Paid advertising vs. organic search: where should you invest?

June 4, 2020

In a time when businesses are communicating with customers through digital more than ever, a well-rounded digital marketing strategy is crucial to rising above competitors. If you are wondering when you should invest in digital, the time is now. Two key components of your strategy that should always be considered are paid advertising and organic search.

Find out how your digital strategy stacks up against competitors here.

Also known as pay-per-click or PPC, advertising in search allows you the flexibility to target the audience you want to reach when you want to reach them. Paid search ads appear in the search engine results page (SERP) ahead of organic results. This precious real estate is especially important now as nearly 60 percent of all online searches happen on a mobile device.

Paid search ads are also easily adjustable in real time. The agile nature of the Google and Bing ad platforms allow for testing and quick improvements based on known user behavior if the proper tracking is in place. If implemented strategically, a paid search campaign can capture your ideal audience quickly and effectively. But keep in mind, the impact of paid search is only effective when you are investing into it.

Three tips to optimize your paid search campaigns:

1. Implement negative keywords. Remove irrelevant search queries that are not getting qualified traffic to your landing page.
2. Audit your landing page. Ensure your target keywords, ad copy and landing page creative a cohesive user experience for your target audience.
3. Delete “lazy” keywords. Remove keywords that have no impressions or clicks. Optimizing is about getting rid of keywords that aren’t working as much as improving the ones that are.

On the other side of the coin, organic search or search engine optimization (SEO), is a long-term component of your digital strategy. Your SEO strategy touches almost all areas of consumer engagement. Organic search not only encompasses search engine results, but local listings, reputation management and your overall content strategy. Users trust search engines and having a presence in the top organic positions for the keywords your audience is searching for creates trust in your site. Investing in a strong SEO strategy increases both the quality and quantity of your website traffic, as well as exposure to your brand.

Three tips to improve your site’s organic performance:

1. Define a keyword list. Build a relevant keyword list you can build and optimize your site’s content around.
2. Review your current rankings. Before implementing an SEO strategy, review your target keyword rankings, how you stack up against competitors, and check on your site’s technical performance.
3. Optimize title tags. Ensure there are no duplicates and every tag is a concise description of the page content.

So, how does this answer where you should invest? Spoiler alert: the answer is you need both. Paid and organic search are the yin and yang of a strong digital strategy. While strategic paid search creates a buzz immediately, a strong SEO presence keeps it going. Interested in how paid and organic search can give your organization a boost? Shoot me a note.