketing that doesn't work, it's the fact that they haven't been using the right recipe to begin with.
Instead, here is what you are going to do... you're going to easily learn the step-by-step 'ingredients' needed in ad campaigns that the larger agencies use so you will start off with everything you need BEFORE you put any money towards ad spend.
It's about learning the foundations FIRST so you start off with the right pieces in place before you go any further.
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It’s time to take control of your business and invest in ads… and you can do it successfully AND save money!
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