Deciding on whether to spend some money to get on top of the search results or to simply push for some organic results is not easy. And the answer depends on several factors, from organizational goals to audience behaviour. To help, we’ve put together some key insights that you need to understand to identify what will work best for your business.
Paid Ads
a) What are paid ads?
Paid ads are advertisements that marketers pay money to search engines like Google and social giant Facebook, to advertise their brand and website link before the organic search results are displayed. You can see in the example below, the paid ads appearing on top of the organic search results and even on the right side of the search results window.
(You can also see way down here the first organic listing! See how many other options there are for the user to click on before they get to yours — if you are #1!)
b) What is the overall perception of paid ads?
The current perception of paid ads is that they are an easy way for marketers to bump up their websites to the top of search engine results. It is often considered to be the same as buying some ad space in a newspaper to market a product or service.
You can accomplish a variety of business goals through paid campaigns.
c) When to use the paid ad technique?
You can use paid ads for many different reasons. The most popular one being if you want fast and immediate results when it comes to getting your website to rank. Of course, this technique needs a substantial amount of investment, hence it is more popular among those businesses who can afford such a level of PPC (Pay-per-click) campaigns.
- launch a new campaign
- celebrate a new release or product
- geo-target a specified location
- when you have very specific demographics you want to target
- and many more!
Organic Search
a) What are organic results/ranking?
Organic results / ranking are the search results that appear on search engines based on ranking parameters. Organic results require manual effort using techniques such as search engine optimization. Other than some elbow grease and brain juice – it’s free!
b) What is the overall perception of organic results?
When your website gets a high ranking on organic search results for any keyword searched by internet users, then it is perceived that your website is a source of credible and factually accurate content. These websites which are seen on top of rankings are considered as having content that is more respected, authoritative, and trusted by search engines like Google.
c) When to use the organic ranking technique?
If you want to set your website apart as a thought leader or have complete authority over a particular section of content on the internet, then you would need to gain an organic rank on search engines.
It is a known fact that search engines like Google only give a good rank to those websites which have credible sources of content and offer an amazing user experience to their visitors. This technique definitely takes a great deal of effort and labour as you need to ensure that your website contains interesting content that is relevant to what internet users are looking for.
What’s more, you would also need to keep updating your website according to the latest changes being made in Google’s algorithms so that it stays on top of rankings. Nonetheless, all the efforts you put into making your website the best source of content would pay off, as you would get a steady stream of traffic to your website who would also keep revisiting for more great content.
Balanced Approach
We strongly believe that striking a balance between the two is the key. So even if your website is ranking well organically, you can still make use of paid ads to promote a specific page or web campaign.
Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Do you think paid ads are better than organic search results or agree that using both is the best form of internet marketing?
To find out what is trending in internet marketing this year, download our free ebook “Top Digital Marketing Trends of 2017”!
