Benefits of Organic Marketing Vs Paid Marketing

To create the perfect marketing campaign takes a mixture of educated projections based on analysing metrics, trial and error, experience, and a collaborative approach that exhausts the very best of every avenue. This means thoroughly understanding the benefits of both organic and paid marketing, and leveraging them so that they work together in tandem. To do this, you need to comprehensively understand how each method works, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about today.

What is organic marketing?

Organic marketing, also known as inbound marketing, is the art of building an audience, improving brand awareness, boosting site traffic, and attracting new customers to your business without having to pay for it. There are no ads or sponsorships; it’s about generating content, both on social media and on your website, that users will naturally come across and want to interact with.

There are several ways you can do organic marketing, with blog post creation being just one. You have unlimited and unrestricted potential to create as much organic content as you want. Ideally, if you’re looking to rank organically on SERPs, you need to be updating content on your website every week, and social media follows the same format. You don’t want to over-post and drive people away, but you want to be posting enough new content to keep your profile in the feed and relevant. 

Organic marketing is more of a long-ball game and can take a while to perfect, but it can be highly rewarding to get to the coveted top three positions. According to a study published by Sistrix, the first organic search result (the first Google result that isn’t an ad), receives an average click through rate (CTR) of 28.5%. The second result gets around 15% of the CTR, and the third result gets approximately 11%. Generally speaking, organic results generate more traffic than paid results, so it’s worth the time and effort to try and bump yourself up the rankings organically.

What is paid marketing?

Paid marketing is the opposite of organic marketing – it involves paying money in return for ad space or sponsorships. There are several ways you can do this, including on Google Ads, through influencer marketing, or promoting a social media post so that it appears on more people’s timelines. Paid marketing is a great way to get your brand in front of people quickly, and can be an effective method of generating near immediate returns on your ad spend (ROAS). 

“Paid social/paid search marketing is typically every business’ first choice when it comes to investing in marketing. Paid marketing is a great way to reach your target audience fast and generate faster results. It’s an absolute must for start-ups or smaller businesses. 

“Firstly, it’s important to choose the right platform for your business. If, for example, you are selling pet accessories directly to the end consumer, you would want to focus on Google or Facebook marketing. However, if you want to find partners to sell your products, you may want to consider LinkedIn marketing. 

“Secondly, you need to define your personas and target audience, and lastly, create appealing visual and written content that stands out. It’s important to remember that the ultimate success of a paid campaign is always interrelated with organic marketing, such as SEO or organic social posts, as it builds trust and shows relevancy to the algorithm of the respective platform.”

• Iva Ivanova, The Brains PPC specialist

Paid marketing can be used by almost every type of business, but it’s more popular with eCommerce businesses and those with products to sell online. When it comes to where both stand on SERPs, if you were to search for ‘holidays to Spain’, the first four results on Google will be ads, i.e. businesses that have paid to be there, and they will be charged every time someone clicks on their link. 

Ads are clearly marked with an ‘Ad’ label, but they are a good way to ensure your business is on the first page of search results. We know the value in being on the first page – Ahrefs reported that just 0.78% of Google users venture onto the second page. If you’re not ranking organically yet, paid marketing can help you get on the coveted first page – and fast.

What are the benefits of organic marketing and paid marketing?

So now we’re clear on what organic and paid marketing are and what each brings to the table, what are the unique benefits of each? Many marketers make the mistake of assuming they need to pick one or the other for their marketing campaigns, but this isn’t the case. Each offers its own advantages which, when played off the strong points of the other, can skyrocket your digital presence. So, what are those advantages?

Organic marketing advantages 

Starting with organic marketing, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s a long game and can take a few months for results to trickle in, but when they do, you’re sure to reap the rewards. 

• Build credibility

One of the main benefits of organic marketing is that it builds credibility for your brand. Whilst paid ads generate a decent CTR, many users skip over them and instead click on the first few organic search results. This is because, when you’re not paying for a spot, users will see your content as the most relevant and genuine in relation to their query, making them trust your brand more and therefore more likely to engage and interact with you. 

It’s not just users who see organic content as credible, though; Google itself rewards sites that rank organically with better SERP positioning. Google will trust your site more as your ranking increases, making it slightly easier for you to rank for newer content and benefiting you further in the long run.

• Save money 

Because organic marketing is largely free, it’s a good resource for businesses that need to save money or that don’t have a huge marketing resource at their disposal. The results can still be lucrative (as mentioned with the CTR figures earlier), you just need to have a good strategy in place and be prepared to do your research in order to determine the right way forward.

A good example is Ryanair. They have taken advantage of organic marketing on TikTok, generating millions of followers and thrice more views on the content they produce – most of which doesn’t cost them anything more than their social media executive’s salary. The same can happen with small brands; one viral organic post and you could find yourself with unforeseen brand exposure and awareness – all for free. 

• Increase customer loyalty 

When you convert leads organically, you know that you’ve done so because people see something in your brand that they like, but that doesn’t mean you can stop putting in effort. Organic content helps you retain a loyal customer base by reminding them that you’re still there. You also have the opportunity to engage directly with your audience underneath organic posts, such as replying to reviews, answering comments on articles, and responding to feedback on social media. You can really diversify your customer service and bolster your relationship using organic marketing in a way that isn’t offered through paid content. 

Benefits of paid marketing 

So, organic marketing offers lots of benefits, but it’s best complemented by paid marketing. To highlight how, here are some of the key benefits of paid marketing:

• Attract new leads 

One of the main benefits of paid marketing is that it creates increased lead generation in a very short timeframe. Unlike organic marketing which can take a while to materialise, paid marketing can give you access to new leads in a pinch by putting your brand directly in the line of sight of consumers. If your customer journey is good, you should find that leads turn into conversions. Once you hook users in with paid, you can supplement them and keep them sweet with organic.

Alternatively, if users were sucked in via organic content, they may be more inclined to trust your brand as an ad, so your CTR for Google Ads could increase as a result. 

• Get instant results 

If you’re a new business looking to establish yourself, you’ll likely want to get your name out there, and fast. As mentioned, organic marketing can take a while to come into fruition, but paid marketing can be instantaneous. If you have a new campaign going live or are looking to amplify your digital presence quickly, paid marketing can give you the headstart you need.

• Reduce irrelevant traffic 

One of the big issues for marketers looking at organic stats is that there’s not much you can do to filter who comes through the search funnel, meaning you might find you’re getting a lot of irrelevant traffic. This can skew your figures for things like bounce rate and geographical demographics.

Paid marketing is very targeted and precise, giving you greater control over who sees your content. Because you can set ads for specific locations and analyse the demographics in more detail, you can get a much better insight into who is consuming your content and who is converting. This can inform your wider marketing campaign, proving invaluable for businesses of all types looking to hone in on and connect with their audience.

Final thoughts

Organic and paid marketing are the backbone of every digital marketing campaign and neither are as successful alone as they are together. By understanding what each has to offer, you can better assess your plan of action and define uniform strategies across all your media channels, including social media and SEO. 

If you need help unifying your organic or paid marketing, we can help. We can also provide expert advice if you’re unsure about either approach. Simply get in touch with us to find out more.