PPC vs Content Marketing: How They Work Together + Pros and Cons

PPC uses online ads for immediate, targeted traffic, while content marketing creates helpful content to build long-term organic growth and trust. Learn how to use each and why they’re better together.

When used together, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and content marketing can effectively guide prospects from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

But if you don’t have the resources to tackle both marketing strategies, you may wonder which is a higher priority.

In this article, we’ll highlight the key differences between PPC and content marketing — and why they work better together.

PPC vs. content marketing

PPC is best for quick, targeted results, while content marketing builds long-term relationships and organic reach.

Here’s a quick overview of PPC vs. content marketing:

PPC:

• Faster results
• Precise targeting
• Scalability

Content marketing:

• Long-term engagement
• Lower costs
• Builds authority

Let’s break this down further.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the digital marketing strategy of creating and distributing valuable content to attract and engage an audience.

It involves producing informative and engaging materials like blogs, videos, and infographics.

The goal is to appear at the top of the organic search results for search terms related to your brand.

In turn, you can become a trusted resource, foster loyalty, and encourage informed decisions by providing relevant insights and solutions.

Types of content marketing

Content marketing uses different formats to guide your potential customers through the buyer’s journey until they’re ready to purchase.

• Blogs: SEO-friendly articles and guides on your website
• Videos: Engaging visual content, from tutorials on YouTube to short clips on social media
• Infographics: Visual representations of data or information, ideal for quick consumption on any platform
• Case studies: Real-life examples of customer success from using your product or service
• Podcasts: Audio content allowing in-depth discussions, interviews, or stories, accessible through platforms like Spotify
• Ebooks: Comprehensive guides or reports offered as downloads on a website
• Social media posts: Bite-sized content tailored for platforms like Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn
• Email newsletters: Regular updates or insights delivered directly to subscribers’ inboxes

Further reading: 7 Types of Content Marketing to Grow Your Audience

Examples of content marketing

Brands like HubSpot, Duolingo, and Canva provide great content marketing examples.

1. HubSpot

HubSpot offers a vast library of resources across diverse platforms, from blog posts and guides to free courses.

It educates businesses on digital marketing and showcases its expertise, which drives engagement and conversions by providing immense value to its audience upfront.

This makes HubSpot an excellent example of SaaS content marketing.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo leverages its friendly mascot, the Duo owl, across social media to create a unique and relatable brand presence.

Its content, which includes humorous posts and language-learning tips, engages users by blending education with entertainment, making the learning process fun and memorable.

3. Canva

Canva’s Design School offers free design courses and tutorials that empower users to create visuals.

These courses teach graphic designers (and non-graphic designers) how to create stunning visuals — while subtly promoting its platform.

This attracts new audiences and builds the loyalty of its existing users by keeping them in the Canva ecosystem.

Pros of content marketing

Content marketing helps you gain visibility on the search engine results page (SERP) organically, connect with your audience, and build trust.

1. Cost-effective

While content marketing requires an upfront investment to produce enough high-quality content, it provides a better return on investment (ROI) over time.

Once you build a library of content, ongoing optimizations and maintenance require fewer resources.

2. Boosts SEO

By producing valuable content relevant to your product or service, you can increase your visibility in organic search results.

3. Establishes trust and authority

When your brand consistently offers valuable information, it helps solve your audience’s problems and positions you as an industry expert.

4. Strengthens customer relationships

Regularly providing informative and valuable content keeps your audience engaged and fosters brand loyalty.

5. Supports other marketing strategies

Paid advertising is only successful with a strong online presence. When users click on an ad that directs to a site full of high-quality content, they are more likely to convert.

Cons of content marketing

Content marketing is a long-term strategy, which comes with some downsides:

1. Time and resource-intensive

It is time-consuming to build a library of resourceful content, from planning and research to creation and distribution.

2. Slow to show results

Building content takes time. Getting content to make an impact or surface at the top of the SERP can take even longer — around three to six months

3. Difficult to measure direct ROI

Attaching content directly to sales can be challenging. Analytics tools provide insights, but quantifying the exact ROI for individual content pieces requires a comprehensive understanding of analytics and attribution modeling.

(Image: HawkSEM)

What is PPC marketing?

PPC (pay-per-click) marketing is an online advertising model where you pay a small fee each time someone clicks on your ads.

It’s a way to get your business in front of people searching for products or services like yours on search engines or social media platforms.

PPC marketing offers precise targeting options based on user behavior and demographics, ensuring the right people see your ads.

This marketing strategy is a good idea for businesses looking to increase sales, boost lead generation, or drive website traffic quickly.

Types of PPC ads

PPC marketing can be categorized based on the platform and format of your ads. Here are the common types of PPC ads:

• Search ads: Appear on SERPs when people search for keywords related to your business
• Display ads: Visual ads on websites within an advertising network (like Google Display Network)
• Video ads: Often on YouTube, video ads play before, during, or after videos
• Social media ads: Ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn that target users based on their interests, behaviors, and demographics
• Shopping ads: Specifically for ecommerce, these ads show users your product’s photo, a title, a price, and store name
• Remarketing: Ads that target people who previously visited your website but didn’t convert

Examples of PPC ads

Google search ads are a common example of PPC marketing. Here’s one ad for the search query “movers near me:”

Here’s an example of shopping ads on Google for the query “buy flowers online”:

Further reading: Successful PPC Campaigns: Proven Examples + 22 Best Practices

Pros of PPC marketing

PPC ads offer fast results, unlike other marketing strategies. Let’s look at the specific benefits of PPC:

1. Speed to market

You can launch your PPC marketing campaigns in minutes. This makes them ideal for promoting time-sensitive offers or boosting visibility for new businesses.

As soon as your ads are approved, they can appear in search results or on selected platforms.

2. Targeting capabilities

With PPC ads, you can narrow your audience by age, location, interests, and other parameters.

3. Transparent results

You can see exactly how many people saw your ad (impressions), clicked on it (click-through rate), and took a desired action (conversion rate). This data helps you understand what works and what doesn’t to optimize ad performance.

4. Adaptability

If an ad isn’t performing as expected, you make adjustments or pause it altogether to stop spending on it. This agility lets you quickly respond to market trends, feedback, or performance data.

Cons of PPC marketing

PPC marketing can be expensive, especially in highly competitive industries, and requires regular management.

Here are the downsides of PPC:

1. Costs can add up

PPC can become costly, particularly in competitive sectors where bid prices for keywords are high.

2. Clicks don’t always convert

Getting a click is just the first step; converting that click into a sale is another challenge.

3. Continuous investment

You need to continuously fund your campaigns to keep your ads running and maintain your visibility. If you stop paying or actively managing your campaigns, your paid ads (and traffic) disappear.

(Image: HawkSEM)

Further reading: Top 11 Benefits of PPC Advertising (+ Expert Tips)

PPC or content marketing: Which to choose

Still not sure which marketing strategy is right for your business? Here’s a quick comparison between the two:

Immediate traffic vs. long-term engagement

PPC is ideal for immediate traffic, making it perfect for short-term campaigns or product launches. Content marketing takes time to build momentum.

SEO benefits

Content marketing benefits your site’s SEO. High-quality articles or videos that answer your audience’s questions can rank well in search engines, bringing in organic traffic over time. PPC doesn’t improve SEO directly.

Costs

If you’re tight on budget, content marketing is often more sustainable.

Initial costs go into content creation, but once that content is live, it takes fewer resources to revamp and optimize going forward.

Meanwhile, that content can continue to bring in traffic. PPC, on the other hand, requires constant investment.

Precise targeting

PPC excels in targeting specific demographics, locations, and even user behaviors. This allows you to create highly personalized ad campaigns.

Content marketing targets through keywords and interests. This can lead to a broader, more engaged audience over time, but lacks the immediate precision of PPC.

Building authority

Content marketing effectively establishes your brand as an authority in your industry. Providing helpful, informative content creates trust with your audience.

PPC can raise awareness quickly, but it doesn’t necessarily contribute to building authority or trust. It’s more about capturing attention than nurturing a long-term relationship.

Scalability

PPC offers higher scalability. You can run multiple campaigns to drive immediate visibility and capture more quality leads.

In comparison, there’s a practical limit to content production and its immediate impact on traffic. It also takes time to plan, research, and distribute content.

Content marketing scales over time in attracting new audiences without a proportional increase in investment.

Creativity and engagement

Content marketing lets you tell stories, solve problems, and entertain your audience through various formats. PPC ads focus on capturing immediate attention with the promise of solving a user’s query or need quickly.

How to use content marketing and PPC ads together

“The debate between PPC and content marketing often misses the point,” said Sam Yadegar, co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM. “In our experience, the most successful digital marketing strategies leverage both PPC and content marketing in a coordinated, synergistic way.”

“When these two approaches work together, the results can be truly impressive — far greater than either could achieve alone.”
Here are essential tips to merge them:

1. Align your content and PPC strategies
2. Use PPC to test and refine content ideas
3. Create PPC-specific landing pages
4. Use retargeting
5. Boost your best content with PPC
6. Use content to nurture PPC leads
7. Analyze and optimize

1. Align your content and PPC strategies

Start by ensuring your PPC ads and content marketing have a unified message and reach out to the same audience segment.

For example, if your content marketing is focused on eco-friendly practices, your PPC campaigns should highlight your brand’s commitment to sustainability.

This alignment ensures your audience receives consistent messages, whether they come across your ads or your content.

2. Use PPC to test and refine content ideas

PPC ads are great for quick feedback. Try different ad headlines, offers, or use dynamic keyword insertion in Google Ads to see what gets the most clicks and engagement.

This can give you a hint about what topics or questions your audience is really interested in.

When people click on your PPC ad, they should land on a page that matches the ad’s promise.

Google Ads considers the quality of your landing page experiences when determining your ad’s Quality Score and cost-per-click.

So, if your ad is about a free ebook on sale, the landing page should present that ebook in an engaging way and make it easy to download.

4. Use retargeting

Target people who have already visited your website and engaged with your content through PPC ads.

Further reading: How to Set Up a Remarketing Campaign in Google Ads

5. Boost your best content with PPC

Take a look at which of your content pieces are performing well and use PPC ads to push those pieces to a larger audience.

6. Use content to nurture PPC leads

After attracting leads through PPC, use relevant content to move them further down the sales funnel.

For example, if someone clicked on your ad offering a free trial for your yoga class, follow up with emails containing content like “5 Things to Know Before Your First Yoga Class” or “How to Make the Most of Your Yoga Trial.”

7. Analyze and optimize

With market trends and consumer preferences evolving, it’s important to continuously monitor the performance of your PPC and content marketing strategies.

Use analytics and PPC tracking tools to monitor which ads bring in traffic and which content pieces are keeping that traffic engaged.

If you notice some activities aren’t working as well as others, don’t be afraid to tweak your approach. Maybe a certain type of ad isn’t resonating, or a blog topic isn’t hitting the mark. Adjust and try again.

At HawkSEM, we use ConversionIQ (CIQ), our proprietary tool that helps us granularly track every step of the buyer journey.

“ConversionIQ allows us to understand what aspects of a campaign are working and where we should trim the fat, enabling us to optimize towards a higher ROAS,” said Yadegar.

“Tracking with CIQ also provides more insights into the target audience. This allows us to take that data and use it on other marketing channels, such as SEO or social media, to further scale while maintaining profitability.”

The takeaway

The conversation about PPC vs. content marketing is nuanced. Both marketing functions have specific use cases, so there’s no one better than the other.

Ideally, you should have an integrated digital marketing strategy combining content marketing and PPC to make your campaigns more effective and drive better ROI.

At HawkSEM, we offer end-to-end digital marketing services, including content marketing, PPC, and SEO.

If you want experienced specialists to plan and execute your PPC and content marketing strategies, reach out today.

This article has been updated and was originally published in April 2024.