Public Relations vs. Advertising: Which Is the Right Choice to Promote Your Business?

By Cristy Brusoe

When I’m at family gatherings, dinner with friends, or networking events, I always get the same question: “What do you do for a living?” or “What is public relations?” I find myself giving this simple, uncomplicated answer: “Public relations is like advertising without the money.” While that’s the easily understood answer, it doesn’t truly explain the key differences between public relations vs. advertising.

To offer a more technical definition, advertising is paid media, whereas public relations is earned media. What does that entail? Well ... while both advertising and PR help build brands and communicate with consumers, public relations is working with journalists and reporters to help tell your story versus paying for a message to be sponsored.

Now that you better understand the difference between the two, you may be asking yourself, which is right for you and your business? Well, that depends.

There are quite a few factors that come into play when making that decision. So, I’ve compiled a list of five questions that you should ask yourself when deciding between the two.

Public relations vs. advertising: Questions to ask yourself

1. Do you value authenticity over guaranteed relationships?

By advertising your product or service, you are guaranteeing that X number of consumers see your message or engage with your company. With public relations, there is no guarantee that you will reach your target audience, but for the people you do reach, the message and relationship is much more authentic and conversational.

For example, when you see a blog post of a product review and at the top of the page it says, “I was paid by XYZ Company to review this product,” readers may think the review is bias and not as honest as a review written by someone who reviewed the product and wrote their review for free—no strings attached, other than receiving the product to use.

One thing to keep in mind is that just 24% of readers consume native ad or sponsored content compared to “normal” editorial, which is read by 71% of the audience.

2. Is your priority selling one product or building brand awareness?

Usually, the goal of running an advertisement is to promote the idea of one specific product or service. We measure the success of an advertisement through how many sales/views the ad produced, or a more technical term is return on your investment (ROI).

While public relations can offer the same type of promotion, it is more often used as a way to build your brand. While many business owners would like public relations to ultimately lead to sales, that’s not the main goal of a PR program. The primary goal of executing public relations is to maintain and strengthen the reputation of the company, as well as engage with its audience and consumers.

3. What is your budget? How much are you willing to spend?

According to WordStream, the average small business that uses Google advertising spends between $9,000 and $10,000 per month on their online advertising campaigns, or $100,000 to $120,000 per year.

It’s no secret that public relations costs a fraction of what you’re going to pay for an advertisement. On the other hand, public relations stories aren’t guaranteed. With that said, if your public relations firm is effective in placing your story in the media, you’re going to get astronomical value for your money. One full-page advertisement in weekly newspapers can cost upwards of $100,000 (for one ad). Meanwhile, a typical monthly retainer for a PR agency could range from $3,000 to $5,000.

The question you have to answer is how much you want to spend on promoting your business/product, and which will be a better return on your spend?

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

• Public Relations Risk Management
• What Is PR? A Big List of Tactics Pros Use
• Choosing a Public Relations Firm
• 6 Tips to Manage Media Relations in the Digital Age

4. How much control do you want over your message?

With advertising, you will have complete control over the message you put out to the world. You can be as promotional as you want to be since you are paying to put out your message to potential consumers.

With public relations, even if you are able to get the media interested in your pitch, the journalist is still in control of the message and the narrative of the story. While this could be seen as a negative aspect of PR, it's also a positive when a story is told authentically. This is why you should lean on your public relations firm to ensure you’re media-ready and your pitch and interview is in line with your messaging and company values.

5. How quickly do you need to see results?

This question is pretty simple. If you need to see results quickly, and you know the message you want to send to consumers, and you have the budget for it, then advertising really is your best option. You can get an advertisement up and running in less than a day, but usually, in about a week.

Public relations takes hours of work, and potentially weeks, to see media pieces come through. Public relations is a drawn-out process that includes building relationships with reporters, honing in on your messaging, and building your company's brand.

Public relations vs. advertising: Weigh your options

Answering these questions will give you a good place to start in deciding what’s best for your business. However, every business is different and has to create its own unique marketing strategy to grow.

The next best step would be to continue your research and reach out to a few advertising and public relations agencies to get a better idea of what they may be able to do for your business.

RELATED: 4 Common PR Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them