Content Marketing vs. Ads: Which Should You Prioritize for Your Business?

[Taktik]

Hi,

I wonder why so many people today are saying that you should start with content marketing and build an audience first, and that you will find an info product later on when you have an audience telling you what they want.

That sounds like it's wrong. I mean, content marketing takes a long time. Why not just try to make an info product and sell it immediately via ads? If it works, one could use content marketing to increase sales later on.

But most people say that content marketing is the fire and ads are the fire accelerant after you produce loads of content and make a product.

A couple of days ago, I finished a book where the author (who, to be fair, made a lot of money with info products) basically said that being dependent on ads and spending money on them sounds like a nightmare to him. He is much happier with producing content every day, which he has already done for more than a decade.

I don't know. A content treadmill sounds worse than running ads for info products, at least to me – because ads can run automatically once you've set them up.

As I said, I don't really get it. What's your opinion on that?

Thanks a lot.

 

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[Devilery]

Depends on the business model. An ecommerce brand would be best having both content for organic traffic (plus social proof) and ads for direct sales. A tractor mechanic shop? It doesn't need to be on Instagram and TikTok.

You said it yourself - content marketing is generally free, delivers organic traffic, and is great for social proof and credibility, the downsides are that it's time-consuming and takes time to deliver results.

Ads deliver a near instant feedback but you pay for every bit of engagement. If you can afford it, it's great, you can test a lot of angles quickly, and verify the success probability of your offer within weeks not months.

 

[random_username]

Hi,

I wonder why so many people today are saying that you should start with content marketing and build an audience first, and that you will find a product later on when you have an audience telling you what they want.

That sounds like it's wrong. I mean, content marketing takes a long time. Why not just try to make an info product and sell it immediately via ads? If it works, one could use content marketing to increase sales later on.

But most people say that content marketing is the fire and ads are the fire accelerant after you produce loads of content and make a product.

A couple of days ago, I finished a book where the author (who, to be fair, made a lot of money with info products) basically said that being dependent on ads and spending money on them sounds like a nightmare to him. He is much happier with producing content every day, which he has already done for more than a decade.

I don't know. A content treadmill sounds worse than running ads, at least to me – because ads can run automatically once you've set them up.

As I said, I don't really get it. What's your opinion on that?

Thanks a lot.

I was just thinking about this recently, since I'm releasing my product out there literally today, so I have a skin in the game. I'm learning marketing by doing, these are my conclusions/speculations so far.

It's just me working on this for now, so I think it's insanely idiotic for me to focus on content marketing treadmill. Reason is that it takes a bunch of time to produce and effects of it are long term. I completely understand how it becomes cheaper long term, and exponential effects it can produce. But I'm in startup mode and I need to generate cash. I worked a few years ago in a agency where content marketing was sold as something important to startups, and then those startups went out of business before content marketing produced any results. I'm also inexperienced in marketing, so long feedback cycle + lack of experience in it seems like a disaster.

My thinking is that ads are better for startups short term if you can afford it go start generating income and users. So my personal plan is to start by focusing on high intent customers with ads, to try to generate cash. After that, create 2-3 keystone content/lead magnets and promote that to top of the funnel people with ads. This also has shorter feedback cycle, which will accelerate my learning compared to content.

After that focus on borrowing someone else's credibility and influence. I'm still working out how to achieve that tactically, so this is very vague still. But some combination of approaching influencers, reaching out to sites (PR) and affiliate marketing.

And only when/if my business is validated, I would focus on content marketing.

This is roughly speaking what I'm betting on myself today. There is a decent chance that I'm going to come back to this forum in a month and look at this post and write "what an idiot I was", but hey, at least I'll know better