Most business owners who have tried it will tell you that paid advertising offers a good ROI. However, there are a few considering factors that complicate paid advertising, making it difficult to pin down an objective conclusion about the strategy. For example, the price per click on a Google search ad can vary wildly depending on what industry you're in, sometimes up to $50 or more per click. Plus, you're not "building equity" with a paid advertising campaign, no matter what platform you're on; it's more like paying rent. Once you cut funding to paid ads, they instantly turn off, and the only lasting value you get from it is the sales you made while the ads were active.
Content Marketing and SEO
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another area where it's technically feasible to pursue with only an estimate of time. Depending on the scale of your efforts, social media marketing could cost thousands of dollars per month. As for the value--that's trickier to measure than the results you'll get from SEO or direct advertising. You can measure engagements, traffic, and conversions, but it's hard to accurately quantify the reputation value your brand has generated. Plus, there's wide variation between industries when it comes to social effectiveness, and the price of paid social media ads.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has been described as the highest-ROI online marketing strategy, when implemented properly, with 67 percent of businesses listing it as their highest earner. Part of this is the low cost of creating a list and sending out emails; it won't cost you much in the way of time or money. There's also something of a growth factor, as the value of your email campaigns will increase with the size of your list. However, email marketing is dependent on a number of other interrelated strategies to be effective--and actually getting that email list built up in the first place, which can be very expensive.
Final Contender
Out of the significant online marketing channels I listed, it's tough to pick a clear winner, especially after acknowledging the considerations I outlined above. In the short-term, paid advertising can give you a strong return, and email marketing seems to work best for the majority of businesses once they have a strong email list built up. However, if I had to pick one "best" strategy when it comes to ROI, I'd choose content marketing and SEO--thanks to its multifaceted range of effects, permanent value, and potential for compounding returns, there's just no better way to spend your marketing budget (though ideally, you'll be pursuing all these strategies in one form of another).
