Organic vs. Paid Search Marketing: Online Marketing in Dallas

If you're not yet investing in digital marketing efforts, you're losing potential customers to your competitors that are. You need to be found online, which can be done in several ways. Your two main options for online marketing in Dallas are organic marketing and paid search marketing. What’s the difference? 

What is Organic Digital Marketing?

If food is organic, it means it grew in a natural way without any sort of chemical intervention. This term applies to certain marketing efforts as well. Organic marketing is a long-term strategy that generates traffic to your business's website over time, rather than using paid methods for a quick result. 

The goal is to naturally attract your desired audience to your business' website. How do you do that? Organic marketing uses SEO (search engine optimization), social media, as well as a variety of other channels to increase brand awareness. This includes:

The main benefit of organic marketing is that it's essentially free. Simply by building a great website, regularly updating your social accounts, and being where your potential customers are, you will build your brand and be seen as industry experts. A potential downside is that it can take a while to achieve your desired results.

What is Paid Search Marketing?

On the opposite end of the spectrum is visibility that you pay for. This is paid search marketing. With this marketing tactic, you pay search engines like Google and Bing for ad placement on SERPs (search engine results pages). There are several different factors that determine the placement of these ads:

  • Bids
  • Page quality
  • Ad thresholds
  • Popularity of keywords
  • Context of search
  • Ad extensions

The look and feel of paid search ads can vary. Some can look like regular search results at the top of a SERP, except for the tiny text telling users it is an ad. Other paid search ads can take up more of the page and even have images and photographs included.

The benefits of a paid search campaign are numerous. Unlike an organic strategy, you will be able to see measurable and quality results right away. The highly-targeted nature of paid search ads means that users will see you immediately, and likely convert just as quickly. Businesses are able to target shoppers and website viewers who will have a short customer journey.

Paid search marketing is typically a bit too complex to handle on your own as part of your regular, daily duties. Companies who are successful in paid search either hire an internal team member whose job is dedicated solely to this strategy or they bring in a team who offers this service as part of their online marketing in Dallas.

Organic vs. Paid: Which One is Right for You?

Google alone handles over 3.5 billion searches a day, meaning that search engines will always have a guaranteed stream of high-quality traffic available for companies looking to be found. As you look at these two marketing strategies in more detail, you may get the impression that it is a "this or that" decision to make. Do you want to invest in paid search campaigns or organic efforts? We have great news for you. You don't have to choose! In fact, you really shouldn't.

The most successful companies use a mixture of both in order to attract and convert new customers. The great aspects of organic marketing are complementary to the downsides of paid ads, and vice versa. If you invest in both, you're able to be seen right away thanks to paid ads while at the same time slowly building your organic presence for long-lasting brand recognition. 

Trust The Old State for all Things Related to Online Marketing in Dallas

If this all seems a little complicated to you, don’t worry. We are proven experts in online marketing in Dallas. Our team knows exactly what to do in order to show you exciting measurable results in your digital marketing efforts. Reach out today for a proposal to learn more about what we can do for you!