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How To Integrate Paid And Organic Content: 15 Best Tips

Forbes Agency Council

Paid content is beneficial since it helps direct people to your product. Organic content, however, tends to bring people who are more likely to buy. Most businesses today utilize both types of content to drive their marketing.

However, finding the balance between these types of content may take some time. Depending on industry, there are several factors that can help to make paid and organic content work well together. Here, 15 associates of Forbes Agency Council offer valuable advice on the best ways a company can integrate its organic and paid marketing campaigns into a complete engine.

1. Run Paid Traffic To Find Best Search Terms

Run paid traffic to find the search terms that generate the best inquiries or sales. Then, use these terms to build your search engine optimization/content strategy, focusing your effort on areas where you know there will be a direct payoff. - Robert Warner, InvisiblePPC

2. Test Social Content Organically

Test social content organically first, and if you see high engagement in your community, then you can add the social content into a paid campaign since you know it resonates with your audience. This will improve your paid results. - Gina Michnowicz, The Craftsman Agency

3. Retarget Inbound Traffic Via Paid Media

We’ve been attracting traffic with valuable blog content on easy/low competition keywords. Calls to action are used within the content to direct traffic to our key pages. Then, we retarget these viewers via paid media based on the amount of time they spent on our key pages. Our conversion rate has increased significantly as we’re not being intrusive and optimizing our marketing efforts to hotter prospects. - Osama Khabab, MotionCue


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4. Develop A Consistent Brand Voice

Develop a brand voice that remains consistent in paid and organic content. Anyone who posts or blogs on behalf of your company needs to be familiar with your branding and style, whether it’s an agency or an employee, and stick to it. - Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions

5. A/B Test Organic Content Before Spending Money

Wait to spend money until you know which content your audience likes best. The great thing about organic content, whether it's on your own website or on social media, is that your audience will tell you which content has legs and which doesn't. It’s free A/B testing you can use to determine where to invest your dollars to promote organic content. - Scott Baradell, Idea Grove

6. Link Your Ads To Gated Content Offers

Our clients see great success in having ads linking to a landing page for downloading gated content offers such as a checklist, guide or white paper. Clicks to a page may get eyeballs, but content offers capture email addresses, which can be then nurtured into a sales-qualified lead. Leveraging personalized content on the PPC landing pages greatly improves conversion rates. - Chris Leach, 310 Creative Inc

7. Ensure Strong Messaging Throughout

The content needs to seamlessly dovetail; meaning, write and share the same content or kinds of content in each space. Further, approach creating any kind of content authentically. Don't assume that just because an opportunity is paid, the readers don't want an objective viewpoint. Most times, the line is so blurred between paid and unpaid, it's best to focus on strong messaging throughout. - Christine Wetzler, Pietryla PR

8. Use Paid Ads To Promote Organic Content

Use paid advertising to promote your organic content. One strategy we've used successfully is buying ads (both direct and remarketing) and sending that traffic to blog posts and case studies that are relevant to the target audience. You can then add a call to action in the content to point them to your (product/service) pages. Indirectly, it helps your search rankings, while directly, it can drive sales. - Toren Ajk, TAC Marketing Group

9. Engage On Paid Content And Repurpose

It's important to be proactive on your page, using contests to engage with your customers. When you actively engage with customers this way on your paid content, it helps amplify organic efforts. Also, always be sure to repurpose your paid content, whether it's on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. - Spencer Hadelman, Advantage Marketing

10. Utilize Dynamic Search Ads

Utilize dynamic search ads. This campaign type allows you to target URLs rather than keywords. Once your campaign is running, you can review the search terms your campaign triggers for to understand what Google thinks your website is about. Then, you can make updates to organic content by leveraging the insights and results from your paid campaign. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures

11. Examine Your Audience's Behaviors

One of the best ways to blend paid and organic content is to examine all of the behaviors your audience exhibits. Then, prioritize those behaviors and categorize them into two groups: behaviors with lower motivations for paid and behaviors with higher motivations for organic. With this approach, you only spend budget on the behaviors that require additional prompting. - Roger Hurni, Off Madison Ave

12. Implement The PESO Model

Content is most contagious when it’s created and leveraged as part of a holistic, inbound marketing strategy. We like the PESO model because it helps us keep paid, earned, shared and owned content balanced and consistent across our campaigns. What clients need to remember today is that owned content alone isn’t enough. You have to pay to play, but content in all four spheres is ideal. - Mary Ann O'Brien, OBI Creative

13. Leverage Analytics From Paid Campaigns

Using the analytics from paid campaigns can greatly inform and support your organic strategic direction. Use the insights from paid to work on organic listings to gain rankings based on high-volume and high-value paid terms, as well as terms your competitors are bidding on. Of course, always stay focused on providing value-based content. - Jason Wilson, Strategy, LLC

14. Amplify Your Publicity Pieces

Boosting your publicity pieces is key. Having your news stories amplified on social media with a paid campaign is highly valuable. It helps provide social proof and a point of differentiation. With social algorithms changing continually, it is an effective way to ensure that your existing consumers are updated on your achievements while communicating with potential ones, your offering, in a credible way. - Adrian Falk, Believe Advertising & PR

15. Boost Influencers' Content

Boosting influencers' content is a seamless way to integrate paid and organic content. The sponsored content influencers produce organically for their followers is already geared toward the brand's target audience, and it will most likely also resonate with a broader audience that fits the brand profile through a paid media strategy. - Emilie Tabor, IMA - Influencer Marketing Agency

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