Digital PR vs Paid Advertising — How They Differentiate and Why You Should Invest in Both

The modern marketing world offers wide opportunities, strategies, and tools for business promotion. With time, new and new terms appear, so many people, who have nothing in common with the marketing sphere, confuse the notions and get lost on what they should choose. This is what very often happens with public relations (USA) and paid advertising. When new clients come to our company, claiming that they need advertising, surprisingly for them, it turns out that this is PR they are looking for and vice versa. To make things clearer for you, in this article, we will explain the difference between PR and advertising, the effects they help to reach, what kind of business they suit best, and what strategy will work specifically for you.

What is Digital PR?

This strategy aims at creating a positive and reliable online image of your company on the Internet space. It is beneficial for the new businesses to increase awareness of the company or brand, the product, and the services they offer. Big and successful companies also should not neglect PR as reputation is a very fragile thing, and it requires constant support and effort.

PR does not aim at selling anything, so you will not notice an incredible increase in sales in the short term (something like what you can expect using local SEO services). This strategy is sharpened for a long perspective. It improves the communication with the audience and helps to establish positive and reliable public relationships. What issues does PR help to solve?

• Increase awareness about the company,
• Introduce a new product/service to the audience,
• Win the people’s loyalty,
• Prove one’s expertise in the field,
• Establish long-term connections with the customers.

Online PR is different from the offline one, especially in the tools it uses for reaching the aims, but its main advantage is the massive number of audience it can grab. These are the real positive effects of digital PR services you will notice:

• Increased website traffic,
• Improved SEO (search engine optimization),
• Establishing the company as the authority in the niche,
• Generation of leads and sales,
• Improvement of the brand image,
• Increased audience’s trust.

PR Tools

One of the most serious PR weapons is content. The first point is its amount. The more content related to the company or brand is found on different internet platforms, the more audience it will reach, and the faster it will become famous and popular. Professional digital PR agency knows what type of content is topical and interesting to the public. Moreover, the already existing information in your blogs or website can be reused, added, or transformed to make new content. A single post may give the second life to:

• Guest blog post,
• Online newspaper article,
• An article in a trade publication,
• An infographic,
• A LinkedIn news update,
• Video content.

The main thing is the topicality and quality of the texts or videos you share with the public.

What is Paid Advertising?

This is one of the most effective digital marketing services, which brings results here and now. There are many reasons why business owners apply to this method:

• Announce about the sales,
• Increase the sales of the new products or services,
• Sell some particular goods or services.

Whatever is the reason, it always aims just to sell and increase income. Google paid advertising starts working immediately but has a short effect. The company pays for every click on the ad the customer makes. This is beneficial as you pay just for the real transitions to your webpage. However, the trick is to correctly identify the target audience, who may be really interested in your services and products. Otherwise, you risk wasting money and getting no result. The second point is that it works as long as you finance the campaign. When the money finishes, the ad sinks into oblivion and brings neither traffic nor purchases for your company. That is why it is crucial to hire a professional Google ads company, which will make the profit of every coin you invest in advertising.

PR vs Paid Advertising

• Advertising is for money, and PR is for “love”;
• Advertising works momentarily (for example, “Sale 60%!”), PR is built for months;
• The advertising campaign has ended – the consumer has cooled down. PR has a much-prolonged effect;
• Advertising sells goods, while PR creates a brand;
• With good PR, the consumer can “forgive” bad advertising;
• In advertising, you can be deceiving. In PR this is unforgivable;
• Advertising can make you famous for one day, PR can make you famous for a long time;
• Advertising allows you to quickly change the concept, PR is very strict to changes;
• No advertising can correct a negative attitude towards the company. PR can do it;
• Advertising is less trusted than public relations;
• Advertising text calls for action, PR text talks about the company;
• Advertising can turn into art, PR – only in skill;
• In advertising, they can remember the plot well, but not remember the brand of the product. In PR, the brand will be remembered first.

What to Choose?

Many companies mistakenly assume that only one strategy can bring them success. Any professional digital marketing company (USA) will tell you that it requires a complex and comprehensive approach. A company cannot successfully exist on the market without a positive reputation and a well-known name. A PR campaign is a thing that will work on you for a long time.

Advertising is useful when you need to boost your sales. It has rather a spontaneous character but is extremely beneficial for the new products and, for example, season sales. Together, they can help you to conquer the business world.

IntlTech is a professional marketing company, which specializes in different directions of digital promotion. If you have any questions: SEO services (USA), public relations, SMM, Google advertising cost, business analytics, etc., you may contact our team, and we will do our best to help you out.