Both need to be utilized for long-term success. If you don't have the budget for paid ads, then you're kinda stuck with content marketing. Content marketing is a good long-term solution, though. Your website will always need content to stay relevant, but content marketing will rarely bring in short-term results. Paid advertising doesn't last forever though. The moment you stop paying is the moment it stops working.
@backseosoftware Agree with Andrew here. Though I would add, the most efficient solution comes by measuring the amount of resources you spend on each channel, and finding the most effective one.
That could be a mix. But if you're not measuring the results, it will be entirely by luck if you succeed, experimentation and careful measurement are key to answering this question I think.
@backseosoftware thanks!If you didn't start content marketing from day one, I would like to know why, whether it feels it will take too much time, or cost, or some other reason, and look forward to your response!