Organic search has always been a pretty important focus area for modern digital marketing teams. After all, while paid advertising only generates about 15% of your traffic, organic search delivers about 53% of all visitors to your website.
However, in recent years, many marketers and advertisers have relied heavily on paid media strategies to deliver fast results and handy insights. With paid campaigns, it used to be easier to track and retarget customers through cookies, which can rapidly increase conversions. Unfortunately, all that is starting to change. Starting in 2024, Google will begin disabling third-party cookies for Chrome users.
While only a handful of people will be affected initially, this marks the start of a journey to a new future where marketers can no longer rely on cookies for audience insights. As a result, paid media is going to become harder to master, and less effective at driving positive ROI.
So, what’s the solution? A re-ignited focus on organic search.
Why Companies Can’t Rely on Paid Media Alone
The promise of a cookieless future isn’t the only reason companies need to rethink their approach to marketing from a more “organic” perspective. First, the price of CPM and other paid advertising campaigns is skyrocketing. Studies show the cost of Facebook ads alone has increased by 89%.
Even if you can afford to upgrade your paid ad budgets, the chances are you won’t see the return on investment you had a few years ago. There’s more competition in the market, and companies are struggling to quickly navigate ever-changing consumer preferences in an evolving world.
Additionally, the rise of new AI technologies influencing search results, and an unstable economy harming budget opportunities means paid traffic won’t be as reliable as it once was.
This means business owners need to find other ways of maintaining, growing, and preserving their brand presence in the years ahead. That’s where organic search marketing is beginning to step back into the spotlight, offering a solution for continued growth.
Why Organic Search?
Organic search traffic is the traffic that comes to your website when people search for something online and click on your website in the Search Engine Result Pages. Unlike paid search campaigns, organic search campaigns are (predominantly) free, aligned with new AI innovations, and much easier to implement than you might think.
Today, the top traffic source for all websites is still organic search, and consumers are using search engines more and more throughout their purchasing journeys. The majority of today’s consumers conduct an extensive amount of research online before ever interacting with a brand.
Investing in organic search:
- Improves your brand’s reputation: 51% of customers say they’re more likely to trust companies that appear high in the search results based on their content, rather than paying for ads. Nearly 50% even said they prefer brands that feature in the top 5 results.
- Enhances prospect quality: An organic search strategy doesn’t just help you attract more customers; it ensures you can attract the right type of customers. Content that appeals to different types of search intent will help you connect with and convert leads more easily.
- Sustains your marketing campaign: Paid ads and media require constant investment, maintenance, and manipulation. When you stop pumping cash into your campaign, you lose all momentum. Organic traffic is evergreen, provided your content remains valuable.
- Improves the customer journey: When you invest in organic search you create content that connects with customers at multiple stages during the buyer journey. This improves your chances of gradually pushing customers through your sales funnel.
- Increases return on investment: 60% of companies say organic traffic is more likely to earn them leads and revenue than any other marketing strategy. The return on investment for organic search can be up to three times higher than a paid media campaign.
Why Now Is the Time to Reinvest in Organic Search
The loss of cookies in the digital marketing space, and the rising cost of paid campaigns are just two of the reasons why companies need to focus more on organic search today. Organic search is the key to maintaining quantifiable ROI, increased brand trust, and more brand authority in your niche.
Prioritising organic search in your advertising strategy is one of the best ways to ensure a higher, faster return on your investment than you’d get with a paid strategy. Let’s look at the three main reasons why organic search should be a priority for your brand right now:
1. Technology is evolving
We’re living in a world where user search behaviours and preferences are changing faster than ever. That means companies need to invest in the latest tools and technology to stay one step ahead of the curve. Fortunately, AI solutions are making it easier to assess the market, understand opportunities, and even pinpoint chances to rank higher on search engines.
Additionally, as organic search technology evolves, it can take only a matter of days to get insights into how successful your content is, so you can make intelligent decisions about what you should be focusing on next.
2. Accessing Insights is Easier than Ever
Speaking of insights, the right organic search campaigns can give you more data to work with than ever before. In the past, it was often difficult to find the link between a new blog post or article and an increase in revenue. Now, however, there are countless SEO tools available that can help you monitor essential KPIs, and track the outcomes of your campaigns.
What’s more, the metrics you gather from organic search campaigns will give you useful insights into your target audience, what content they want to see, and their purchasing journeys, so you can customise your campaigns without relying on cookies.
3. Companies have more opportunities to Scale
One of the reasons many companies under-invested in organic search in the past was that creating content was a time-consuming and complex process. Now, however, generative AI tools are making it easier to create amazing content at scale.
While it’s important to be wary of using generative AI solutions to create all of your content, these tools can help with creating briefs, pinpointing useful ideas and topics for organic search and more, so you can produce results faster.
It’s Time to Re-Invest in Organic Search
The reality is that a marketing strategy focused entirely on paid media simply isn’t enough in today’s business world. With cookies coming to an end, and the price of paid campaigns increasing all the time, companies need to take a more sustainable approach.
Investing in organic search is how you can ensure you’re connecting with your customers on the right level through every stage of their purchasing journey. It’s how you boost your brand’s reputation and increase consumer trust while generating consistent, ongoing traffic.
What’s more, making organic search a pillar of your search strategy ensures you can maintain the right connections with your target audience. You can use the insights you collect to track consumer behaviour in real time, so you can adapt rapidly to their changing needs. All this leads to better relationships, improved differentiation, and even increased revenue.
