Last Updated on 12/03/2025 by Arnie

The argument about whether organic or paid traffic produces greater outcomes persists. What will be better for your company if they both have the same goal? We’ve put together a guide with some recommendations on which to use and when.

What exactly is organic traffic?

Organic traffic is traffic generated by search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Organic traffic may be challenging to get since it requires people to know who your company is or at the very least the products and services that you provide.

Organic traffic has a distinct edge over all others because it contains more qualified prospective leads. If Organic Traffic approaches your organisation, it is because they discovered you through a simple search or word of mouth. With recommendations being so important for businesses these days, taking advantage of this is a terrific approach to generate new revenue.

As previously said, Organic Traffic is mostly focused at consumers who are familiar with your brand. In the early phases, using Social Media, Content Marketing, or Referrals will all be beneficial. And, let’s face it, the major advantage of organic traffic is that it’s free, which is critical if you don’t have an appropriate revenue flow.

SEO is also strongly engaged in getting found naturally. Because most traffic comes from search engines, using key terms, whether long or short tail, in your content is critical. Remember that SEO does not just apply to articles or blogs, but also to the content of your website.

What exactly is paid traffic?

Paid traffic is quite similar to organic traffic, with the main difference being that you must invest money in your marketing channels.

Promoting your business or simply the material you provide may put you in front of potential clients you would not have noticed or found otherwise. Paid traffic is getting increasingly popular, and there are several advantages to using it, being able to control demographics your content is seen by.

There are several platforms available for usage, but these are the ones we have found to be the most valuable to our clients.

AdWords by Google

Google Adwords is a paid advertising platform where you may pay for clicks to drive traffic to your website. It allows you to choose keywords you believe your clients would search for, and when they click on them, it will direct them to your site.

Paying for clicks may not appear to be the most logical approach to create traffic, but it is a reasonably inexpensive way to get started. As with most things, the more money you spend, the more traffic you may produce. They have also integrated a great application to use so that you can track your investment and see your ROI.

Ads on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

Because Facebook controls Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, it is easier to lump these all together. You may ‘Boost’ your post on any of the platforms. This is their take on generating a paid advertisement.

What’s nice about sponsored ads on these sites is that you can choose your area, age, and other demographics before publishing your ad. A daily spending cap is also available to help you efficiently manage your money.

All postings may be viewed in your feed as well, so keep posting to your followers or friends as usual. The sponsored ad simply expands the radius to which you are marketing in order to generate new business for your business.

Traffic Types

The sorts of visitors you want to attract to your website will take various forms and will be closely tied to the types of marketing you utilise. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and you will almost certainly employ a combination of them all. The type of forms of traffic you can generate include the following:

Referral – is an excellent technique to build business is via word of mouth. It solidifies your brand as one to utilise because it comes from a reliable source.

Social – Traffic will be heavily influenced by how you use various sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube.

Organic- The organic traffic you create will come from search engines like as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Paid Search- This is traffic you obtained through paid advertisements on sites such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads.

Email – Email marketing is an excellent technique to communicate with your subscribers. This may be used to promote new products and services.

ROI?

All businesses seek a return on their investment regardless of if they are spending money or not. Both are quite easy to track, and both provide excellent platforms for doing so. Every firm must recognise that generating results, whether paid or organic, takes time, but you do have to be in it to win as they say!

Organic traffic is a lengthy process that may necessitate some expenditure if you are serious about being on Google’s first page. When employing organic traffic, competing with huge firms and brands is also quite straightforward.

This is because you just need to focus on doing what they do better, not on how much money they have to throw at a project. Overall ROI takes time, but it is an important aspect of the marketing strategy. The results remain longer that paid traffic, once you flick the switch your paid ads are gone.

Paid traffic, on the other hand, is very unpredictable and, at times, risky if huge quantities of money are invested. On the other side, you are generating traffic rapidly, which is beneficial if you are creating a brand. Not to mention how hands off it can be to create an ad, then just let it run for a period of time.

Check out this helpful tool for additional information on measuring the ROI on marketing investments. How to Calculate a Marketing Campaign’s Return on Investment (ROI)

To sum up

Overall, generating paid and organic traffic will be the most effective approach to operate. Although both create traffic, paid will allow you to potentially acquire clients you are unaware of and grow your brand at a faster rate. Using social media and non-sponsored content is always a great approach to drive organic traffic to your website. Some will eventually work, while others will not, so it is a trial-and-error process at first.