Everyone knows search and social feed most website visits, but the real debate is organic traffic vs paid traffic.
But what are they, exactly, and how do you choose the right mix?
In this guide, you’ll get a complete explainer, benchmarks, decision trees, and a 90-day plan to blend both into a compounding growth engine.
Some are fast and precise but stop the moment your budget pauses.
Some are slow to ramp but compound for years once they win.
Some look efficient on dashboards yet fail incrementality tests.
Some thrive on local intent like “mortgage broker Rockingham WA” and make phones ring.
Some shine for new launches, others win on evergreen demand capture.
Let’s dive right in.
Executive summary
Organic traffic vs paid traffic is not a rivalry. It’s a portfolio decision. Organic is earned visibility across search engines and platforms without paying per click or impression. Paid is purchased visibility across ads platforms where you pay per impression, click, or conversion. The smartest operators use both. Paid validates messages fast and fills gaps. Organic compounds, lowers blended acquisition cost, and builds durable demand capture. Together, they amplify each other.
Here’s the short of it.
- Organic: Slow to start, strong margins later. Influenced by content quality, technical health, links, and topical authority. Sensitive to algorithm updates but durable when you build depth and quality.
- Paid: Fast to launch, controllable, and targetable. Performance is tied to auctions, creative, and landing experience. It pauses when spend pauses and needs ongoing optimisation.
- Winning approach: Run paid for quick learning, coverage, and scale. Build organic for compounding reach, trust, and cost efficiency. Share data across both to raise the ceiling.
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Definition and scope
What is organic traffic?
Organic traffic refers to visits arriving via unpaid channels. Most prominently, organic search—clicks on non-ad results in Google or Bing. It also includes organic social, referral links, content syndication, and direct visits influenced by brand, word-of-mouth, offline activity, and email (if you don’t tag it as paid). In analytics suites, organic search is typically its own default channel.
Key traits:
- No per-click media charge (but real costs exist: content, technical SEO, tools, and people).
- Often higher intent and trust, especially for problem/solution queries.
- Compounds with topical authority, internal linking, and technical health.
- Influenced by algorithms, competitors, and content quality.
What is paid traffic?
Paid traffic is generated by buying placement through ads platforms. Think search ads, shopping/product listing ads, social ads, display, native, video, sponsored content, and affiliates. You pay for impressions, clicks, or conversions. You get controls: budgets, bids, audiences, geos, schedules, and placements.
Key traits:
- Direct cost per impression/click/action.
- Rapid testing, targeting, and message control.
- Scales with budget and auction conditions.
- Subject to platform policies, creative fatigue, and landing page quality.
What counts and what doesn’t
In this guide, “organic” spans unpaid visibility driven by your owned/earned efforts. “Paid” includes all purchased media—in feeds, SERPs, and networks. Branded search is a hybrid case. It’s cheap and high intent, but incrementality varies. Measure it carefully and decide based on tests, not assumptions.
Key differences at a glance
Control and predictability
Paid offers explicit controls. You can adjust spend, bids, audiences, and regions hourly. Organic is indirectly controlled. You influence rankings with content, site architecture, and reputation. Predictability grows as your content library and authority mature, but early swings are normal.
Cost structures and scalability
Organic spend looks like fixed or semi-fixed investments into people, tech, and content. The marginal cost per additional visit tends to drop as pages rank. Paid spend scales linearly with volume—auctions often get pricier as you push impression share. But paid reaches places organic can’t yet reach, especially in new markets or high-difficulty keywords.
Speed and time to impact
Paid turns on immediately. Organic typically takes weeks to months. For existing domains, you may see early movement in 1–3 months on long-tail queries and more reliable traction around months 4–6. For new sites, expect 6–12 months for meaningful rankings, depending on competition and execution. That’s consistent with industry guidance that SEO is a long-term process with timelines shaped by site age, content quality, competition, and UX improvements (Vazoola).
Risk and durability
Organic returns can be durable. They’re vulnerable to algorithm updates, but diversified topical coverage and quality mitigate risk. Paid returns are steady while campaigns run, but pause when spend pauses. Auctions, policies, and creative fatigue can swing results. A balanced portfolio spreads risk.
Costs, ROI, and time horizons
ROAS vs ROI (and why both matter)
Marketers love ROAS. It’s simple. How much revenue do you make per dollar of ad spend? But ROAS isn’t the whole picture. It ignores the other costs required to drive and close revenue. ROI includes total costs and paints a truer picture. As a practical rule: track both. Use ROAS for real-time throttle decisions; use ROI for investment decisions.
First Page Sage highlights the distinction clearly and shows that organic initiatives tend to outperform paid on ROAS when executed well, while ROI better represents true profitability across longer cycles. Their examples illustrate how a high ROAS campaign can still yield thin ROI once support and nurture costs are included (First Page Sage).
“ROAS tells you if the ad dollar works. ROI tells you if the whole engine works.” — A common CFO mantra.
CAC, LTV, and payback
Build your model around unit economics.
- CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost. Total marketing + sales acquisition costs divided by new customers.
- LTV: Lifetime Value. Average revenue per customer × gross margin × expected retention period.
- Payback period: CAC ÷ monthly gross profit per customer.
For organic, compute CAC at the program or cluster level. Example: If you invest $20,000 in a quarter of SEO and generate 400 customers from that work over its useful life, program CAC is $50. For paid, CAC is usually available by campaign and ad set. Include tool, creative, and agency costs on both sides to compare apples-to-apples.
Benchmarks and leading indicators
What’s “good”? It varies by industry, intent, and offer. But directional reference points help. WordStream reports median Google Ads search CTR ~3.17%, CPC ~$2.69, and conversion rates ~3.75% across industries, with wide variance by vertical and funnel stage (WordStream). Use benchmarks to set priors. Then calibrate to your market and offer. High-intent queries often convert well above averages; broad prospecting will be lower.
Remember: vanity metrics mislead. A lower CPC isn’t helpful if conversion rate plummets. A higher CTR isn’t helpful if it’s the wrong audience. Look at CAC and ROI in context.
Short-term vs long-term ROI
Paid excels in the short term. You can target high-intent queries tomorrow, test offers this week, and reach statistical significance fast if budget allows. Organic excels long term. Once a high-quality page ranks, its marginal cost per click trends toward zero while continuing to generate demand and assist conversions.
Thought experiment:
- You invest $8,000 in a content sprint and technical fixes. By month four, those pages drive 5,000 visits/month at 2% conversion, netting 100 conversions. The month-four CAC from this body of work is $80, but in month five and beyond, CAC per incremental conversion declines as content keeps performing.
- You spend $8,000 on ads at an $80 CPA. You get 100 conversions that month. Pause spend and new paid conversions stop.
Neither is “better.” The magic is the blend. Use paid for quick feedback and to harvest immediate demand. Use organic to reduce blended CAC over time and to capture long-tail demand that ads miss.
Timelines you can plan around
What’s realistic? For established websites, expect a three-month foundation: technical clean-up, new content, early ranking movement, and initial UX iteration. For new websites, plan 6–12 months to meaningful traction, with crawl frequency, domain authority, topic competition, and content quality being the main levers. Vazoola’s breakdown of stages (months 1–12 and beyond) mirrors what most operators see in practice and shows why SEO is a marathon, not a sprint (Vazoola).
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When to invest in organic vs paid
Early-stage startup
Goals: learning, traction, investor proof points. Bias to paid for speed, but lay organic foundations. Suggested split: 70% paid, 30% organic for the first quarter. Use paid to validate who, what, and where. Capture high-intent search. Build retargeting pools. In organic, prioritise technical health, clear information architecture, and two or three cornerstone pieces that map to your core jobs-to-be-done.
Local and SMB
Local intent changes the game. Maps packs, reviews, and proximity signals rank. Organic efforts should emphasise Google Business Profile optimisation, local citations, reviews, location pages, and service detail pages. Paid search should target high-intent, time-sensitive terms and service areas where organic presence is thin. Seasonal? Flex paid around demand peaks. Maintain reviews and evergreen content year-round to sustain trust signals.
Enterprise brands
Enterprises have domain strength but complexity. Organic must scale technical excellence, maintain governance, and preserve information architecture. Paid should defend branded terms where competitors bid, scale non-brand prospecting under CAC caps, and launch new products with full-funnel creative. Establish a unified taxonomy and reporting to reduce cannibalisation and to measure incrementality objectively.
Ecommerce, SaaS, and publishers
- Ecommerce: Paid shopping and performance creative drive near-term revenue. Organic category hubs, product detail optimisation, buyer guides, and comparison content win durable capture. CRO lifts both.
- SaaS: Paid search for problem/solution queries + retargeting for trials/demos. Organic thought leadership, documentation, integration pages, and comparison content build trust and long-tail capture.
- Publishers: Organic is the backbone via topical clusters and evergreen content. Paid is selective for audience growth and content amplification.
How organic and paid work together
Search coverage and brand defence
Owning both an ad and an organic result increases SERP real estate and click share. Bidding on your brand name can be efficient and protective, especially when competitors are conquesting and you want control over extensions, sitelinks, and current offers. Always validate incrementality with tests, but don’t assume cannibalisation equals waste; context matters.
Data feedback loops across channels
Paid gives rapid, high-frequency signals. Which headline wins? Which offer gets traction? Feed those insights into your titles, meta descriptions, and on-page content. Organic data reveals searcher questions and related topics—treasure for expanding paid keyword lists, refining audiences, and crafting creative angles.
Watch: Reach vs efficiency, in plain English.
In short: organic content’s reach is variable and earned; paid delivery is assured by budget and bids, but efficiency must be earned with creative and landing page quality.
Retargeting and content amplification
Organic content introduces, educates, and builds trust. Paid retargeting brings qualified visitors back with tailored offers. Conversely, a small amplification budget can seed engagement and early links for a new guide, especially on social networks where organic reach is constrained.
Want a deeper tactical walk-through, including models and worksheet prompts? See this detailed playbook: organic traffic vs paid traffic tactical guide.
Building an organic engine
Keyword strategy and topical authority
Structure content into topic clusters. Each cluster has a pillar page that comprehensively covers a core topic and supporting articles that answer sub-questions. This improves internal linking, helps search engines understand depth, and improves UX.
Four steps:
- Map customer journeys and jobs-to-be-done to search intents: informational, commercial, transactional, navigational.
- Group keywords by theme and intent. Score by volume, difficulty, and business value.
- Draft outlines that fully answer the query, integrate related entities, and demonstrate subject expertise.
- Plan internal links from support articles to the pillar and to relevant conversion pages.
Technical SEO essentials
Your site must be crawlable, fast, and machine-readable.
- Logical information architecture with descriptive categories and breadcrumb trails.
- Fast load times: compress images, cache, defer render-blocking scripts.
- Structured data: Products, Articles, FAQs, Reviews—earn rich results and better click-through.
- Canonicalisation: avoid duplicates, especially across pagination and filters.
- XML sitemaps and robots directives: guide crawlers and avoid traps.
Content creation and distribution
Quality wins—and it’s defined by usefulness, clarity, and originality.
- Create briefs specifying audience, intent, outline, sources, differentiators, and CTAs.
- Edit for depth and clarity. Add data and examples. Use visuals where helpful.
- On-page optimisation: headings, descriptive titles and meta descriptions, purposeful internal links, and clear CTAs.
- Distribution: newsletters, partner mentions, communities, and PR to earn early engagement and links.
Link earning and digital PR
Links are still a strong signal. Earn them; don’t chase shortcuts.
- Publish linkable assets: industry stats, tools, templates, definitive guides.
- Pitch editors with a clear value proposition.
- Participate in industry conversations; be quotable.
- Monitor unlinked mentions and request proper citations.
Measurement that actually improves outcomes
Track three levels: page, cluster, and business impact. Include impressions, clicks, rankings, scroll depth, conversions (direct and assisted), and contribution to pipeline/revenue. Build dashboards that segment brand vs non-brand and new vs returning users. Teams that implement disciplined SEO reporting and track progress see more growth; one analysis reports businesses increased website traffic by 57% in six months when they put structured SEO reporting in place (Fireus Marketing).
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Building a paid engine
Channel selection and budgets
Match channel to intent and creative format.
- Search: captures existing demand with high intent. Great for bottom-of-funnel offers.
- Shopping/PLA: essential for ecommerce catalogues.
- Social: creates and shapes demand with storytelling. Best for creative testing and top/mid-funnel.
- Video and display: awareness, remarketing, and view-through lift when measured properly.
Budget rules of thumb:
- Fund to reach statistically reliable learning weekly. Underspending produces inconclusive tests.
- Allocate to audiences and campaigns with predictable CAC below your threshold.
- Reserve a fixed percentage for controlled experiments.
Creative and messaging
It’s an offer and creative game as much as targeting. Build a messaging matrix across personas and funnel stages. Test big rocks: headline hooks, value props, social proof, guarantees (avoid the term itself in regulated contexts), and risk-reversal devices like trials or flexible terms.
Campaign structure and testing
In search, group keywords by intent and theme. Use match types thoughtfully. Keep ad groups aligned to landing pages. In social, segment by first-party data, interests, and lookalikes. Iterate quickly on engagement and lower-funnel signals. Pre-register your hypotheses and sample size targets; run tests to completion.
Landing pages and CRO
Traffic is potential. The landing experience turns potential into revenue. Align page copy with query and creative. Keep one primary CTA. Simplify forms. Add trust badges and relevant social proof. Remove friction. Use A/B testing to lock in durable wins. For organic, evergreen conversion pages work well. For paid, modular pages help tailor to campaign angles.
Measuring paid performance
Anchor on CAC and ROAS, but watch leading indicators: CTR, Quality Score (search), cost per click, view rates, hold rates, and frequency (social/video). Benchmarks from WordStream provide directional reference points for CTR, CPC, conversion rates, and CPAs, reminding teams that variance by industry and intent is real (WordStream).
Budgeting and allocation models
70/20/10 framework
Allocate 70% to proven channels/tactics, 20% to adjacent bets, and 10% to experimental ideas. Apply within organic and within paid. Example: Organic—70% core topic clusters, 20% adjacent topics, 10% interactive tools. Paid—70% high-intent search, 20% prospecting on social, 10% new creative/offers.
Seasonality and event-driven shifts
Flex spend around seasonality, launches, and promotions. For retail peaks, raise paid budgets with guardrails and schedule content early to build organic momentum. In quiet periods, lean into evergreen content and CRO.
Guardrails and CAC caps
Set CAC thresholds per channel/campaign and minimum ROAS for revenue-driven programs. Enforce with automated rules and weekly reviews. For organic, protect output and quality: briefs per week, publishing cadence, and technical health checks.
Attribution and measurement
UTM hygiene and tracking
Clean data starts with consistent tracking. Standardise UTMs. Use lowercase. Define sources and mediums clearly. Separate paid social from organic social and brand vs non-brand search. Consider server-side tagging for resiliency.
Multi-touch vs last click
Last click undervalues awareness and mid-funnel channels. Use multi-touch models (time decay, position-based) and validate with experiments. Where feasible, run geo or time-based holdouts and conversion lift studies to estimate true contribution.
Branded search and incrementality
Branded search is tempting to scale because it’s cheap and converts well. But what’s incremental? The right answer is empirical. Run holdouts by geo or time windows, then monitor total outcomes. Some tests find a meaningful share of brand clicks are incremental due to competitive pressure and above-the-fold control, while others show lower lift depending on the brand and SERP composition. Communities of practice frequently discuss the pros and cons of different approaches for measuring incrementality and the nuances of interpreting results (discussion).
Benchmarks and expectations
Organic timelines and milestones
Reasonable expectations for a new or improving program:
- Month 1: Technical fixes queued and shipped, content calendar ready, first cluster published, baseline captured.
- Months 2–3: Early long-tail rankings, growing impressions, first conversions from new pages.
- Months 4–6: Cluster maturation, mid-tail stability, early referral links, and CRO uplift.
- Months 6–12: Durable traffic from multiple clusters, stronger internal linking, and higher conversion efficiency.
Paid channel benchmarks
Directional ranges from WordStream’s analysis can guide your priors: search CTR often 3–8% depending on industry, conversion rates ~3–15% for high-intent search with strong landing pages, and display much lower across the board (WordStream). Don’t chase averages; beat your own history.
Industry variance and maturity
Costs and competition vary by vertical. Highly regulated or niche markets may move slower in organic but convert at higher rates. New categories need education; established categories reward comparison pages and trust content (reviews, case studies, proof).
Step-by-step 90-day plan
Days 1–30: Foundations
- Align on goals, CAC targets, payback windows, and attribution principles. Document definitions of success.
- Audit analytics. Implement consistent UTM taxonomy. Build dashboards for organic and paid with shared metrics.
- Run a technical SEO audit. Fix crawlability, speed, and critical structured data.
- Create a keyword-to-content map for two priority clusters. Draft briefs and publish at least four cornerstone pieces and supporting articles.
- Launch core paid search for high-intent non-brand terms and modest brand defence (with guardrails). Set retargeting audiences.
- Stand up two or three landing page variants aligned to campaigns. Start A/B tests for forms and value props.
Days 31–60: Acceleration
- Expand clusters with supporting content and internal links. Add FAQs and comparisons.
- Pitch linkable assets to partners and publications. Monitor unlinked mentions; secure citations.
- Scale paid search into additional themes that meet CAC thresholds. Add paid social prospecting to test narratives and collect engagement signals.
- Mine search term reports for converting queries. Add negatives. Feed winners into organic content plans.
- Iterate landing pages based on early tests. Improve clarity, speed, and social proof.
- Begin email capture and nurture to convert non-buyers.
Days 61–90: Scale and optimise
- Document a playbook of top-performing messages, offers, and formats.
- Publish second-wave pillar content. Deepen interlinking and topical authority.
- Refresh paid creative. Test new audiences informed by organic insights.
- Run an incrementality test for branded search or retargeting in a subset of geos/time windows.
- Set quarterly budget allocations using 70/20/10. Lock an experimentation roadmap.
- Implement alerts for CAC thresholds and SEO health metrics to maintain performance.
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Local playbooks for mortgage brokers in Perth (Baldivis, Rockingham, Port Kennedy, Wellard)
This section is tailored for home loan professionals in Western Australia. It follows a professional, approachable tone with clear, jargon-light guidance. The goal: rank and convert for suburb-level queries first, while building toward Perth-wide authority.
Goal 1: Win suburb intent
Start where intent is specific and conversion-ready. Build dedicated location pages that read like helpful local guides, not thin doorway pages. Examples of target queries and how to serve them:
- “mortgage broker Baldivis WA” and “home loan broker Baldivis”: Include suburb-specific property trends, helpful timelines for first-home buyers, and a simple explainer of pre-approval. Add real testimonials from local clients. Use synonymous job descriptors like “lending adviser” and “mortgage specialist” naturally.
- “mortgage broker Rockingham WA” and “home loan broker Rockingham”: Highlight local lender nuances, common loan types for defence and FIFO workers if relevant, and a checklist for refinancing in that market.
- “mortgage broker Port Kennedy” and “home loan broker Port Kennedy WA”: Include a short guide to comparing fixed vs variable interest strategies and construction loan steps if new builds are common.
- “mortgage broker Wellard WA” and “home loan broker Wellard”: Explain family-home considerations, schools catchment impacts on borrowing plans, and timeframes typical for settlement in the area.
Each page should include:
- A plain-language explainer of the process from chat to settlement.
- Clear CTAs to book a call—no pressure language, just helpful guidance.
- FAQs using suburb names naturally: “How long does pre-approval take in Baldivis?”
- Structured data (LocalBusiness + FAQPage).
Goal 2: Build service clusters
Create pillar pages for each service, then link them into the suburb pages:
- First home buyer loans (with stamp duty concessions overview and a step-by-step path).
- Refinancing (signals it may be time, costs explained plainly, potential savings illustrated).
- Investment loans (structures, risk management, cashflow considerations).
- Debt consolidation (explain pros/cons and eligibility in measured terms).
- Construction loans (staged drawdowns, inspections, timelines).
Use conversational Australian English. Avoid restricted terms like “cheapest” or “guaranteed.” Focus on clarity and benefits.
Goal 3: Pair suburb SEO with smart paid search
Use paid search to appear for urgent, high-intent suburb queries while organic builds. Campaign ideas:
- Exact and phrase match for suburb-modified keywords (e.g., “home loan broker Baldivis”).
- Ad copy that mirrors local needs: “Talk with a local lending adviser in Rockingham today.”
- Landing pages that match suburb language and include short forms plus phone contact for mobile users.
Monitor CAC and enquiry quality. Use call tracking to connect search terms to outcomes. Iterate weekly. Remember typical search CTR and CPC vary: WordStream’s medians (search CTR ~3.17%, CPC ~$2.69) are only a starting point (WordStream).
Goal 4: Content that earns trust
Publish ongoing suburb updates quarterly: lending sentiment, common questions from local clients, and simple stories explaining how you supported first-home buyers or investors. Use internal linking between suburb pages and service pillars to share authority.
Offer ideas (non-promissory, client-centric)
- “15-minute finance check-in” to explore options without obligation.
- “Refinance readiness checklist” PDF for Rockingham homeowners.
- “Construction loan timeline” infographic for Port Kennedy builds.
To accelerate production of collateral (like checklists or toolkits) without overloading your team, you can study playbooks for creating packaged digital assets and operationalising delivery—see this practical overview of done-for-you digital products for frameworks, pricing approaches, and templates you can adapt to your context (guide).
Case snapshots
B2B SaaS (complementary example)
A mid-market SaaS team scaled paid search for demo requests and retargeting for trials. CAC was acceptable but rising. They built an organic cluster around problems, comparisons, and integrations. In six months, non-brand organic grew 120%, contributing 35% of demos at roughly half the paid CAC. Paid insights shaped organic titles and CTAs. Blended CAC dropped 28% while pipeline grew.
DTC ecommerce
An online retailer leaned on paid social and shopping ads. Creative fatigue and rising CPMs squeezed margins. They added category guides, size-and-fit content, and seasonal landing pages, plus speed improvements. Organic traffic to category pages rose 80% in four months. They shifted 15% of paid budget into higher-intent search. Blended ROAS improved alongside repeat purchase rate.
Local services (home example)
A trades business optimised its Google Business Profile, earned reviews, and added suburb pages with FAQs. They kept a tight paid search campaign for emergency intent terms during peak hours. Calls from organic maps grew steadily, reducing reliance on higher-cost ads. A landing page test lifted call conversions by 20% across both organic and paid.
Mortgage broker in Rockingham (fictionalised composite)
A Rockingham-based home finance specialist launched four suburb pages: Rockingham, Baldivis, Port Kennedy, and Wellard. Each included tailored FAQs, a plain-language process, and local testimonials. Simultaneously, they ran paid search on exact match suburb keywords with short mobile-first landing pages. Within 90 days, combined enquiry volume doubled. Organic began contributing 45% of enquiries by month six, and the paid budget was reallocated toward the highest-intent suburbs where CAC held below target. The team used structured reporting, which improved content cadence and led to sustained traffic growth—echoing the broader correlation between disciplined reporting and traffic improvements reported elsewhere (Fireus Marketing).
Toolkit and resources
- Research: keyword tools, topic clustering, search listening, and SERP analysers.
- Technical: site crawlers, page speed tools, schema generators, CMS workflows.
- Paid: platform managers, creative editors, feed managers, and rules automation.
- Analytics: web analytics, data viz dashboards, attribution and experimentation platforms.
FAQs
Is organic traffic better than paid?
Neither wins in isolation. Organic compounds and tends to reduce marginal costs over time. Paid is immediate and controllable. Blend them according to goals, timelines, and unit economics.
How long does SEO take?
For existing sites, meaningful movement can appear within 1–3 months, with stronger gains around months 4–6. For new sites, plan 6–12 months. Factors include site age, content quality, competition, and UX. This aligns with broader industry guidance that SEO timelines are measured in months, not days (Vazoola).
Do I need to bid on my brand name?
Often, yes—particularly if competitors bid on it and you want control over messaging and extensions. Test incrementality with geo/time-based holdouts rather than assuming 0% or 100% lift. See ongoing discussions of incrementality design and interpretation for nuance (discussion).
What’s a good starting budget for paid?
Enough to reach statistical significance for your key hypotheses in 2–4 weeks. Many small-to-midsize teams start with a few thousand monthly for search plus a test budget for social, then calibrate to CAC and payback targets.
How do I avoid channel cannibalisation?
Coordinate queries and audiences. Share insights weekly. Align on blended KPIs. Use incrementality tests to shape brand bidding and retargeting budgets.
Conclusion and next steps
Organic traffic vs paid traffic is a portfolio, not a coin toss. Paid validates fast and captures urgent demand. Organic builds durable visibility, reduces blended CAC, and scales long-tail capture. Together, they compound.
Next steps:
- Model CAC, LTV, and payback to guide decisions.
- Implement measurement hygiene, with brand vs non-brand clarity and blended views.
- Run the 90-day plan: fix, publish, test, and iterate.
- Allocate budgets with 70/20/10 and schedule experiments.
Do this consistently. You’ll outlearn and out-iterate competitors who treat channels in silos—and you’ll build a growth engine that compounds through market shifts and platform changes.