Don’t know which marketing strategy is best for your business? Relax! There’s never a direct answer to the content marketing vs. paid advertising question. So, let’s find out which one can be a better investment of your time and money. Or maybe a combination of both?

Being a business owner or marketer, you always face hurdles. Managing the client base when keeping the quality of your products and services top-notch, does not come with an instruction menu. It’s tough!

The primary challenges that every business owner faces are making people aware of their businesses, boosting ROIs, and building a bottom line. In hopes to achieve that goal, marketers spend an obscene amount of money to get the job done.

Don’t ever do that.

Figure out the difference between working hard and working smart.

To dominate the SERPs, there are several strategies. Two of them are content marketing and paid advertising. To help you understand which one has the edge over the other, let’s study the pros and cons of both.

Let’s dive in!

Content Marketing: a Cost-effective Solution That Slowly Builds Your Online Visibility for a Long Time

If you are willing to stick with content marketing, you will get promising results – high-quality leads and a significant amount of conversions. This strategy requires high dedication and patience.

Pro: High-quality leads

Once your website starts falling in top SERPs, you will get potential leads from organic research – something you cannot get from paid advertising.

Moreover, a study by Marketing Sherpa shows that organic search generates more leads with high conversion rates, followed by email marketing in second and paid marketing in third place.

Con: Content marketing requires ample time to net ROI

Content marketing can really put your tolerance to a severe test before showing fruitful outcomes. The process requires some time before picking up the momentum. But once it does, it snowballs.

Pro: It is a budget-friendly method

The remarkable part about content marketing is that it’s a one-time investment thing. Pay the upfront costs, and you are good to go. Once you upload the content, it ranks higher in the SERPs over time, generating significant leads. Plus, you don’t have to pay another penny again.

Con: There’s a scarcity of expert content creators & writers

Undoubtedly, finding a qualified content writer is a herculean task. It requires great efforts and valuable time to find a vet writer who perfectly fits your brand.

Pro: Abundant content agencies are available

Overshadowing the above con, today, various content agencies are available to help find a suitable writer for your company. These agencies ensure a certain level of success and high-quality content that thoroughly voices your brand.

Paid Advertising: It provides targeted reach & instant leads

Showcasing your business through paid campaigns like Google AdWords, YouTube ads, Facebook ads, etc., falls underpaid advertising strategy. Let’s find out what paid advertising brings to the table.

Con: Paid advertising is an expensive strategy

Unless you spend one HELL of a lot of money, you will never be able to maintain your position in top SERP listings for a long-time. This is because you get charged every time a user clicks on your ad. So, to stay visible on a search engine, you got to pay more.

Pro: It can literally take your business to the top

Paid advertising can immediately shoot your position from “rank – N/A” to the first page.

But, there’s a catch! You have to use Google AdWords and bid on your target keyword. If Google thinks your page is relevant and you bid higher, your website will be on the top.

Con: Constant payment is necessary

This is the major disadvantage of paid advertising. Your website will disappear from the top results once you stop paying for the ad campaigns. This is what makes paid advertising different from content marketing. Although the positive outcomes through content marketing are harder to achieve, at least they are stable.

So, who is the WINNER?

Exhausting all your resources into one task is never a recommended strategy. Though both methods exhibit their benefits and drawbacks, you honestly cannot choose one over the other. Instead, each strategy is entirely ‘situation-oriented.’

Sometimes, you need to target the audience of a specific location. Here, paid advertising works the best. In another scenario, you need content marketing for stable content that climbs up the SERPs and boosts ROI over time.

Anyway, one thing is evident in both situations – they require result-driving and user-friendly content. Without valuable content, even paid advertising is good-for-nothing. So, make a wise choice!

Pro tip: A combination of both might work more effectively.