What is better for my business: an organic campaign or a paid campaign?

One of the most common questions when we want to start an advertising campaign is whether a paid or an organic campaign is better, so today we are going to analyze each of these alternatives so you can evaluate which one is better for you.

For many, the answer is easy: the best results are only obtained with a paid campaign, the more money they invest the better results they get, for others the best things in life come for free, so the best is an organic campaign even if it takes a little work, but you will be surprised that the answer is not so simple, choosing a paid campaign or an organic one depends on several factors, besides the money, so it is best to evaluate the objectives and needs to choose the best campaign.

The difference between a paid campaign and an organic campaign

Before choosing one campaign over the other, it is advisable to be clear about the difference between them, so that you will be clear about the objectives, the most important characteristics and, of course, what each one consists of.

What is a paid campaign.

Paid campaigns are all online marketing efforts in which money is invested directly to the dissemination of the same campaign. This type of campaigns can be done through various paid platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads or native ads.

In general they have several objectives, but the most important is to attract more audience to your website or brand. Regularly, when you pay on these platforms you have the opportunity to design a campaign according to your budget, so you can pay according to the number of views or according to the number of interactions, this way you can focus a campaign only to achieve visibility or a campaign to obtain purchase data.

Running a paid campaign on platforms such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads allows you to better focus your advertising, as you can choose which audience segment you want your campaign to reach, avoiding wasting resources by reaching a general audience that has little chance of becoming a customer.

Organic campaign

Defining an organic campaign can be a bit more complicated, because many times they include actions that we do not value as part of that campaign, in this type of campaigns several strategies are combined such as: publications in blogs, social networks, guides and videos.  Also, the interaction with your audience and the Q&A page of your website are an important part of the organic campaign.

These types of campaigns can also help you reach new buyers, but there are two objectives that may be more important, as these types of campaigns are focused on building a community and customer loyalty.

It is important to keep in mind that in an organic campaign you do not make an investment specifically to spread it, however it does not mean that it is completely free, think that you will have to invest in the design and creation of it.

 

Advantages and disadvantages of a paid campaign and an organic campaign

According to the definitions of both types of campaigns, you will have realized that both campaigns can help you reach a larger audience, but before you decide on one or the other, you should evaluate their advantages and disadvantages.

 

Advantages of paid campaigns

• Greater reach in less time: One of the clearest advantages of starting a paid campaign is that you can have greater reach more quickly, if you choose a platform like Facebook ads or Google ads, which allow you to direct your advertising to a fairly specific target audience, you can be sure that your publications will reach potential customers. Having better results in this type of platform depends on knowing your target audience, so before starting with a campaign of this type, spend some time describing your buyer as specifically as you can, establishing precise data such as age, gender, location and occupation. This way, you guarantee that you will be getting the most out of your investment.
• Test hypotheses: another advantage is that you can measure and test concrete hypotheses quickly, for example if you want to test if the new image of a product or an update is accepted by the public, it is best to do a paid campaign because you will have accurate statistics of the platforms and a high volume of exposure in a short period of time, so you can evaluate whether it works or not. Testing something like this in an organic campaign can be much longer and ultimately more costly if you don’t succeed.
• Statistics: one of the great advantages of advertising platforms is that they provide you with very accurate statistics on the performance of your campaign, so you can evaluate what is working and what is not, to repeat in other campaigns.

Disadvantages of a paid campaign

• High costs: the main disadvantage of a paid campaign is that it can be very expensive, especially if you want to have visibility on different platforms, either digitally or traditionally.
• High degree of knowledge: getting the most out of your investment in a paid campaign depends on getting it right. If you are not clear about who your target audience is, it is most likely that your advertising will not generate more sales or more views, so you will only be losing money.

Advantages of the organic campaign

• It is cheaper: of course, the obvious advantage of an organic campaign is that it is cheaper, because you do not spend money specifically to spread your brand, however you must remember that it does not mean that it does not involve any expense because it is best to invest in a market study to know your target audience and invest in a team of copywriters and social media to create attractive content that connects with the public.
• Long-term results: for many marketing specialists, an organic campaign can be better than a paid one, especially if you want to have long-term results, since creating publications and campaigns on social networks that connect with your audience and that position you in search engines, guarantee that your brand will be positioned as a reference in the market for a long time.
• Create a community: another of the most important advantages of an organic campaign is that it helps you create a community. Remember that starting a campaign to make a sale is much more expensive than a campaign to retain a customer. Creating a community around your brand means that you won’t have to invest in making individual sales, since you already have loyal customers who come back to you whenever they need them.
• It helps to position your brand: it is necessary to emphasize that an organic campaign helps to position your brand, unlike a paid campaign, marketing with organic results forces you to be working and updating constantly, so you can establish yourself as a reference in your niche, achieving the most important advertising, the recommendation from person to person.

Disadvantages of an organic campaign

• More time: without a doubt, the main disadvantage of an organic campaign is time. An organic campaign implies to be working constantly, however it does not mean that you will see results immediately or that you will reach your goals in a short period of time. It may take several months or even years to see the results of your campaign.
• Consistency: This investment of time leads us to another of the disadvantages of organic campaigns and is that you must be consistent to achieve your goals and position yourself. If you start to publish less or stop publishing it can cost you the work of several months.

Which is better a paid campaign or an organic campaign?

As you can imagine there is no absolute answer to this question, whether a campaign works best for you will depend on many factors. Not in all cases a paid campaign works, especially when we want to have long term results and an organic campaign is not always the best option, especially if we want immediate results.

When deciding between one and the other, paid campaigns are often the most discriminated against. Small businesses and startups may think of skipping paid campaigns to save money, however never launching a paid campaign can be a very big mistake, especially in the launch of a new product or seasonal products, which requires more visibility in a short time. In addition, skipping these campaigns makes you lose statistics that can help you with organic campaigns.

In the same way, thinking that all our campaigns must be paid to get better results is a mistake. Paying to position your brand is an expense in the long run that many companies can not afford, also social networks can give you better results without investing so much because you can easily become a reference in your niche, so do not waste these showcases, because most likely your competition is already using them.

 

In conclusion, there is no one campaign better or worse than the other, in the end both will give you results, however the purpose of each one is different, so deciding for one or the other depends on your objectives and your resources, but the best is to combine both strategies. Tell us, what gives you better results, an organic campaign or a paid campaign?