The On Going War Between Paid Ads and Free Ads

by 21 replies
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Yes, I really do think that there is war between the 2.

There are a lot of VERY successful internet marketers in the home business niche who are making a LOT of money online every single day.

One really successful marketer says that you ALL he does is blogging every day and that is how he is earning the majority of his income. He is getting free traffic and he is NOT recommending paying for ads.

While another really successful marketer has made more or less the same as the first marketer but does not do or believe/recommend free marketing.

For a new person, this can be really overwhelming. So where does one start when there is an ongoing war between the 2 "gurus"?

From my own point of view, paid ads always gets you fast results anytime you run ads you that know work well. (Testing new places is the way to determine which ones work for you and which ones don't)

Free marketing may work for the first successful "guru" but it is slow and painful process.

What are your thoughts?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #ads #free #paid #war
  • I haven't really seen what I would call a "war" between the two methods.

    Personally, I think both methods have a place. The marketer simply chooses which method he/she wants to employ. Some do 100% one way or the other; other marketers choose some level of "free / paid" promotion like 80/20, 50/50 or 10/90.

    Often the budget that the marketer has will determine how much paid advertising can be done.

    But you are certainly right in saying it's best to experiment and test (on a small but valid sample) to see which approaches work best for you.

    One thing that I have done which helps, I believe . . . is to plow any profit you make back into your marketing tests rather than spending them on other things.

    I believe it is in your best interest to find out what works fast, what produces your best results quickly so that you can focus on ramping up and refining your marketing so you get rid of all the stuff that doesn't produce a profit for you.

    Thanks for the thread,

    Steve
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
  • Hi

    The simple answer for me is that
    my strategy cover both, free and
    paid...

    The free traffic need time investment
    and the paid is what it says..

    While my free is working out im also
    using paid, which is slowly growing and
    becoming one of my main...

    As for newbie i think starting with paid as
    well as few free traffic strategy work well...

    One thing i realized was that free traffic you
    need to put in the time and hard work as well
    as staying focused and consistency....

    It takes a while for the free traffic to
    come but its more effective then the paid....

    You can say there is a war as many dun
    like to pay for traffic to kick start their
    business but rather work on free strategies...

    I personally think free traffic strategy are
    better then paid as you get many warm
    traffic as they know you and been following
    you as the paid are complete cold traffic and
    can take a while to warm up...
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Both methods are awesome...

    "Paid and Free"

    Paid traffic comes straight away
    and free traffic takes time...

    BUT...

    Paid traffic is less effective
    and free traffic is more effective
    as the conversions are better.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I think diversity is the "key"

    I suggest all beginners new to the traffic world, test both free and paid traffic and move in the direction of the method that works best for you. Bottom line...test test and test some more, and then follow the money (results).
    • [1] reply
    • War is an interesting term to use to characterize this. I think a good even combination of Free and Paid can be advantageous if done properly.

      I think when I first started out I was kind of like that Blogger you mentioned. Just blog with loads and loads of valuable content. And they will come...i.e. Field of Dreams lol


      Unfortunately, this can be a flawed way of thinking because you are at the mercy of Google and their skittish and unpredictable ways.

      At first I thought the same thing as this blogger, but after a couple of Algo changes you start to understand the predicament this can put you in.
      • [1] reply
  • If you could pay $1 for an advertisement and that advertisement could make you $2, you'd be quite foolish not to throw as much money as you possibly could into that advertising campaign.

    I love the free traffic I get but paid traffic for me has not only been a lot easier to attain, it's far more scalable and my return on time invested is far greater.
  • For those that have more time than money,free is all they have.
  • Definitely depends on where you're starting from. I think today it's impossible to start with free ads unless you're fortunate enough to somehow be leveraging some sort of viral, trending subject matter and therefore have traffic. But this is not very common these days, There's already blogs and social media pages on almost every conceivable subject and people. Otherwise, newer folks will need to start with paid ads and then, once an audience is built up they can rely a bit on free ads. Fortunately, these days, paid ads don't necessarily need to be expensive
  • For those who can afford to go through a learning process by utilizing paid traffic, the results will come faster (either positive or negative which allows one to make adjustments accordingly).

    For those who have more time than money, free methods to drive traffic are the wiser choice.

    When sales / conversions start happening, then the free methods of getting traffic can become "paid" methods by outsourcing whatever free method was being used to a reliable VA.
  • IMO there is no war.
    People do great with free traffic
    People do great with paid traffic

    I know people who do great with free traffic but suck at paid traffic and I know people who do great with paid traffic but suck with free traffic and I know people that do ok with both.

    To me, I focus mostly on paid but have some free as well. I've always done better with paid.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • To be honest with you, I don't think there is a distinction because you might think you are getting free ads or you're getting free traffic but the reality is you're still paying.

    In fact, if you were to ask me, I would rather pay money for ads because, at least, I'm only paying in the form of money.

    You see, your most important asset is your time.

    Your time is very precious because you can convert your time into a wide variety of forms.

    You can convert your time into a better body.

    You can convert your time into better relationships.

    You name it.

    Generating money with your time is just a tiny subset of the tremendous possibilities made possible by this amazing asset.

    This is why I would suggest that instead of fixating on free traffic, focus instead on finding the most effective traffic sources.

    If you have to pay for a high-converting traffic, then so be it.

    If you are looking at your business from a strong ROI perspective, then you would pay whatever it takes to get the most value for your investment.

    Don't let the idea of "free traffic" fool you.

    There is no such animal.

    A free lunch is yet to be invented.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • My view is if your budget allows, you should always start with paid ads as a beginner. Of course, this is in combination with your "free ads".

      Why do I say so?

      Because your time is precious. You want to make sure that your content is useful and valuable as soon as possible so that you do not waste your time.

      To combine paid and "free ads", here's what I will do:

      1. Determine your audience persona. You can try using Facebook audience insights to do that. Also, find out how can you reach out them.

      2. Write high-quality content that will appeal to your audience persona. Make sure that your content is optimized for SEO as well. You might also want to throw in content upgrades or opt-in.

      3. Share your content in various communities that can reach. [Free ads] Do not just post one link. Summarize your article and provide the link if they want to read more.

      4. Create Facebook Ads targeting at your audience persona. You can start from just $5.

      If your content is really good, you will be able to see results in terms of conversions. Tweak the ads in terms of images and text. Of course, you can also tweak the call-to-action in your content.

      Only when you are confident in your content, then you can start writing more content on the niche.
  • I personally think that this falls to a conclusion of being a personal preference.

    I mean, you may start at trying both and see which one is best for you.

    And by 'best', I'm not talking about profit alone. This includes the effort you've done and the time you spent.

    Think well.

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers!
    JB
  • It is slow. I used to believe hardbody in EZA's traffic. But it felt more like a "grunt job". To get alot of traffic everyday, i had to submit like 5 articles per day. When i stopped submitting articles everyday... suddenly my traffic from EZA dropped dramatically. Then when i resumed the 5 articles per day, that's when the traffic started ramping up again. After that, paid advertising became my savior.
  • Nothing is free if you put your time to do it it's not free.
  • There is no ongoing war or anything. Just some personal preference. There is always something for everyone. Some people find out that it is easy and fast to get free traffic. Some people don't.
  • It simply depends what you value more. Do you value your time, or money?

    For me, I'll always be partial towards paid traffic cause I value my time (time is something you can't get back). Plus, there's no guarantee of free traffic working out. With paid traffic, you do have to test and start off small, but once you find something that works, then you can scale the hell out of it
  • Banned
    Paid ads are 100% effective than free ads. Free ads can be marked as spam, but paid ads never gets the black name of spam. Use paid ads for the best results.
  • I think you should use both!

    Free ads good for starting out!
    Paid ads you should use when you get profit from it.
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