Organic Content vs paid, if you are confused where you need to focus. The simple answer is what you need if you don’t have time and you want to get traffic and sales quick. Then paid marketing is for you, but this is not a long-term game.
If you have time and you want to play a long-term game. Then organic content marketing is for you. But for a better understanding and to craft the best marketing plan for you. You need to get the detail knowledge about both ( organic and paid marketing ).
Because after getting the knowledge, you will easily understand. What strategies do you need to apply to your business, and what is the right time to switch to another one?
For Example, if you focus on ads, then you need to spend money and need to target a cold audience. But if you target organic content marketing, then you need time and patience, but here you target the hot audience.
Quick definitions of Both
Content Marketing: In content marketing, we build Content for the audience to target our desire customers. Content is the information that we provide to the audience in the form of any media (images, videos and articles)
Paid Ads: In paid ads, we run ads to get to reach the desire audience. There are a lot of platforms to target multiple types of audiences. But before run ads, you need first to understand what type of audience you need to target. Then you need to target them with your ads and Content. Also, you need an understanding of running ads on social media platforms.
Organic Content vs paid Ads
| Dimension | Organic Content | Paid ads |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Investment Time + production; long-term investment Higher upfront time cost; cumulative value. | Direct media spend; immediate cost Pay-per-impression / click — stops when budget stops. |
| Speed to results | Slow — weeks → months SEO & organic social growth take time. | Fast — hours → days Campaigns can drive traffic almost immediately. |
| Credibility | Higher — users generally trust organic results more Perceived authenticity and social proof. | Lower trust but high control Clear CTA control, but often seen as promotional. |
| Targeting | Broad & intent-based (SEO) or follower-based (social) Targets users with matching intent or followers. | Precise targeting & segmentation Granular audience selection and retargeting. |
| Scalability | Compounds over time; retains value Evergreen content continues to pay off. | Scales while the budget exists Quick scaling but cost is ongoing. |
| Measurement | Attribution is multi-touch and complex; harder to capture full funnel Requires cross-channel analytics & time-based models. | Easier to tie to conversions (but doesn't show the full story) Strong campaign analytics for direct ROI. |
Which Strategy is best to work on in 2025
For the last 7 years, I have been working on digital marketing strategies. In my whole career, there have been a lot of times I switch to multiple strategies when I need to move to another one.
For Example, when back in 2016, I discovered tiktok. So I configure out. In the future the working on short-form Content is more beneficial instead of long-form.
So I started making educational Content on TikTok to teach people about digital marketing and seo. But at that time, the audience on TikTok was not mature. So I did not get much attention. That’s why I left, and then in 2021, I started again to build Content on tiktok.
Also in 2021, YouTube switched the paradigm and launched its short-form features, which also built the narrative to make short-form Content.
After this era, there are a lot of short-form content creators who come to the mainstream and gain a lot of views, subscribers and audience. So in 2021, I also built my own Content that gained a huge audience, and I gained almost 12k followers on tiktok.
Step-by-Step Strategy to work with
The reason to tell you the story is to guide you; there is no perfect strategy in the marketing sector. With time, your strategies need to be upgraded, and you need to follow trends.
But don’t worry, right now you don’t need to spend time building strategies. I am providing you with a strategy that is working right now for me and also works for you.
90 Days Digital marketing plan
This is the 3-month marketing plan to work on in 2025. You can easily apply or add this to your business, also it will also be applicable for startups. But depending on your budget and wants, you need to upgrade according to your business.
Week 0-2 (Preparation Phase )
Of course, you have a business, and in the start, you want traffic and sales. So in our preparation phase, we focus on posts and Content for social media to run ads. Because at the start, you don’t have any audience or traffic. That’s why you need to run ads, but here we play smart.
Instead of place ads on posts, we run ads on videos, which are more engaging and provide you with more retention. But before making video ads, you need to work on the ad format and Content. Like right now, what is running, what is trend, and try to implement the trend in your ads.
For Example, there are currently cricket matches being played, so if you have a mends-related product. Then this is the right time to mix it with this trend, because cricket is trending right now, so this will give you more engage and audience.
For this, you need to do proper research, because crafting a content script is also another science that will be discussed in another article. With Content, you need a landing page that will drive your customers to that page.
Note: Please do not make Content about on-sale type, because this will set a benchmark for you to sell cheap products. These sale-type ads drive reasonable customers for you. But the spending power is not to much high. So in the future, you will not retarget them.
Week 2-4 (Production Phase)
After preparation, the next step is to build Content, posts, articles and graphics. Specially your videos, I recommend you to make atleast five types of different videos. Because this will lead you to doing AB testing easily for your ads, in this phase, you need to do all the stuff to launch your marketing campaigns.
Week 4-6 (launch Phase)
In this phase, you need to launch your campaign for AB testing. Because this is very important, and also in this phase, your actual work starts. While running ads, you need to learn what type of ads work. What type of ads are not getting attention?
Because this testing will lead you to the actual Content that drives your sales and leads. After finding what type of Content is working for you. Then you need to produce more Content like that.
For interesting graphics and content ideas, add Gemini AI to your Plan.
Because for 1 year I have been constantly using all of LLMs and with my experience, Gemini is more accurate and provides you latest data. The reason I configure is to have more access to new data and trends.
Week 6-8 (Reproduce Phase)
This is the phase you will need to recreate new Content to target the audience through ads. Because while doing AB testing, you already have an idea what type of ads are doing well for your business and how to improve them for better results. So focus on those concepts and craft new Content, and run ads.
Also, at this time, you need to identify the flaws that are in your own products. So initially, you will fix them and fit your products to the needs of the audience. This will lead you to play a very long game.
Week 8-10 (Expand Phase)
After 8 weeks, you already have some sales, traffic and audience on your pages. Now it’s time to build the organic Content to target those audiences that you get. The best way to do this is through personal branding.
If you are the owner of the business, then you should face the camera and build Content related to your industry and target those audiences that you want to target.
For Example, like I was doing in 2021, building Content around seo and digital marketing to target the audience related to my skills.
But before crafting Content, you need to decide what type of audience you need to target. Also, podcasting is one of the best options to establish your branding very fast.
There are a lot of YouTube channels that are doing podcasting right now. If you are an industry expert, read them and ask them for a podcast. Most of them invite you, but if they don’t, pay them some money and good to go.
Week 10-12 (Target Large Audience Phase)
In this phase now you need to increase the budget of your ads and also target a large audience. The best way to do that is influencer marketing. You have money and a budget, so according to that, you need to target influencers who are related to your product.
Reach them and ask for collaborations, most of them demand you the money and it depends on how much audience they have. Now, with time and working, these strategies will lead you to build your own business or personal brand.
What type of skill set do you need
Skills depend on what you will need to target in the start, but if you have a plan to work on my 90-day Plan and you are a one-man army, then you need to learn some of the core skills.
Content Writing: This is the first skill that I ask you to learn. Because Content writing helps you to make highly engaging Content for the draft of your videos. Because planning on paper has more advantages.
Video Editing: If you are working with videos, then you need to learn the basics of video editing. But I recommend that you hire a freelancer to do it for you. Because they are professionals, and at the start, quality is more important.
Ads Running: Ad placement on multiple social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, you need to learn Facebook Ads Manager. And if you are targeting YouTube and Google, then you need to learn Google Ads Manager. At the start, placing ads for yourself saves you money, and you need to spend that money on ads.
Web designing: In the start, you need to build your own website and landing pages. Because at the end, you need a page that will convert your audience.
If you have money to spend, then you will hire these skill sets to make your work fast. But atleast you need to learn the basics, because this will help you manage any emergency.
What do I choose, Paid Ads or content marketing
Listen, I’m more seo guy, so I know the real power of seo and organic marketing. Because in organic marketing, time is needed, but the reward is long-term. I focus on more content marketing at the start instead of paid.
But it doesn’t mean I did not focus on paid ads, and I did not run paid ads. The Plan I provided in this article, I personally follow for myself also, but with time I shift m,y strategies and vision toward the Content because content marketing is the fastest way to build a brand. Which is the most important factor right now?
I hope you notice, but if you are not, there are a lot of companies’ ceo making videos and Content about this field. Because personal branding is the next big thing, instead of business branding the personal branding helps you more. For Example, Coca-Cola is the brand, but the majority of you don’t know the ceo and the founder of Coca-Cola. Instead of Coca-Cola, if I say Tesla, most of you already know the ceo of Tesla. Of course, Elon Musk, because he built personal branding.
The power of personal branding is, if he builds a new business, he announces it, and the world knows. But for Coca-Cola, it’s very difficult to tell about the new products to the global market. That’s the real power of Personal branding.
What do I choose, Paid Ads or content marketing
With time, you need to upgrade yourself, because there is no perfect strategy to work with. The second thing focuses more on personal branding. Because this will lead you the success, and therefore content marketing will help you to do that.
The third one, if you have a mind to drive sales and traffic at the start, you need to focus on paid ads. But don’t rely on paid ads more. Because in the long run, building an audience and branding give you more edge than paid ads. So my focus is 70% on organic marketing and 30% paid marketing. This is a scale to measure the marketing plan.