It is recommended to use both SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay per Click) together. You should use both SEO and PPC for new websites. Ideally you should divide your budget for both. But if you are on a budget and need to select only one. This article is for you.
Before we continue further, the percentage of PPC ads click is 40% which is relevant to PPC. While the organic results stand with 60% which can be obtained with SEO.
While making a selection between SEO and PPC there are few things to be considered.
- Company goal
- Marketing budget
- Target market
- Keyword CPC
Company Goal
Are you looking for instant inquires? Sometimes business needs an immediate customer attention. For example next week holidays are coming and you need to sell your products and services this week. Instant visitors can be accumulated from PPC only.
If your company goal is to have long-term business growth, SEO is the answer.
Marketing Budget
PPC budget is quite higher than SEO. If you are on a low budget SEO is the only solution for you. For SEO you should keep a long term budget for one year. For PPC you can have a budget for one week only as well.
Target Market
You have a bigger target market or a small target matter. For bigger target market you need much bigger budget for PPC. In-case you have a bigger target market SEO is the best choice. PPC works best for small or limited target market.
Keyword CPC
CPC (Click per Cost) is a term used in PPC. This is the cost per click that you are going to pay to the search engines. Some keywords have high CPC while others have lower CPC. It is not recommended to have a PPC campaign with high CPC keywords.
Comparison of SEO vs PPC
| SEO (Search Engine Optimization) | PPC (Pay per Click) | |
| Instant Result | No | Yes |
| Campaign Setup | Difficult | Easy |
| Budget | Lower | Higher |
| Target Market | Bigger | Small |
| Target Keywords | No Limit | Limited |
Let me explain both marketing tactics in details, it will help you to take decision.
What Is PPC (Pay per Click)?
In shot PPC (Pay per click) is paid marketing. The advertiser need to pay to the search engines to display their ads for specific keywords. There are different major PPC platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. Google have a 92% share of the internet marketing search. So that Google Ads is mostly the first choice recommended by all marketers.
Here is the example of a locksmith named “ABC Locksmith”. It’s a local business in New York. The keyword “24 hour locksmith” in New York have more than 1k searches / month on Google. Once ABC Locksmith setup their PPC at Google Ads, their ad will display on top of all search results.
The average CPC for the keyword “24 hour locksmith” is $14.5, the company will have to pay $14.5 per click. Google displays 4 sponsored results before the organic search results. The PPC results will show here. In-case you want to rank higher among these results than you need to increase your CPC bid. Right now higher result bid is $28.
Now if the “ABC Locksmith” wants to have 50 clicks from PPC. The company have to pay $725 on average.
The Pros of PPC:
Instant Results
If you start a PPC campaign, your ads can go live within 24 hours maximum. Once your ads start displaying on search results, you will start getting visitors. While SEO takes months to start getting visitors.
Campaign Setup
PPC campaigns are easy to setup. Even Google ads have a dedicated team which may help you to setup your campaign. You may setup campaign by yourself or hire a small business freelance SEO consultant to work with you with a little fee.
Measurable Metrics
This is very easy to check the important keyword metrics. These measurable metrics help you to understand that which keywords are working well for you. With these measurable metrics the keyword strategy can be changed on the way.
The Cons of PPC:
Budget
The PPC budget is very high. You need to pay for each click and there is no guarantee for conversions. You might need to pay for different campaigns in the beginning to find your ROI campaign settings.
Target Market
Increasing a target market is going to increase your PPC budget. You will only get whatever you are going to pay for.
Targeting Keywords
More keywords need more budget. You need to make sure that the keywords you are targeting help you with ROI. Otherwise your budget can fly like crazy with wrong keywords.
What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term marketing strategy. SEO is a complicated process of bringing your website higher in organic search results. You may learn more about “What is SEO?”
SEO is not recommended as a DIY for your company website. You must have to hire a SEO expert to manage search engine optimization on monthly basis.
The Pros of SEO:
Smooth Growth
Although the SEO process is slow but its ROI is rewarding. You may have to wait for months to see results but once you start getting business, you will be happy for sure.
Targeted Keywords
From short term to long term keywords, you have the option to choose hundreds of keywords. It will give you a broad audience. You may target different sales funnel levels with SEO.
Budget
In a comparison of SEO vs PPC, the SEO is always the most budget friendly option. With a limited budget, your marketing campaign will go on for years to come.
The Cons of SEO:
Pay without result
You will be paying for month by month and will not see any result. In most of the cases the customers need to wait for months to see SEO results.
Complex Campaign
This is not easy, it’s a maze of many factors that including on-page and off-page strategies. The detailed knowledge to different SEO marketing campaigns is required. You also need to have in-depth knowledge of different SEO tools.
Conclusion
The recommendation is to use both SEO and PPC with similar budgets. If you are on a limited budget, you should go for SEO. But in-case you need instant results as your first choice, go with PPC.
Let me know about your thoughts in the comments below.