• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Pinterest
Digital Storyteller
  • Services
  • Pricing
  • Our Team
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Marketing Calculator
  • Contact
  • The ROI of Organic Digital Marketing
  • Menu Menu

Paid Ads Don’t Work… Here’s Why

Organic and paid search are common topics in the marketing world, but do you know the statistics behind them? Deciding where to invest your time and money as a company can be challenging.

Let’s break down the statistics behind each search method to help you make well-informed, strategic decisions. Here’s some information on organic vs. paid search.

Plus, Andrew Marr, our CEO and Owner of Digital Storyteller is here to talk about why we are in the organic search space as opposed to paid.

Let’s get into it.

Organic Search

So, first, what is organic search? In its simplest terms, organic search refers to the search results of a search engine (like Google!) “that cannot be influenced by paid advertising. Organic search results are ranked according to their relevance to the search term.”

It’s argued that 35% of e-commerce traffic comes from organic search. Moreover, up to 80% of searches are only focused on organic results.

This considered, SEO is key in getting your organic search traffic to increase over time. Although ranking for organic search requires a bit more effort in aligning your SEO, keywords, and headlines, at the end of the day it is free! (As far as money goes that is; organic search definitely takes a lot of time and effort).

Paid Search

Next, what is paid search? Well, let’s take it from the pros: Google Ads.

“When you type something into Google, you are presented with a list of results [aka the search engine results page or SERP] which shows organic results and paid results.”

Paid search results have the word “ad” before the listing. When a listing says “ad,” you know that a company has paid to have their page show up first. Make sense?

Anyway, it’s argued that paid search gains 150% more clicks and attention than any organic search results—and we’re not surprised. Once you use paid search, you can’t flip flop between paying and driving organically on the same ads. It just won’t perform.

You will receive more traffic on a paid search ad from people who actually intend on making a purchase. Though, you should know small businesses only generate about $3 in revenue for every $1.60 spent on search ads. This considered, paid search can get expensive quickly, and may not be realistic for all of your marketing efforts.

Why Aren’t We in the Paid Ad Space?

Hear it best from Andrew.

It’s not because we don’t like paid ads, and it’s not because we don’t think paid ads are important to create more prospects and more clients.

At Digital Storyteller, the reason why we aren’t in the paid ad space is because we believe in our ‘marketing triangle.’ The most important part of our marketing triangle is the bottom, which sits ‘really good content.’

But what are the elements of ‘good content’? Good content…

  • Is actionable
  • Answers a question
  • Is original
  • Is user-generated (Don’t know what user-generated content (UGC) is? Check out our blog on the importance of user-generated content!)

Good content can look like a lot of different strategies working together: email marketing, social media, video content, an SEO optimized website, the list goes on.

The form in which content is delivered, however, changes as do algorithms. For example, right now video content is hot!

Additionally, it’s equally as important to know who your audience is. After all, you don’t want to be pitching to every person you walk past on the street—because your services and/or products aren’t for everyone. 

In a successful marketing strategy, you know exactly who you’re speaking to. You hit them time and time again with a consistent message of who your business is and how you help your clients.

Tell stories about:

  • How your business has helped people
  • How great your culture us
  • How you’re different,
  • Your origin stories
  • And more

Doing this over a period of time will help build a huge amount of trust, and interest.

Read on for more about the importance of storytelling.

Then, once you determine which content is working best for you through analytics, we believe at Digital Storyteller that that is when you would boost things with paid advertising—specifically in the B2B space.

Again, it’s a different story if you’re about talking B2C and products. 

If you’re talking B2B, however, here’s your game plan:

  1. Start with great content
  2. Build trust
  3. Figure out what is working best from an analytical standpoint
  4. Add some ad spend around that

At Digital Storyteller, we like to think of paid advertising as adding fuel to the fire, giving things a little kick. Paid advertising shouldn’t be the whole cake, just an ingredient you add toward the end for some flavor.

A Final Word

So, there you have it, organic vs. paid search in a nutshell—plus, why we focus on organic. Interested in learning more? Read on to hear about why organic marketing is great for financial service companies specifically.

B2B vs. B2C Marketing: What’s the Difference?

November 13, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

Why Do We Call Our Company “Digital Storyteller?”

October 30, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

The Importance of Website Audits

October 9, 2022/by Magdi Cook

Social Media for Financial Services Companies

September 30, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

Why Do You Need Video in Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

September 25, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

How to Use an Organic Marketing Strategy to Build Brand Awareness

August 21, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

Your Guide to Marketing KPIs

August 14, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

How to Ask for Client Testimonials

August 7, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

5 Signs You Need a Digital Marketing Agency

July 24, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

What’s Going to Happen to Twitter?

July 3, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

Your Email Marketing Sucks… Here’s How to Fix It

June 26, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

How to Leverage Your Business Using LinkedIn

June 19, 2022/by Amanda Rogers

SEARCH

CATEGORIES

LATEST POSTS

  • sign pointing one way to b2b marketing and the other way to b2c marketingB2B vs. B2C Marketing: What’s the Difference?November 13, 2022 - 7:00 pm
  • black and white question marksWhy Do We Call Our Company “Digital Storyteller?”October 30, 2022 - 7:00 pm
  • desktop and laptop on desk used for website auditsThe Importance of Website AuditsOctober 9, 2022 - 7:00 am

Follow us

RESOURCES

Blog
Privacy Policy

GET IN TOUCH

2710 Lone Jack Rd
Encinitas, CA 92024

858.945.1069
info@digitalstoryteller.io

STAY CONNECTED

Follow a manual added link

© Digital Storyteller 2020

Get The Secret Sauce

Delivered right to your inbox (napkins optional)



© Digital Storyteller 2020

Does Your Business Have a Social Media Presence?Social mediastorytellerWhy Financial Services Have Such a Hard Time Telling their Story Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy
Accept settings