Paid Vs. Organic Traffic — Do You Need Both?

There are 5.4 billion Google searches per day. This means that a small portion of these searches (which is still huge) is related to your brand.

So your website should be able to answer those searches. This is one of the most effective reasons to have a strong website.

You can bring those searchers to your website in two ways: 1. Paid traffic 2. Organic traffic.

Paid vs. organic traffic is a widely discussed topic in search engine marketing.

I’ll discuss the pros and cons of paid traffic and compare it with organic traffic. In the end, I’ll give you my opinion on which one is better in the long run.

So let’s get started.

Pros of Using Paid Ads

There are few pros of paid traffic. That’s why search ad spending amounted to $124 billion in 2019. So completely ignoring search ads is unwise.

Let’s discuss why using paid ads can be a good decision for you.

Target a New Audience

With marketing channels like email and organic social, you can only target people who are in your circle.

But paid traffic gives you the option of targeting a new set of audiences. Then, you can convert those visitors into long-term customers.

Get Instant Results

This is arguably the best reason to use paid traffic. You can get overnight results, no matter if you have a new website.

This gives you a quick entry into the digital world. Imagine that your competitors have been running their websites for years now. Suddenly, you come with an ad and take a portion of their traffic.

Now let’s talk about SEO. If you are related to SEO, you’d know that it’s hard. On top of that, it’s time-consuming.

You must be patient. Sometimes, it can take 1 to 2 years before you start seeing significant results in SEO. You need to create content every day for your audiences. In addition, creating backlinks can be tiresome.

Compare SEO with paid traffic. Paid traffic can help you achieve marketing goals far quickly. A website with less credibility also gets to drive useful traffic using paid ads.

Think of paid ads like billboards. You’ll find it costly to get a billboard ad. But once you get it, it will give you a lot of exposure.

Tracking Your Results Is Simple

Paid search gives you access to a lot of analytics data. You get to see different insights into customer’s demographics, devices, etc. You can use this data to improve your campaigns.

These reasons explained why paid traffic can be a good option for you. Now explore why it can’t be a good option.

Cons of Using Paid Traffic

Previously, I discussed that the search ad spending is in billions of dollars every year. Statistics might compel you to shift towards paid traffic. However, there’s another side of the picture. Looking at the cons of using paid ads will clarify that side.

You Always Need Money to Drive Paid Traffic

Isn’t it kind of obvious? Paid traffic is paid. As long as you are paying for the traffic, you’ll be good. Once you stop spending money, you will stop seeing results.

In the section about the cons of using paid traffic, I discussed how paid traffic can give you instant results. That’s because they are backed by your money.

Go with paid traffic only if you have extra dollars to spend.

Paid Traffic Is Short-Term

As soon as you stop spending money, you’ll lose all your traffic.

On the other hand, SEO is long-term. If you have created an information archive for your audience over months or years, you’ll keep getting traffic. And it doesn’t involve much money, especially if you are willing to create content and backlinks yourself.

SEO might be slow and time-consuming, but it will keep giving you results for longer periods.

Plus, SEO also helps with achieving credibility in your niche. You must want to be recognized as a trustworthy source. Paid traffic might not able to do that for you the way organic traffic does.

Expenditure Model Is a Mess

Platforms like Google Ads are notorious for gobbling up your money. The idea that you pay according to the clicks you get seems good on the page.

But even if you are seeing no results, you are still getting clicks (which means spending more money).

In addition, your competitors can also increase your ad spending by clicking on your ads on purpose.

Final Words On Paid Vs. Organic Traffic

So does the paid vs organic traffic debate have a clear winner?

In my opinion, paid traffic can help you in short term. When you are starting out, it can help you get some traffic and revenue. It lets you compete with competitors who have been doing digital marketing for years.

Ads annoy many people. And a lot of people ignore search ads. However, these things shouldn’t stop you from getting paid traffic if you have a good budget. And if you are joining the digital world now, it can be a good way to get exposure.

However, as you start to grow your online presence, your focus should shift towards the organic side of the spectrum. SEO will ensure your success in search engines in the long term. Plus, you don’t need tons of money with it as compared to paid traffic which is always heavy on your wallet.

Do you agree with my suggestions about paid vs. organic traffic?

Be sure to let me know in the comments.