Marketing is all about getting people interested in your brand or product. In today’s digital world, marketing is typically done through the magic of search engines. According to Imforza, 93% of online interactions begin with a search engine. Since everyone and their dog is online, the internet is quite competitive. If you do search marketing right, you’ll increase your site traffic significantly. There are a couple of methods you can use to boost your webpage to the top of the search engine results page (SERP): organic and paid search marketing. Both ways are efficient, so it’s up to you to decide which is more beneficial for your company’s needs. To help you out a bit, we broke down the definitions, benefits and drawbacks for both forms of marketing.
Paid Search Marketing
You know the ads that pop up at the top of the screen when you Google something? Well, that’s a form of paid search marketing. The most common form of paid ads is pay-per-click, i.e., your company pays every time someone clicks on the ad. You get a bang for your buck with paid ads. According to Google, paid ads generate a return of $2 for every $1 spent. That adds up! Paid ads are automatically placed at the top of the SERP. No need to spend time putting together the best search engine optimization (SEO) keywords! Speaking of keywords, let’s not disregard them completely. Your company can receive specific keyword data that can help with new content targeting.
While these ads come with a cost, you can easily tailor them to your budget with a bit of analysis. Typically, companies bid on keywords, and the highest bidder with the highest quality gets a higher ad rank. Researching keywords assists with determining which words to bid on and how much to bid. Numerous companies apply paid search marketing to transactional sites as opposed to informational sites for a greater chance of a purchase.
Paid search marketing attracts users at the bottom of the funnel, which means that they’re ready to make a purchase. Instead of targeting your ads to a group of “maybes,” focusing on consumers who already have their credit cards out will lead to more results and revenue. It is most beneficial to use paid search marketing when your company is promoting something time-sensitive, such as a sale. Paid ads have a quick turnaround time, and you can see results immediately.
Organic Search Marketing
To put it plainly, you don’t pay for this method. Contrary to paid search ads, organic search ads aren’t automatically in the top spots. Instead, you can boost your search results placement by using SEO keywords. These are words and phrases in your content that help people find your site. Think about what the main focus of your subject matter is and use related keywords throughout your content. A downside of organic search marketing is that you need to have a solid SEO background to get it right. If no one on your team has that skillset, paid search marketing may be the way to go. While it may take a while to climb to the top of the search results, once you’re there, you’re there.
A great benefit of organic search marketing is that it helps to build up your credibility. Paid ads can seem less trustworthy, even if they’re perfectly fine, and users view organic search results as more trustworthy. You can reach users at all different levels of the marketing funnel, which maximizes your online presence. Paid ads are more specific with who they target, and that means they show up in fewer searches. More people seeing your company name in search results leads to industry chatter, which is a good thing!
Organic search marketing can be the reasonable choice if you have a low marketing budget. That way, you can save costs and put your money towards marketing techniques that additionally benefit your company.
Respectfully, neither form of search engine marketing is technically better. Both are useful, and a lot of companies use a combination of the two forms in their marketing strategies. Ultimately, each have different benefits and drawbacks, it’s up to your company to decide which method will provide the best results for your business’ goals.
