Paid Ads vs Organic Content: What Actually Works in 2026?

**Brian** (0:00)
This is the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, episode 392
Welcome to the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, where our mission is to help you turn your creative passions into a stable, reliable income. If you're in audio, video, design, photography, or really any other creative field, and you just want to learn from other successful creatives, you're in the right place. Should freelancers use paid advertising to get clients? Or should they use organic content to get clients? Which is better? How do the two things maybe affect each other? In this episode, we're gonna break down how paid and organic really work together in 2026 and beyond, when to use each one, where people are getting the best results right now, and what freelancers need to know before spending time or money on either one of those two things. And so because of this, I actually wanted to bring on three amazing guests who have spent combined tens of millions on paid ads, or at least 10 to 20 million on paid ads, generated hundreds of millions in revenue for their clients through organic and paid. They're all three actually coaches for 6 Figure Creative. So by the end, you will know the answer to this question, which is kind of the age-old question, do I do organic or do I do paid? So real quick, let me intro these coaches. Richie is the first. Hello, Richie. He runs a marketing agency where it's, I think you're somewhere in the half million dollar a year range. Yeah, you've also coached, I think hundreds of clients at this point, because even before you worked for us, you worked for another coaching company because this is kind of a passion of yours. He's from New Jersey. We try not to hold it against him. And despite that, you're somehow the chillest guy in the room most of the time. Rob is our second guest here. He's got a long marketing and cooperating background going back to the 90s. You generated half a million, half a, I'm sorry, million, half a billion plus for your clients over your career. You've built multiple multi-6 Figure businesses, which is hard to say. You even built and sold, I think a 6 Figure SaaS company, as well as your background. And you are the complete opposite of me in every single way, where Rob is professional and buttoned up. If you've listened to this podcast, you know how I am. So is that mostly accurate, Rob?

**Rob** (1:52)
Yeah, it's mostly accurate. I don't know how buttoned up I am. Sometimes I'll wear the button up shirt, but behind the scenes, things are a little rough.

**Brian** (2:00)
If you're ever on a team meetings, Rob will sometimes have these nice buttoned up, crisp ironed or pressed shirts on, and I always compliment him on them. And then sometimes he just comes with a hoodie, and I'm like, oh hell yeah, he's coming to the dark side. Our last of the guests here today is Dennis. He has built and sold a multi-seven figure agency. He has doubled two businesses from three to $6 million a year as head of marketing. He spent over $15 million on meta ads, probably way more at this point, because you'd run all of our ads now, Dennis. And he lives in a van down by the river in New Zealand. Dennis, where's your van parked at today?

**Dennis** (2:32)
My van is currently parked at Ohope Beach, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in New Zealand.

**Brian** (2:38)
Yeah, it's afternoon for us here in America. It's like early in the a.m. there for you. You'll probably hear birds chirping and things happening, because he literally is like doing that hashtag van life down by the river. Those are our three guests today. I'm going to run this kind of like a panel. This is something new I wanted to try. I was like, I've got all these amazing coaches. We've got all these amazing topics we can talk about. I'm personally burnt out as hell on this podcast, trying to come up with topics for the last 400 episodes by myself. I figured, why not try a panel type episode? So before I get to the panel questions, I want to first explain the definitions of organic and paid, because some people do not know what organic is. When I say organic, I just mean content that you're creating organically that is made for platforms like short form video on Instagram, TikTok, shorts on YouTube or reels on Instagram. It could be things like YouTube videos. It could be things like a blog. Anything like that is considered generally organic versus paid is when you're spending money to get eyeballs like meta ads, Google ads, YouTube ads, et cetera. So that being said, let's get into the questions. So first thing I want to talk about with you guys is, in your experience, how do you decide personally between investing time in organic marketing or money on paid marketing? I'm speaking specifically to your own entrepreneurial pursuits. And I think a good person to start with here would be Richie, because you do have an agency you're currently running right now.