Matt: Welcome back to Growth Unleashed, the podcast for pet brands that want to grow smarter without relying on paid ads. I’m Matt, the founder of Bubblegum Search.
Louis: And I’m Louis, SEO Manager here at Bubblegum. Today we wanted to dive into quite a common topic in the pet industry — and that is an overreliance on paid ads and undervaluing organic growth.
So let’s start with the basic question. Matt, what are paid ads good for?
Matt: Yeah, I mean, they’re good for a lot of things. And I’ll say upfront — we’re not here to bash paid ads.
So what are they good for? Certainly quicker visibility. As we know, SEO and organic growth do take time — there’s no way around that.
They’re also really good at capturing existing demand that’s already out there. In Google, for example, whatever your product or service might be — if there’s already high demand, you can tap into that much, much quicker.
When it comes to paid ads on social, they’re great because they can help you build brand awareness faster than you could organically. And they also give you the opportunity to build demand that isn’t there already.
Louis: Yeah. The thing I’d say about that demand or brand awareness you can create with paid ads is that it’s super effective — but you’re effectively renting it.
You’re renting the clicks and traffic that come to your website. The brand awareness isn’t necessarily going to stick around once the adverts disappear.
Essentially, if you stopped spending on ads, you’d almost disappear online. I think if that’s the case, then yeah — you need to think about diversifying your marketing portfolio a bit.
Matt: Yeah, exactly. And that’s a good way to phrase it. Financially, you’re always encouraged to have a diversified portfolio — and it’s the same with marketing.
We’ve seen cases where brands have relied too heavily on paid ads for too long. Look, if you do that as part of a balanced strategy — and you’re also doing the organic side — that’s fine. But the problem comes when you’re overly reliant on it.
Again, if paid works and gives you a great ROI — fantastic. It’s doing what it should. But a lot of the time, especially as we’re seeing across the board — rising cost-per-clicks and cost-per-acquisition — it ultimately makes scaling and profitability a lot more challenging without that diversification.
Louis: Absolutely. And those ads aren’t doing any work for you beyond getting that click. Whereas with organic, foundational growth — it has a snowball effect that’s going to be valuable for your business in the long term.
Matt: Yeah, definitely. So with that said — if paid ads are one piece of the puzzle, what’s the other side of the equation? What can sustainably build organic growth and authority?
Louis: This is where we start looking at earned visibility.
With ads, you’re paying to be seen. But you could start putting some great content on your own website that’s useful to users — something that taps into a trending topic or drives clicks in itself.
You also need to build authority elsewhere online — so that’s things like getting backlinks and brand mentions from lifestyle publications, pet publications, influencers in your industry, Reddit threads, Facebook groups… all of these third-party places.
Ultimately, that expands your visibility. It’s not free — because it takes time — but you’re not paying for each click.
Matt: Yeah. And this is where digital PR comes in, right?
Creating newsworthy stories and getting your brand mentioned in trusted media publications — those brand mentions build authority in both Google and AI-powered search.
For anyone who hasn’t seen previous episodes — we talk a lot about brand mentions. They’ve become the gold standard now in terms of ranking and are among the biggest, most powerful signals you can send to Google and AI search.
So of course, getting brand mentions in relevant, high-authority places increases your visibility. And when your rankings improve and you’re also showing up on third-party websites, your overall visibility grows — even when you’re not spending on ads.
Louis: Exactly. And like we said, it’s not a fast way to grow — not like flipping a switch with a big ad budget.
But all of these actions contribute to foundational growth — and they’ll be valuable for your business as long as your business runs.
Matt: Yeah, definitely. I always encourage anyone to think of any investment in organic as an investment in content assets.
You could have a bad month on a paid campaign and that money is gone. Whereas with organic growth — whether it’s content or PR — the investment has lifetime value. It can be picked up again, seen again, and continue to add value in the long term.
That’s how I see it: asset-building. Even if it takes a while to see results, that’s the investment mindset.
Louis: Absolutely. So thinking practically — if you’re a pet founder, what could you start doing this week to build your organic visibility?
Matt: I’d say the first thing is to get a benchmark of where you’re at right now. You might have an idea — but you might not.
One simple thing to do is Google your brand. And try using advanced search — set the filter to the past week or month. What you’re looking for is: are you visible beyond your own website and paid ads?
Are you showing up across different social platforms? In news or media? If the only thing coming up is your own website and paid listings — then you’ve got work to do.
Louis: Yeah, absolutely. And that can be quite daunting — building visibility from scratch.
If I could give one practical tip, it would be: start with one simple evergreen piece of content. Something like a tell-all piece on dog food nutrition, for example. That could be genuinely helpful to your customers — and also a solid content asset.
You might even pick up a few backlinks naturally, because well-written, informative content does attract them.
Matt: And if you’re a dog food brand, you should have some unique insights — maybe even data — that others don’t.
Louis: Exactly. That’s where the value is. Then you can take it a step further and think about how you pitch that to media.
You might frame it with a spicy headline — like “Exposé: What’s Really in Your Dog’s Food Bowl?” — something snappy that gets a journalist’s attention. That could be the start of your earned media journey.
Matt: Yeah, exactly. So you’ve built brand authority that you own — and you’ve set up the content in a way that it can earn brand authority.
You can also chop that content up into different social media posts. If it’s got unique data or insights, it’s ideal for repurposing.
So even though it might take some time and thought, that one piece of content could be a brilliant starting point. Create your own asset — and scale it out from there.
Louis: Absolutely.
Matt: Another thing you could do in week one is just start engaging with the pet community.
Reddit threads, Facebook groups — back to your example, there’ll be loads of places where people are discussing dog food and asking questions.
Louis: Have some conversations.
Matt: Exactly. Set up a profile where your brand can be the expert on that topic, and start engaging in a helpful, non-promotional way.
It’s a simple, low-barrier, week-one task — but it helps you build presence and reputation organically.
Louis: I think if there’s one key takeaway from today, it’s this: ads can buy you attention, but for long-term trust and visibility, you need to focus on owned and earned media.
Matt: Yeah, definitely. Smart pet brands don’t rent growth — they own it.
Louis: Love it.
Matt: Cool. Okay, great — that’s it for today. If you made it this far, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and drop any questions in the comments.
We’ll catch you next time. Bye for now!