From Inbound Purist to Paid Media Pragmatist: Why I Ditched the Organic Hamster Wheel

I used to be an inbound advocate, spending over a decade preaching non-intrusive growth channels around organic.

This model was sustainable back when SEO was a thing and when social media was still not completely obsessed with clickbait and virality.

Sadly, I’m ashamed and embarrassed with what B2B social looked like over the past 2 years.

And Google’s volatility, wiping out thousands of publishers from SERP, annihilating top brands, exposing parasite SEO practices, ranking high automated robot content, and displaying Overviews and other snippets even for medical queries? That’s totally unacceptable.

(Don’t get me started on reddit and the $60M licensing deal…)

Surprisingly, the best cure for my digital anxiety has been paid media.

– SparkLoop, Refind, Meta ads to my newsletters
– YouTube ads for my podcast
– Amazon ads to my book
– Meta ads for lead magnets and promotional opportunities
– X ads for brand awareness campaigns and omnichannel
– LinkedIn thought leadership ads to 3-4 posts + 2-3 videos posted here (straight to my ICP)

The monthly spend is anywhere from $3K to $30K, but it also means that:

❌ We don’t create dumb content just to fill in some content schedule
❌ I don’t act like a clown utilizing some stupid hooks for clickbait
❌ We don’t pray the Gods of the SEO algo if something goes south (it used to work predictably for 20 years until HCU of 2023)
❌ No spray and pray resources on just hoping for the best and waiting for organic traffic to convert
❌ Rapid experimentation with proper audience levels when we press the pedal

Proper attribution is still ridiculously random at best, no matter if you use last touch, W shape, self-reported or so.

But the entire premise of delivering LESS and running continuous traffic there is what keeps me away from the hamster wheel at all times.

I hate the web turning into a mandatory “pay to play” or “radical controversial clowns” only.

But between these two, I’d never play the childish games that social algorithms require today.