It isn’t easy to decide whether you should invest in paid vs. organic search campaigns, but that’s why I’m here to help. Depending on your type of business and what your goals are will determine which strategy you should start with.
Learn the difference between these campaign types, and decide which is right for you.
Paid Campaigns
Anytime you search for something in a search engine (like Google), the results at the very top of the page are a result of paid advertisement. It’s one of the most popular forms of pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement, and when you see those ads, it means that a business made and paid for the ad to be displayed there.
Small, medium and large businesses all use these campaigns to get in front of their audience quickly. However, whether it’s right for you depends on a few things.
I Want Immediate Results
If you have a sale or want immediate results from your campaigns, a paid strategy could be right for you. You don’t have to wait for Google to crawl your site and display your products. Instead, you set up your Ad account, set the budget, launch, and you can see your ad that same day.
Organic campaigns take up to six months to see any results, so it’s not the right choice if you’re looking to visit your site on the first page today.
I Have a Very Niche Market
If you have a highly specific or niched audience, a paid campaign can help you reach them directly. Since you set the audience in paid campaigns, there’s no chance it will accidentally show up to the wrong people.
You control who sees your ads and how often they come across your content. This helps you save money on advertising to the wrong audience.
Ranking Is My Priority
If you have to rank at the top of the page immediately, you have to use paid advertisement. As long as you spend enough money, you can show up on the first page whenever someone searches.
Organic Campaigns
When you search on Google and get past the ads, you’re looking at organic results. That means the business put together this content with the words you searched in mind to get you to go to their site. Google does a great job of understanding the intent of the search and positioning websites that will meet those search needs.
You Want Consistent Results
The great thing about investing in organic campaigns, such as SEO, is that you will get consistent results for years to come. As long as you have a solid SEO plan and are continuously updating your site with SEO in mind, you can expect your site to rank in the long run. On average, 53% of website traffic overall comes from organic sources, and only 27% comes from paid.
You Want Website Authority
Website authority is necessary to show people that the information on your site is reliable and they can trust it. When you work with an SEO expert, they will help you create content and backlink to your site to improve your authority over time.
Improve Your Website
The only way to improve your website is by putting in the work. If you want people to see value in your site, you have to have content that relates to them and answers their questions.
Not only do you need to have this content, but you also need to create more of it consistently.
What’s Your Budget?
Now that you understand the benefits of paid and organic campaigns, the most significant factor in determining which is best for you is deciding what your budget is. If you have less than $1,000 per month to spend overall on your digital marketing, forget the idea of running paid campaigns.
Depending on what you sell, you should be spending at least $500 a month directly to Google to run the ads. If you’re in a competitive space, you’ll need to spend even more than that. Most agencies take a percentage of the ad spend to run the ads for you and even more to create the landing pages and set up the campaigns. Without these, there’s no point in running ads.
That’s why you should invest in organic if your budget is less than $1,000. You can create content that will make your site better over time, and once you make more money with it, you can save for paid campaigns in the future. If you do have more than $1,000, and your goals align with what paid provides, then contact an ads specialist to get started.
Paid vs. Organic: Make Your Choice Today
My general advice to everyone looking at paid vs. organic campaigns is to start with organic as soon as your website is live. Work with an SEO specialist so they can set the foundation of your website up for success and start creating compelling content right away.
It only takes a few hours a month to start seeing results from your work, and when you’re ready to really see some changes, increase your SEO activities.
Once you start making money from your site, reinvest that money in SEM campaigns to see it grow even more.
If you’re ready to start making money off your website, contact me today! I would love to help you optimize your website and help you start ranking for searches that matter to you.