In a perfect world, great content alone would be enough for you to reach your content marketing goals. Fresh, engaging content would stand out in the crowd and get all the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, real-life content marketing doesn’t always work that way. The online landscape is saturated with rapidly-increasing amounts of valuable content and there’s only so much information that people can consume.
You can take the slow and steady route to organically grow your audience with great content. But with supply often outpacing demand, even high-quality content can slip through the cracks. So, how do you get a competitive edge when there is so much content being produced? Paid promotion might be one answer.
Understanding Paid Promotion
Before diving too deeply into the nuts and bolts of paid content promotion, it’s important to make the distinction between paid and organic promotion. There are many organic channels for content promotion that can help boost your visibility:
- SEO techniques
- Social media
- Influencer marketing
- Webinars and other live events
- Word-of-mouth
While these organic promotion methods don’t involve spending any money, they do require a fair amount of creativity, effort and perseverance. Customizing for your target audience can also be more difficult with organic promotion strategies. That’s why paid content promotion can serve as a valuable complement to your existing organic promotion strategy. The concept of paid promotion isn’t new. In fact, a SocialBakers study from 2013 showed that even then, 77% of Facebook pages were relying on paid traffic for promotion.
While Facebook may seem like the most obvious choice, the platforms you do choose will depend on your particular audience and your content goals. Some of the more popular channels include:
- Facebook: This channel remains the top choice among marketers for paid promotion because of the excellent targeting capabilities and broad reach.
- LinkedIn: This networking platform offers some great paid-promotion options for marketers, especially in the B2B realm. LinkedIn has proven to generate more leads for B2B businesses than Twitter, Facebook or blogs.
- Pinterest: If your business produces some great visuals, Promoted Pins can be an effective way to get you seen by a wider audience.
- Twitter: You might not have thought of Twitter as a paid-promotion channel, but the platform presents some valuable opportunities. Research shows that 74% of consumers follow brands on Twitter to receive updates and promoted tweets ensure that your content is reaching the most qualified audience.
- Outbrain: The Outbrain platform allows you to promote your content as “recommended articles” on other websites. Similar content-discovery networks include Taboola and LinkWithin.
- Search engine advertising: Search ads allow for laser-focused targeting and offer options for virtually any budget.
Not only does paid promotion require little manual effort in comparison to organic methods, but it also allows you to present your content to a highly-targeted audience.
Is It Worth It?
Even marketers who are enthusiastic about the benefits of paid promotion may have some lingering concerns about the cost. How can you make sure you’re maximizing ROI and not wasting money?
The best way to ensure that you’re squeezing the most value out of your paid promotions is to do your research before you jump in. Analyze the performance of your organic content promotion and use the data to identify content that would make the best candidates for paid promotion. When it comes to ROI, having clear goals is key. Identify and track the KPIs associated with your goals to see if you’re getting the needed bang for your paid-promotion buck.
An Investment in Your Brand
If you’ve been struggling to boost your visibility with your target audience, paid content promotion may be a way to give you a boost. It can help you cut through the noise and actually reach the people you need to turn into customers. Not all paid promotion platforms are costly, and the ROI they can generate can make the cost worthwhile.