vs. PPC – Differences, pros, and cons, & an integrated strategy //

SEO or PPC – Which is better?

It would be nice if the PPC vs. SEO question had a simple solution.

Unfortunately, this is not as simple as it may seem.

SEO improves the relevance and quality of your content to help you rank higher in non-paid search results. This increased visibility is achieved without the costly click costs of PPC.

PPC ads are online paid advertisements that are targeted by demographics, keywords and time.

PPC ads are usually displayed in prominent positions and receive the most clicks when highly commercial terms are searched.

What is the right choice for you?

This article provides an overview of search and two search engines marketing (SEM), tactics. It also includes five simple questions that you can use to decide where your effort should be focused.

Definition of SEO and PPC

SEO is a shorthand for “search engine optimizing” and it’s the process of improving your site to make it more visible on Google, Bing, and other search engines.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is the term used to describe ads that appear in a search result page.

Search landscape

Understanding the structure of search engine results pages (SERPs), for keywords that are important to you, is the key to making an informed decision about SEO vs. PPC.

Modern search engines offer a wide range of features that allow you to get a comprehensive answer and dig deeper into a subject.

Modern SERPs feature the following:

Each of these areas presents an opportunity to search marketers who are keenly aware.

We can now compare the relative merits and applications of SEO and PPC.

SEO: The Pros

What are the benefits of SEO? What is the difference between organic and paid listings?

Awareness

Search engine visibility for keywords that you target will help to promote your business.

Branding

Visibility for commercial search terms or informational queries that relate to your business can be a positive benefit.

Searchers can associate your brand with trust and become familiar when they ask questions to conduct research for a purchase.

Credibility and Trust

Your site’s return in organic search results can affect your perceived credibility to an audience searching for your services.

Users tend to ignore ads in favor of organic results, especially during the research phase before a purchase. Visibility is a key factor in gaining the trust of your customers.

Versatility

Organic search results, as we discussed in our review of search landscape, are very diverse and versatile.

There are many ways to showcase your business as potential clients research their purchase.

Reviews and reputation

Reviews from multiple sources are included in search results, and the presence of strong reviews and reputation signals further enhances trust signals.

Website Traffic

Increased website traffic will give you more chances to educate and engage a prospective customer about why they should buy from you.

Cost per click

Organic search traffic is almost free. It will take some time and money to develop that visibility, but each click or impression is free.

Return on Investment (ROI).

Smart SEO is a better alternative to paid clicks as they continue to become more expensive.

Cost

SEO is not cheap or easy but it’s more cost-effective for brand awareness and driving relevant traffic to your site than any other marketing tactic.

The Sustainability of the Economy

Organic traffic, unlike PPC, does not stop when you stop paying. This means that efforts to increase organic traffic will sustain a company when budgets are limited.

Clicks are free

SEO allows you to target users early in the purchasing cycle, without having to pay for clicks with low conversion rates.

Scope

To maximize your reach, you need a strong organic presence. You won’t want to pay for every click or promote all the content on your site.

Strategic advantage

It is difficult to get visibility in organic search. This is both a positive and negative thing.

If you’ve done the right thing, you can’t buy your way into the organic search results.

It can give you a competitive advantage if your competitors rely solely on paid search.

80/20 rule

Modern CMS platforms simplify SEO. You can produce 80% of possible SEO results with only 20% of work.

SEO: The Cons

SEO is a powerful tool, but not without challenges.

SEO can be a difficult task to master because it’s easy to waste time and energy on tasks that don’t help.

There are many blog posts that won’t rank. Meta descriptions don’t even matter.

The SEO tools that are supposed to solve this problem tend to make things worse by generating endless lists of SEO tasks which are nothing more than busywork.

The tools are useful, but you need experience to know which ones should be used and which can be ignored.

SEO is a valuable tool, but it can be difficult to implement.

It is important that set realistic goals and measures.

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Terms.

PPC: the pros

What is the difference between paid and organic search? Why would a company pay for paid search if SEO can provide free traffic?

Targeting

PPC is a targeted way to reach potential customers.

Ads can also be targeted based on search terms, the time of day, the day of week, location, language, devices, and previous visitors. Organic traffic is much more scattered.

Speed up

PPC campaigns can be launched in a matter of days, and can reach a high level in merely 1-2 weeks. Paid search engine advertising is the fastest way to reach customers who are ready to purchase.

Position on the page

Above-the-fold content is dominated by paid search.

Even if a user chooses to scroll past the ads, they will still see them.

Advertisements that are better than ever

PPC ads are exactly that: advertisements. You can deliver your marketing messages in a more effective way with more space and granularity.

You can create ads that are dominant by using a variety of options, including calls, location, site links and pricing.

Dynamic Ad Copy

Google’s search ads are responsive and have 15 titles, four descriptions. This allows for over 30,000 variations. Split testing is also built in. This will ensure that your ads are tailored to generate clicks.

Visual Product Ads

Google offers visual shopping ads that allow users to see the product they are about to click on.

Brand visibility

Pay-per-click ads will get you in front of the right people. This visibility is still beneficial to your marketing, even if the person backs off and does a brand-search before clicking through.

Budget

PPC is expensive, but it allows you to control your budget. Set a fixed budget for how much money you’re willing to spend each day.

You can also find out more about the Agile

Agility is a result of speed. You want to test out a new product. Want to test a new product?

A short PPC campaign can provide quick feedback on the launch of a new product (or a minimum viable product).

Marketing intelligence

Paid search does not hide keyword data as organic search does.

We can use analytics software like Google Analytics to determine which keywords convert, and how much they cost.

This intelligence can be used to inform SEO and all other advertising, improving results in general.

A/B Testing

Split-test your ads, landing pages and even the call-to action buttons to find out where you get the best results.

This information can also be used to inform other marketing efforts, both digital and traditional.

Stability

Paid search is not as volatile as organic, despite the competition.

Changes are made, but the impact is usually much lower and they are easier to manage.

The analysis of search term reports and the careful use of match types allows for the elimination of junk searches, and an increase of ROI over time.

Cost

A PPC account, when set up and properly managed, can generate leads at a very low cost for your business.

You may be able to generate enough leads for your local business if you target a limited geographic area or a set of keywords.

Moreover, the accounts can be optimized over time to further reduce costs and maximize returns.

The Cons of PPC

PPC has many advantages. There are some advertising pitfalls that advertisers should be aware of.

PPC advertising on search engines can be a powerful tool, possibly the most effective marketing system ever created.

For a high-competitive environment to succeed, all elements must be correctly set up , including keywords, ads and landing pages.

Bidding wars between advertisers can be costly.

You are taking a digital bite out of the apple of your competitors as you begin to run ads. This can lead to spiraling costs or a change in strategy.

PPC requires skilled management and optimization, from tracking bids to quality scores and positions, and clicking-through rates.

You can do some of this with scripts. If you’re too busy to do it properly, you should hire an expert to keep your account in top shape.

PPC can be a powerful tool, but it is important to optimize all aspects of the campaign in order to get maximum results at reasonable costs.

You should now have a better understanding of SEO and PPC and be able to evaluate the landscape.

Next, you will need to answer a few questions in order to find the best approach for your current situation and target keywords.

SEO or PPC? 5 Questions to Ask

Five simple questions can help you decide where to spend your time and money.

1. What keywords do you target?

Your choice between SEO or PPC will be heavily influenced by your chosen keywords.

To aid in keyword research, it is useful to create personas and answer questions about who, why and the how of your customers.

This framework can help you with your keyword research (in addition any other tools that you might use).

2. How do the search results look for each keyword?

Google each keyword, and then summarize the results.

It doesn’t need to be complex; a few simple bullets can do the trick.

Keyword: “Plumber”

We can see here that the three-pack is well visible organically at the top of this page. This means SEO will be useful for targeting a smaller geographic area.

If you’re targeting a wider area, and are unlikely to rank within the pack, then the organic listing in position 6 is the first listing that’s not a directory or portal.

This is the 22nd link (so not likely to generate organic traffic).

You can estimate whether SEO or ad coverage will produce the desired results by conducting a relatively simple keyword analysis and reviewing the landscape.

3. What is the difference in results by location?

Many local businesses make the mistake of assuming that everyone else sees what they see on Google when they search for their keywords.

You should track your results in different locations, as local packs and organic results will differ.

We recommend that you either manually report your ranking from various locations, or use a tool to track your rankings across the entire geography that you cover.

Note You may notice that your search results are stronger within a certain distance from your location, but decrease as you move further away. A combined SEO and PPC strategy can sometimes be helpful.

4. What is the minimum amount of business you require?

This is a very important question, and we can start to see some overlap between these questions.

SEO can be a good option for small businesses that service a local market and only need one or two leads per week.

Once SEO is set up, we have helped hundreds small businesses who fall into this category. They never spent a dime on PPC.

You may need to use PPC in addition to SEO if you have a large business with multiple teams that services a large geographic area or city.

5. Which do you prefer – money or time?

SEO is a cost-free option that can be done by you or your company.

You can find all the information to help you improve your visibility.

Time is money. If you are paying for a large team, it makes sense to spend money on generating leads quickly.

We have to weigh the pros and cons that we discussed, because improving SEO takes time, while PPC is almost instant.

You should always consider your unique circumstances and goals when deciding what to do.

SEO vs. PPC: Your unique roadmap

You can probably see that it’s impossible to answer the question in a general way. All the variables must be considered.

With a small budget or DIY SEO, a hyper-local business that has little competition and only requires a few leads a week can likely achieve good visibility on the local and organic results.

The organic search results of a new ecommerce site that competes with the page of results for Amazon, eBay, and other online department stores, will likely be poor (at least in the short-term).

Are you in need of leads right now? Do you have a long-term plan? Are you a website with a lot of authority? What’s the level of competition in organic search? What is the average cost per click for paid search?

SEO and PPC decisions require a clear digital marketing plan and goals, both short- and long term.

Third option: SEO or PPC

Most of the time, it is not PPC or SEO that will be right for you. The best SEM strategy will combine both.

SEO and PPC are most effective when strategically aligned.

Blended approaches will usually produce greater results than the sum of their parts.

Benefits of running SEO and PPC simultaneously include:

Our experience with thousands businesses has shown that an integrated search strategy combining SEO and PPC is optimal.

We will often begin with a heavy PPC campaign while organic traffic is being built, and then reduce it a bit. PPC can also be used to boost sales from SEO traffic.

The right answer will always depend upon your goals and situation, but it is smart to think about how these two titans in modern marketing can work together.

The post PPC vs. SEO: Differences and pros & cons first appeared on Google Search Engine Land.

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