Content marketing or Google Ads? Which pays off?

Google Ads and content marketing – the difference

At the beginning it is important to note that both Google Ads and content marketing are promotional activities, i.e. their aim is to increase the number of customers. And that is everything to tell about the similarities!

You only need to invest a certain budget to achieve such results. No special requirements – you just create an account, select the website you want to be advertised, define the target, keywords and start the campaign.

In case of content marketing, the matter is not so bright – you cannot quickly reach or buy top organic positions, and high indexation lasts many months and requires a lot of work and input from the SEO copywriters, programmers and positioners. The number of factors that affect ranking positions is so large that the positioning process itself is complicated and devoid of fully verifiable forecasts.

Why positioning?

One might say ”Hold on, hold on! That is why I undertake marketing activities – in order to have clients. I do not want to wait a few months for the first results, I want to sell!”.

However, this point of view is not adapted to the current business activities on the Internet. It is true that reaching high positions in Google is a rocky road, but there are specific reasons for taking such actions. Namely, gaining visibility in the search engine generated permanent, relatively stable and profitable traffic, mostly because the recipients visit the website willingly (that is so-called inbound marketing).

If you turn off Google Ads, visits to the website will automatically fade. On the other hand, in case of SEO, you cannot turn plugins on and off. It is a process that lasts forever. Substantive content does not bring immediate results, but support SEO results and influence the ones you achieve in future.

Hence, the decision of whether to choose content marketing or Google Ads depends on the strategy and current resources of the company.

Content or Ads – which method wins?

It is already clear that each solution has both its pros and cons.

Waiting for SEO results goes along with lack of customers, while the indexation process itself might take too long. Thus, an investment in paid advertising is good for websites that do not have optimal search engine visibility.

On the other hand, content marketing is an ideal choice for companies that want to see lucrative results in a nearest months. If they are ready for such sacrifice, time will compensate for the initial difficulties as the stable growth of customers will not require capital expenditure.

In practice, there is nothing to prevent the use of both methods at the same time. This is probably the most commonly used solution, that is: focus on Google Ads, but also conduct SEO activities. Reduce the costs put into campaigns after a few months – bet on the further development of the content and link profile.

This procedure ensures the acquisition of contractors from the very beginning of the company’s operating, as well as it does not neglect more long-term methods of generating leads.

Google Ads or content marketing – which one is more expensive?

In no case there are any imposed limits. The expenses depend only on the budget you have, so the question which method costs more does not make much sense anymore.

Nevertheless, in case of micro-entrepreneurs, the average investment in Google Ads ranges from 500-3000$ net amount.

In turn, regular blogging usually costs 500-1000$ net amount. Add this cost one more time if you want to obtain external links.

The choice of specific amounts and the proportion between these two methods depends on a multitude of factors such as:

• Actions of the competition – large companies are quite effective if we are talking about making it difficult for other companies to gain visibility in the search engine. Every Google Ads campaign becomes a living rival that increases the CPC cost.
• Company capability – companies with greater financial background can afford higher investments in content marketing as they do not need customers ad hoc.
• Situation on the market – temporary lack of demand suppresses the effects of Google Ads. However, you can focus your efforts on content marketing instead, and vice versa.

We hope that thanks to this article you already know the basic differences between the Google Ads and content marketing. We wish you the right marketing decisions and masses of customers!