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Content Marketing vs. Paid Advertising. Which is better for your business?

Blue Swing Media • Aug 28, 2019

Pros and Cons of Content Marketing and Paid Advertisements

There are many challenges that come with being a business owner and a marketer. One of the main ones is the challenge of expanding the reach of your business, improving brand awareness, and building a bottom line.

You have two main choices for this; content marketing and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing.

Content marketing appears to be the better choice if you just look at the stats;

Content marketing offers website conversion rates of almost 6x what other marketing methods get.
On-page content remains the most effective SEO technique around.
Marketers say that branded content initiatives are more effective compared to advertising on magazines and TV, through direct mail, or through PR.

Paid Ads has benefits too though; the main one being that it gets you to the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), putting you in front of the right people at the right time.

Is the initial cost of PPC worth the return on investment though?

If you aren’t sure what to do, then just relax. There has never been a simple and straightforward answer to the question of whether content marketing or PPC is the right choice.

We’re here to help you understand the choices. Let’s consider the pros and cons of both forms of marketing. You’ll have the information you need to choose which one is right for you depending on your brand, target audience, and situation.

Let’s assess the pros and cons of content marketing vs PPC to see if there’s a clear winner.

Content Marketing Pros and Cons
Content marketing is a lower cost solution that improves website visibility, but it takes time to be really effective. It’s good choice for better conversions and higher quality leads if you have the time, money, and patience to go with it.

Here are more pros and cons of this marketing method:

1. Con – Content Marketing Takes Longer to Generate Healthy ROI

It takes a real commitment to stick with content marketing. You won’t notice any real results until several months after publishing content.
The good news is that the ROI comes hard and fast once it does come in.
HubSpot estimates that old blog posts about evergreen topics account for up to 38% of all internet traffic. The posts you made months ago will eventually start bringing in a target audience and climbing the rankings.
It takes some time for content marketing to build up momentum, but it’s impossible to stop once it does.

2. Pro – You Get Better Leads

You’ll find that the leads you generate through content marketing – once it starts generating leads – are much higher quality than you get with PPC.
Marketing Sherpa suggest that organic search traffic generates the highest volume of leads and highest conversion rates. PPC comes in third for both of those metrics, just behind traditional email marketing.
A high quality lead is more likely to buy your products, and content marketing is better at bringing them in.

3. Pro – More Cost Effective

What’s great about content marketing is that the costs associated with it are a single investment. Just pay the upfront costs and you’re golden.
Once the content is published it climbs the ranks in search results, generating clicks and leads without you having to pay another penny.

4. Con – It can be Difficult to Find Good Content Creators and Writers

Good help is hard to find, especially with writers. It also takes time to properly vet a writer for yourself and assess their skills and compatibility with your brand.

5. Pro – Content Agencies Exist for This Very Reason

Don’t worry too much about finding content creators though. Content agencies have done all the hard work for you. They can match you up with a good writer who can fit your brand voice and take care of writing content for you.
Agencies have expectations for their creators, including their ability to research and write good content. You can be sure that you’re getting someone worthy of your time and money.

Paid Advertising Pros and Cons
PPC offers targeted reach and immediate visibility. One thing that Ads offer is the ability to block fraudulent clicks through Google Ads. You can protect your ads against bots, click farms, competitors, and other click fraud. It’s simple to set up and get started with Google Ads. Let’s look at the other pros and cons of PPC.

1. Con – Paid Ads Takes More Money & More Time Than You Think

It’s virtually impossible to maintain a good long-term PPC strategy if you aren’t drowning in money. This is because you are charged whenever someone clicks on the SERP listing.
If you want to generate more traffic and be at the top of the results, you’ll have to pay a lot of money just to keep a visible presence on Google.

2. Pro – PPC Literally Takes you to the Top

If you need to get to the top of search results instantly, then you need PPC. Google AdWords lets you put down a bid on your keyword. If the page is relevant enough and your bid is high enough, Google puts you right on top of their results.
You get incredible visibility through PPC. The traffic generated by being on top of results could make up for the cost of getting there in the first place.

3. Con – The Visibility Vanishes as Soon as You Stop Paying

The biggest drawback of PPC advertising is that you disappear from the top spot as soon as you stop paying to be there. This is much different from content marketing, where you slowly but surely climb your way to the top of SERPs.
With content marketing, your ranking never disappears as long as it stays relevant, and you’ll never have to pay another penny to stay there.

4. Pro/Con – Ads Are More the More Affordable Choice for Some Industries

The amount that you pay per click with PPC ads can vary between different industries. Some industries – such as legal – will have greater competition for their keywords. If you were in a business like education, employment, or ecommerce though, then PPC can be much more affordable.
On average, PPC costs around $2.32 per click. That’s much more affordable than the $5.88 per click for the legal industry. That’s the average too, it might be cheaper for your industry.

Which One is Best?
Content marketing is about creating content to build trust and loyalty with a target audience. This will eventually come back in the form of increased profits.

PPC advertising is about paying to get a prime spot in search engine results pages to generate a lot more traffic. You’ll have to pay each time a visitor clicks on your link.

There are pros and cons to both of these methods, but you can’t choose one over the other. It always helps to diversify your strategy a bit.

Content marketing and Paid Ads are both situation-specific solutions. There may come a time when you need the immediate visibility and power that PPC offers so more people reach your content. Just make sure it’s good content though, or you’ll never get any conversions.

At the same time, you need to have great stable content that climbs the SERP ranks and generates a continuous return on investment over time.

You may notice both of those strategies require a strong foundation of valuable content. PPC can’t generate conversions for you, but content marketing can.

All in all, content marketing has the edge over ads. It offers a better return on investment and offers long-term results. With that said, there are definitely benefits to digital advetising. It’s great for immediate visibility and getting your content in front of an audience as soon as possible.

Which one is right for you depends on your situation, but you should certainly consider using both. The pros of each account for the cons of the other.