In the wide, wide world of branding, you may have heard the terms “paid” and “organic” advertising, but what do these terms mean?

Paid advertising refers to the broad idea of any advertising that you, as a brand, have to pay for. Marketers work to pay for their own ad space for more exposure. Ad space is gained through a bidding process. This can result in a much larger arena for your business to be found. To increase traffic, you can even bid on popular display areas on popular sites where there is naturally already a lot of traffic. Now, your ad is positioned in a prime spot for customers to see it and interact with it.

An example of paid advertising would be display ads and “PPC” ads, known as pay-per-click ads. You are able to customize your goals based on the amount you would like to spend per advertisement. Facebook is a primary example of a platform that utilizes paid advertisement.

As you may have guessed, organic advertisements are any unpaid advertisements, and are a result of organic searches. Online search engines and social networking sites both utilize algorithms to generate this type of content for the viewer. The main benefit of organic advertising is that it is the inexpensive option. It also may appear more natural on your search engines as opposed to a paid ad. People prefer this type of advertisement if they are trying to sound more natural or personable. Depending on your marketing goals, you may weigh the pros and cons of each method to best fit your needs.

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