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Organic content, paid ads, search engine optimization (SEO), are all tools in the modern-day marketer's toolbox. They each provide value in different ways. They each have different definitions of success; therefore, they shouldn't be confused. The winning recipe is like a full drill-bit set - you have the right tool for the right situation.
In today's article, we're going to explain paid ads, SEO, and organic content by looking at how they differ and what the goal of each is.
Use organic content to build brand awareness and provide your target market with genuine value. Create content they actually want to consume. This builds trust and connection.
Then introduce paid ads. Let the ad be the “ask.” By having strong organic content, you will drive down the cost of your ads since you’ve already established a warm connection with the target market.
Finally, make sure your SEO is decent so that when they type your name into Google, you show up right away.
Congratulations, you just converted a customer. Yay. Money.
Similarities
Differences
If I were to use the good old marketing funnel analogy, I’d say that organic content should be at the top of your funnel. This changed around 2020 with the "TikTokification" of social media. Platforms used to use a social-graph-based algorithm, meaning they showed your content to the people you follow. Nowadays, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have interest-graph-based algorithms, meaning they show you content you are most likely to enjoy.
Example: If, when you see a puppy video, you watch the entire video, like it, comment with heart eyes emoji, and send it to a friend, you just told the algorithm that you like puppy videos. Prepare to get more puppy videos. If you see a car video and you immediately swipe away from it, you just told the algorithm that you don’t like car videos; you’re less likely to receive car videos in your feed.
Since the interest-based algorithms are serving you content that you’re likely to enjoy, we as marketers need to be creating content that our target market actually likes - not just hitting them in the face with calls to action to buy our thing.
By creating content that people actually enjoy, the algorithm will do its thing, reaching your target market, those viewers will become audience members and begin developing brand affinity.
The most common forms of “Paid Ads” in the digital space today are Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok. You’re familiar with these platforms because they also allow you to be there for free (organic content).
With paid ads on these digital platforms, you are creating a piece of content such as a photo, video, graphic, or headline, and then selecting a target market to deliver that content to. The platform will then show your content to your selected target market for as long as the ad is running. The number of people reached is dependent on how much budget you allocate to the ad campaign.
Delivering an advertisement to the right person at the right time so that they take our desired call to action. We then track these results to modify our future advertisements. We are looking to increase the click-through rate (CTR) and lower the cost per thousand views (CPM), which leads to a lower cost of customer acquisition (CAC).
Search engine optimization is the art of getting your information to show up towards the top of a search result.
Historically, this has been most closely associated with getting your website to show up towards the top of a Google search result page. Nowadays, this idea of SEO also applies to YouTube search, Google Maps search, and TikTok search.
Ultimate goal = Have your piece of content show up when somebody searches the keywords relevant to your piece.
There is no exact, guaranteed recipe for ranking at the top. If someone tells you they can 100% get you to the top of Google for your industry-related keywords, proceed with caution, this is not possible to guarantee.
Each platform has its own search algorithm, and the algorithms change regularly as technology develops. While there is not a single guaranteed way to get to the top, we do know the moves that are likely to increase your ranking.
Kinda like how you can't walk into the gym, swipe your credit card, and be the fittest person there. However, we do know that doing pushups does tend to make you more fit.
Organic content, paid ads, and search engine optimization are three fundamental tools in the marketing machine. Just like you can't build a house with a Phillips head screwdriver, you can't expect one marketing tool to build you a successful company. The key is to utilize the strengths of each tool. Combine them to create your own marketing recipe based on your business's goals.
We hope this article brought clarity to the moves you can make to optimize your business's marketing. At Launch Kit, we work with local businesses on all three of these activations and have a great time seeing businesses get the opportunity to share their story, making an impact on their community.
Each year, we take a fresh look at the various marketing efforts a small business can make. We've built this framework to get started optimizing your business's online presence.
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