To make money, you’ve got to spend money.
Take this cliché for what it’s worth, but most online marketers believe in it to greater or lesser extents.
There is the occasional success story touting the benefits of organic growth from SEO or Pinterest, but these tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
But even as the cost of ads continues to rise, are paid ads still worth it in 2022?
Are Your Results Subpar?
Has your marketing activity been effective so far? If you’re satisfied with the results, then there may not be an urgent need to add paid ads to your marketing mix.
(Don’t forget, though, that if your current marketing is successful, and you want to amplify it, paid ads are generally the fastest and easiest way to scale).
But if it seems like you’ve tried every free channel available, and you’re still not generating traffic, leads, or sales, it may be time to consider paid ads a little more seriously.
Where SEO and content can take six to 12 months to work, it’s also contingent on whether:
- You did your keyword research
- Your content is best in its class
- Your content speaks to your audience
Meanwhile, paid ads are like a “tap” you can turn on and off at will. Traffic is basically instantaneous, and the only limiting factor is your budget.
Do You Have Ideas You Need to Test?
Plenty of entrepreneurs and companies start out creating a new product for their audience. Sometimes it’s based on spontaneous inspiration or “hunch” of what might work, and at other times it’s based on something more concrete like audience surveying and research.
But even if you think you know all the variables and understand your audience well, nailing a sales message can be challenging.
Depending on your audience, “New Business Newsletter” might be a “safe” and effective headline, while for other audiences, something classic like “How to do X in 90 Days Without Y…” might be more in keeping with the expectation of solving their pains.
With paid ads, you can run multiple iterations simultaneously with different headlines (while pointing to the same destination) to test which headlines resonate best with your audience. This would be a wise step to take before disseminating your offer more broadly, through email campaigns, social media, affiliates, and so on.
Every Situation is Different
In addition to target audience, market conditions, and even branding, there are different channels and methodologies that are bound to work best for your audience.
If you understand your customer profile well, it’s possible you’ve already nailed your messaging and marketing message to be able to generate steady, consistent results.
Even then, it doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t need to use ads, especially if you want to grow and scale.
While you don’t need to use ads for everything, it would be to your advantage to use them for testing, to determine your best headlines, call to actions, offers, and so forth.
Ultimately, every situation is different. Some businesses can grow organically by repeating the same processes. Others may require more eyes on their offers to be able to build a sustainable business. Many businesses, however, will end up using a mixed approach, using both organic and paid channels to generate real marketing results.