Now listen, we’re going to use data to back this up. But I also need to make one thing clear: while I truly believe most digital display<\/a> \/ banner ad spend<\/a> is a waste of money, the most effective use of your budget is through a combination of content marketing and paid outbound.<\/p>\n Quick Takeaways:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n But first, let\u2019s recap what exactly I\u2019m talking about when I say \u201cPPC\u201d. PPC stands for \u201cpay per click,\u201d is also known as “paid search” and is technically a form of advertising. PPC ads show up on top of “organic search” results on your search engine.<\/p>\n When you launch a PPC marketing campaign, you\u2019ll place ads on a search platform like Google or Bing (this is also known as paid search marketing), on a social network such as Facebook or Twitter, or on other ad platforms.<\/p>\n Rather than paying upfront to place your ad for a set amount of time, you\u2019ll pay the ad platform when your ad is clicked.<\/p>\n In most cases, there are many more advertisers than there are ad spots. The platform decides which ads to show by using a bidding procedure. The advertiser that has bid the highest amount for a particular search query or audience will get the best ad placement. However, they\u2019ll also pay more when someone clicks through to their site.<\/p>\n Content marketing<\/a> is a strategy that revolves around using content (blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.) to attract relevant visitors to your website, raise awareness of your brand, and boost sales and conversions.<\/p>\n Rather than being sales-focused like an ad, in most cases, this content doesn\u2019t directly pitch your products and services. Instead, you provide useful, entertaining, or inspiring content that improves the lives of your audience in some way.<\/p>\n Publishing a blog is one of the most common types of content marketing and one that\u2019s easy for anyone to start, whether they\u2019re an individual on a shoestring budget or a large enterprise.<\/p>\n When comparing different digital marketing strategies, PPC is right up there with some of the most expensive.<\/p>\n PPC can get you to the top of Google if you\u2019re willing to pay for it. But you\u2019ll have to\u00a0keep<\/em>\u00a0paying to stay there.<\/p>\n These costs can add up quickly, especially in competitive industries where keywords can go for several dollars a click.<\/p>\n On the other hand, content marketing needs only a modest initial investment<\/a> to get you started. If you\u2019re really running\u00a0on a tight budget<\/a>, you can create content yourself with the only cost being your time.<\/p>\n With time and effort, high-quality content can reach the top of search engine results naturally. This means you can be getting those clicks for free instead of paying for each one. And you won\u2019t lose your rankings until someone creates better or more relevant content than you.<\/p>\n And the most recent indusrty research finds that content marketing gets three times the leads per dollar<\/a>\u00a0spent compared to paid search<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The ROI of content marketing and PPC has too many variables to suggest an \u201caverage\u201d for each method, even on a per industry basis. But whatever industry you\u2019re in, while PPC may seem to offer a more attractive ROI initially, content marketing almost always offers a better ROI in the long-term.<\/p>\n Content marketing not only attracts more leads for your money, but it generates\u00a0better quality<\/em>\u00a0leads too.<\/p>\n Lead quality is critical for optimizing ROI and increasing revenue. There\u2019s no point in paying for leads (via any method)\u00a0if they’re not converting<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the biggest complaints coming from sales teams is that the leads they get from marketing are low-quality ones. This situation can easily happen when sales and marketing aren\u2019t in alignment and only care about their immediate targets. 55% of sales reps surveyed by\u00a0Demand Gen\u00a0said that what they want most from marketing is \u201cbetter leads\u201d.<\/p>\n Producing high-quality content<\/a> is one of the most effective ways of attracting high-quality sales leads.<\/p>\n Just because you\u2019re paying for leads, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re great quality. A lot of the time leads from PPC are poor because they don\u2019t know your brand or understand your product when they click your ad.<\/p>\n On the other hand, leads generated by content have already been introduced to your brand and educated on some level. And the longer they stick around and keep consuming your content, the better these leads become.<\/p>\n Content marketing programs must be planned on a much longer timescale than other marketing techniques (we plan for a whole year<\/a>!)<\/p>\n While we allow for flexibility throughout the year, the trends and queries in your industry are likely not going to change that much. And your competitive gap is more likely to be closed or overtaken with a consistent approach<\/a>.<\/p>\n Content marketing builds traffic and rankings that you own. This may happen very gradually, but once you start seeing the results you want, you\u2019re not going to lose them overnight.<\/p>\n The time and money you invest in content marketing now will continue paying dividends well into the future. A single piece of content that might have cost you a couple of hundred dollars to produce could end up generating the magic of compounding results<\/a>: business and leads worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for years to come.<\/p>\n PPC, on the other hand, is most definitely a short-term strategy. You\u2019ll see the results immediately but if you want to keep having success, you\u2019ll need to keep going.<\/p>\n Anyone can buy clicks, but the value drops to zero once you stop.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a real art and science to successful PPC marketing. Not only do you have to know what keywords to bid on, but you also need to bid the right amount, optimize your ads for a high click-through rate, and craft your landing pages carefully to get the results you want.<\/p>\n PPC can be very effective when done well, but in most cases, you\u2019ll have to invest a significant amount of cash before you can see results. If managed properly, PPC can be a good investment but you need a decent budget to get started.<\/p>\n For this reason, it\u2019s sheer madness to attempt a PPC campaign unless you know what you\u2019re doing. If you get lucky then you might see results, but more often than not, you\u2019ll burn through a significant amount of money and have no results to show for it.<\/p>\n As PPC is so complicated, with many moving pieces, most brands using PPC marketing will either employ an in-house expert or outsource to a marketing agency specializing in PPC. Of course, this adds more expense to an already pricey marketing model.<\/p>\n Content marketing, on the other hand, is about\u00a0as simple as you can get<\/a>. While there\u2019s certainly a lot to think about when you\u2019re putting together a content marketing campaign, you can\u2019t really get anything \u201cwrong\u201d.<\/p>\n In the worst-case scenario, you\u2019ll publish some content that doesn\u2019t really do anything for you. But all you\u2019ll have lost is the time it took you to create that content or what you paid for it (and content marketing is very affordable compared to other types of marketing, remember).<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen organizations achieve impressive success with content marketing without following any real plan or tracking results, which just goes to show how simple it is. Those who regularly publish high-quality content and consistently deliver value will be rewarded for their efforts eventually, even if they don\u2019t get all the fine details perfect.<\/p>\n Google is constantly changing<\/a> the way in which paid ads are displayed in the search results to try and make them blend in more seamlessly with the organic results. The reason for this is that most of the time, searchers don\u2019t\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0to click on ads.<\/p>\n Most web users these days know that companies have paid to appear in the ads at the top of the search results, whereas web pages that are listed at the top of the organic results are there because they\u2019ve earned it with a great reputation and high-quality information.<\/p>\n Research by Nielsen\u00a0has found that 53% of consumers don\u2019t trust ads listed in search engine results and 52% don\u2019t trust ads on social media.<\/p>\n Trust in advertising<\/a>, in general, has been gradually declining in recent years, with customers preferring to do their own research and more likely to follow recommendations from their peers than brand ads.<\/p>\n Content marketing isn\u2019t advertising. It\u2019s a great way to build trust rather than erode it.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s say you do have the budget to inject into running a PPC campaign and you\u2019re working with an agency that really knows what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n You\u00a0still\u00a0<\/em>won\u2019t get the best results unless you also concentrate on creating really great content.<\/p>\n Just think about it \u2013 even if you\u2019ve got a really well-written ad and your targeting is spot on, you still have to win over the users that click on the ad.<\/p>\n So that comes down to sales copy, right? Well, yes and no. It\u2019s certainly important to have really well-crafted and optimized landing pages. But your success will be limited unless you\u2019ve also thought about your content marketing strategy.<\/p>\n You might get some sales from users who\u2019ve never heard of your company before and end up on your landing page. But you can greatly increase your chances if you\u2019ve got a library of great content to back you up.<\/p>\n Great content gets shared and comes up frequently in search results. So, if you\u2019ve been doing your job with content marketing well, there\u2019s a good chance that the user who sees your ad and clicks through to your landing page might have seen one of your articles or videos while researching or on their social feeds. When they keep seeing great content from your brand, they\u2019ll remember it and you\u2019ve got a much better chance of making that sale.<\/p>\n While PPC might be great for attracting people to your funnel, you still have to get them through the funnel. And websites that have adopted content marketing convert at a rate that\u2019s\u00a0six times higher<\/strong>\u00a0than those that haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n PPC ads can convert well\u00a0for users who are ready to buy<\/strong>. But for the rest? A report by Gleanster Research revealed that\u00a0only 25% of your leads<\/a>\u00a0are ready to buy at any given time. So what do the other 75% want?<\/p>\n\n
What Is PPC Marketing?<\/h2>\n
What Is Content Marketing?<\/h2>\n
1. Content Marketing Is Significantly Cheaper in the Long Term<\/h2>\n
![\"1603349706](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/1603349706-wordstream_adwords-industry-benchmarks-average-cpc.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Image19](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image19-13.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Alecan](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Alecan-Marketing-Blog-PPC-vs-Content-Marketing-01.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n2. Content Marketing Attracts Better Quality Leads<\/h2>\n
![\"We](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/We_asked_Sales_bar_chart.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n3. Content Marketing Generates Long-term Results<\/h2>\n
![\"5cafb5c8c7e61fb404647654](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/5cafb5c8c7e61fb404647654_Content-Marketing-ROI-Hubspot.png\")
4. Content Marketing Is a Simple Model That\u2019s Hard to Mess Up<\/h2>\n
5. People Trust Content More Than Ads<\/h2>\n
![\"Nielsen](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/nielsen-1.png\")
5. You Can\u2019t Succeed in PPC without Also Investing in Content Marketing<\/h2>\n
![\"1603349678](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/1603349678-why-is-content-marketing-important.png\")
<\/figure>\n