There are millions of companies advertising to consumers online. In such a competitive world, grabbing the attention of one’s target audience isn’t the easiest feat. When you encounter such a challenge, your best option is to fall back on advertising. Two commonly used types of advertising are organic advertising and paid advertising.
What do they mean? We will explain it by using the Google search engine as the platform.
Organic Ads
On Google, organic ads appear based on the merit of each site and can generate traffic naturally, over time, as opposed to using paid advertising as a means to attract more people to one’s website. If the website checks off all the search engine optimization requirements, then it’s more likely to appear at the top of all the organic search results.
On the other hand, by having irrelevant content within the website (or landing page), having slow loading webpages, among other things – you can significantly drop your position in the organic search ad department.
As a matter of fact, customers are more likely to click on natural results from Google, but getting your business to the first position is not an easy task. For example, if you want to rank your auto body shop in Maple, you will need not only do broad SEO, but also location related SEO strategies to get local customers. Meanwhile, it might take months to reveal the results. That’s why many business owners like to use paid ads first, which will be explained in the next paragraph.
Paid Ads
Paid ads, particularly on the Google search engine, appear when keywords are triggered. Each keyword costs a certain amount (a certain bid), and if the cost is paid, then the paid ad will appear on the first page. However, it is worth noting that this depends entirely on how many other people are bidding on that keyword as well as how much they are willing to bid on it.
For example, if one’s business consists of selling hardwood floorings and someone looked up a flooring store in Newmarket on the search engine, then the ad will appear because the cost of the keyword to trigger the ad has been paid for. Whether it appears at the top, the middle, the bottom, the second page or further down the line on the Search Engine Result’s Page (SERP) depends on the competition.
Another point worth mentioning is that Google is not the only platform you can use. Many people might also consider using paid ads from Instagram, YouTube, etc. It all depends on the nature of your business and the audience you want to reach. For example, if you provide appliance repair in Vaughan you might not want to use Instagram which focuses on visually appealing products. On the other hand, if you offer professional IT consulting services, you probably want to advertise on YouTube.
Which is Better?
Truthfully, one can choose to partake in both. In fact, combining both may have the best results. If your company is able to spend the time on organic ads, and has the money to spend on paid ads, utilizing both tools to expand your advertising reach may be worthwhile. By doing this both paid and organic ads will be able to support each other while broadening your business’ reach – which is the most effective way of advertising. This is not to say that by choosing only one, one puts themselves at a disadvantage. Absolutely not. Whichever option is chosen, one will always find oneself competing on an even playing field.
If the goal is to increase the traffic to one’s website, or have quality leads that could turn into customers, connect with the marketing specialists at Gilmedia. This team of experts knows which businesses will profit more from organic ads while which will thrive with paid search ads – and which will benefit the most by using both.
