According to a survey conducted by Moz SEO tools, content marketing on social media sites is a better investment than paid advertising.

Moz surveyed content marketing agencies and digital publishers, and came to the conclusion that money spent on content marketing is a better investment than money spent on digital advertising.

The survey does not suggest that businesses abandon advertising, as long as they realise that the goals of content and advertising are different.

Both content and advertising can be seen to solve a reader’s problem. Advertising does this primarily through people buying a product or service though, meaning the content of advertising does not have value in itself.

Content aims to build trust by providing useful and relevant information or advice. Content advertising does not aim to sell a product or service straight away, but can generate leads that eventually lead to sales. Readers of content should find value in it irrespective of whether they buy a product or service.

Many people are exposed to a large number of adverts, whether on websites, social media or through phone apps. The sheer number of adverts can therefore dilute their impact.

One of the reasons that many businesses favour advertising is that the process of creating an advert then gauging its effectiveness is easier than content marketing. Using pay-per-click advertising, it’s easy to gauge its success by how many clicks are registered, and how many of these clicks convert to sales.

Content marketing is more difficult requiring, highly targeted content that is uploaded on a regular basis and across multiple channels. Evaluating the effectiveness of content is trickier to measure.

If a large proportion of a marketing budget is spent on advertising, then this survey suggests that the balance is wrong and more resources need to be spent on content marketing.

Lianne Wilkinson