Content marketing vs Google Ads – which is more profitable?

To achieve results, you only need to invest a certain budget. No special requirements – you just create an account, select the website to be advertised, specify the target, keywords and the campaign starts.

In the case of content marketing, the situation is not so rosy – you cannot quickly “buy” top organic positions, and high indexation takes many months and requires a lot of work on the part of the SEO copywriter, programmers and positioners. The number of ranking factors is so large that the positioning process itself is complicated and lacks fully verifiable forecasts.

So why SEO?

One might think, “Wait a minute! That’s why I undertake marketing activities to have customers. I don’t want to wait a few months for the first results, I want to sell now!

However, this view is not adapted to the current conduct of business activities on the Internet. It is true that the path to high positions in Google is long and bumpy, but there are specific reasons to take this action. Namely – gaining visibility in the search engine generates lasting, relatively stable and profitable traffic, because web users entered the website of their own free will (this is the so-called inbound marketing).

If you turn off Google Ads, your website visits will automatically disappear. In turn, in positioning you cannot turn the plug-in on and off – it is a process that continues all the time. Valuable content does not bring results immediately, but supports SEO results, influencing later results.

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

Content or Ads – which method wins?

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

Waiting for SEO results means a lack of customers, and the indexation process itself could take a long time. Therefore, investing in paid advertising is good for websites that do not have optimal search engine visibility yet.

Content marketing, on the other hand, is ideal for companies that expect lucrative results in a few months. If they are ready for such a sacrifice, time will reward the initial efforts, because a stable increase in customers will not require further investment outlays.

In practice, however, there is nothing stopping you from using both methods at the same time. This is probably the most frequently used solution, i.e.: focus on Google Ads, but at the same time conduct SEO activities, and after a few months reduce the costs of campaigns for further development of content and link profile.

Such behavior ensures the acquisition of customers from the very beginning of the company’s operation, and also does not neglect more long-term methods of generating leads.

Google Ads or content marketing – which is more expensive?

There are no imposed limits in either case. Expenses depend only on your budget, so the question of which method costs more does not make much sense.

However, in the case of micro-entrepreneurs, average investments in Google Ads range from N100k – N500k net.

In turn, running a regular blog (4 articles a month) usually costs N100K- N200k net and the same amount should be added to acquire external links.

The choice of specific amounts and proportions between both methods depends on many factors such as:

• Competitive actions – large companies effectively make it difficult to gain visibility in the search engine, and each Google Ads campaign becomes a rival that increases the CPC cost. The competitiveness of each channel affects the mutual profitability of these methods.
• Company opportunities – companies with greater financial resources can afford to invest more in content marketing because they do not need ad hoc clients.
• Market situation – a temporary lack of demand suppresses the effects of Google Ads; instead, you can focus your activities on content marketing and vice versa.

We hope that you now know the basic differences between Google Ads and content marketing. We wish you making good marketing decisions and lots of customers!