Whether you’re a ghost writer who specializes in content writing for WordPress blogs, or a professional content writer who does a little bit of everything, there are a few key facts that will help you decide whether to use pay-per-click (PPC) or article-writing as the main way of marketing your product or service.
Pay-per-click(PPC) has its uses, but for entrepreneurs who want to maximize their return on investment and long-term branding identity, content marketing is the better way to go.
The Common Questions
Most marketers like the easy, measurable way that PPC campaigns work: you pay for a certain number of clicks, place your ad and wait until that number has been reached. Then the ad goes down and the campaign is over. It’s common to see immediate increases in web traffic as a result of PPC campaigns. But why don’t those visitors and “clickers” end up buying?
The answer is an age-old Internet conundrum: People are inundated with PPC ads and even when they do click on one, they might spend 2 seconds at your landing page and then move on. A click is not a sale. Yes, traffic can increase a lot but that guarantees nothing.
But, the other question goes, “What about the ease with which I can measure the effectiveness of a PPC campaign.” It’s true. PPC campaigns’ ROIs are simple to calculate. If you spend $500 on a PPC buy and end up with ten $40 sales as a result, the math is indeed simple, if discouraging. You just dished out $500 to make $400. Simple math, but depressing news.
The Advantages of Original Content
For new, smaller companies especially, content marketing offers dozens of advantages and only a few, inconsequential, disadvantages when compared to PPC campaigns. Here are the main facts to know about content (original article) marketing:
-Initial costs can be more or less than PPC, depending how much content you need per day, week, or month. Typical costs are less for entrepreneurs who start out slowly, with a few high-quality pieces of content.
-Well-written articles that are relevant to your website’s readers will last forever and generate a potentially infinite amount of social media interaction.
-You can write articles yourself or outsource the job to a reputable service that will take your specific needs into account. Many marketers mix the two approaches by writing some of their own content and outsourcing some of it. This saves money and gives the site a good, diverse feel.
-Yes, it is a bit harder to measure the specific ROI of content campaigns in the short-term. In the long-term, however, a business owner can easily compare content costs with increased profits. An annual or semi-annual budget analysis is an ideal time frame for calculating ROI on a content marketing campaign.
The Best Articles Last Forever
Content that is “evergreen” can pay big dividends for any website owner who sells a product or service. Readers will find good content for many years, comment on it, share it on social media, and give it a very long life. While PPC marketing has its limited place in short-term selling campaigns, content marketing rules the roost when it comes to long-term ROI.
