SEO or PPC: Which One is Right For You?

Choosing between SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) or PPC (Pay Per Click)? A Common question small to medium business owners have when it comes to making the right investment for their brand.

There are a myriad of reasons to differentiate and better understand them as both are beneficial for your brand. 

To sum up the difference,

Search Engine Optimisation better known as SEO is a strategic approach to cover different aspects of online marketing for a brand to rank higher on search engine pages and get more organic traffic. 

This vast hierarchy of aspects under the search engine marketing (SEM) includes PPC known as Pay Per Click Advertising. It is a model where businesses pay for every click on their ads by customers which are featured on the site (Such as Facebook and Google). 

Now everyone wants to know which is the better investment to choose? 

This cannot exactly be answered in terms of delivered results but rather on areas of improvement you want to target.

Want better advertising of your product that recently hit the market? Or optimising the product’s marketing funnel for better conversions?

Again, there are numerous questions that we can reflect on, so how to know which one is right for you –

We have dived in furthermore to differentiate both pros and cons of these effective models so you can compare, understand and make calculated decisions.
If asked personally to our digital marketing agency, we most surely believe a combination of both can achieve better results.

SEO and How It Helps

Search Engine Optimisation is a ladder game. Optimising various different aspects of your website to boost it to higher rankings on websites climbing these ladders. To better understand the basics of it, you can refer to our complete guide on it.

SEO is one of the topmost inbound marketing factors bringing in business – Tactical as well to perform.

When your consumers look for a service or a product on search engines, then your product is likely to show up if the keyword is targeted and optimised through certain tactics mainly through improving website content to better adhere to SERP rankings.

Now, different search engines need different tactics to make sites rank. We mostly focus on Google as it holds 92.08% of total market share – huge monopoly we know!

So we need to optimise link building, content, technical SEO, etc. to push a site  higher on SERPs.

Advantages

SEO is cheaper in the long term. 

Like every other marketing tactic, it needs investment of both time and money. Paying to your marketer or an agency or for using the tools and of course being patient with the results. – It is still cost effective and less expensive than PPC in the long term.

You don’t have to pay for generating organic traffic, rather optimise it to attract it. This is different from the pay per click model. 

More Stable Traffic.

The work is in the start. Once you start to rank, you can consistently see traffic levels as long as you keep working on optimising it.

PPC marketing is a literal ‘switch’ model where your traffic will dry up if you stop paying for it. You own your traffic with SEO while you rent it with PPC.

Effectively targets your entire funnel.

For a site whose business model is completely run on online conversions, It is going to target each and every aspect precisely as long as it operates on Google. Use it to attract and check them out as your next lead with the strategies engaged to enhance every stage of your sales funnel. 

This for the long term → Brand Awareness and Growth.

Disadvantages

Being Patient. 

Yes, this is not an instant solution. You have to be patient with the results in a sense you can observe the change between 6-12 months approx. 

The Page tactics are constantly changed and enhanced with the newest policies of Google Algorithms. 

It becomes an extensive process if your website or domain is new, hence you have to be patient to see visible results.

Expertise is necessary.

Doing SEO is not a quickly done process and definitely not for newcomers. It requires a high level of skills as anyone can work on it but seeing visible results is a different thing in entirety. 

From understanding the nature of complexity of Google Algorithms to using and applying resources for content, on page tactics and link building requires commitment of a significant time from your routine. That is why businesses often reach out to agents or digital marketing agency to handle it all.

Requires Constant Efforts.

This is not a one time gig nor one investment – sureshot results tactic. In order to rank higher or maintain your top position, you need to constantly make high quality content, stay following latest google trends and do site improvements for a long term. 

PPC and How it Helps

It is a model of paid advertising on search engines such as Google where you drive specific and targeted traffic to your website.

It helps you appear in the top of the search pages whenever the particular keyword targeted gets a search. This is a powerful method as you directly get exposure to an influx of eyeballs who are directly searching for your product. But you are also paying for it.

They always appear on top of the page above the organic results. They are generally run as a part of marketing campaigns with a start and end date by brands themselves or google ads agency sydney wide on behalf of them.

The cost can only be predicted as it is largely based on search volumes or the industry you want to target. 

It has its own set of pros and cons like – 

Advantages

Instant & Effective Results.

It is by far the fastest marketing strategy where you can start getting leads the same day the campaign is launched compared to SEO which is going to take a significant time. 

Your Effective results are almost certain if you have a good landing page, ease of access to information and better conversion rate – you can start seeing profitable results in a week.

More Eyeballs, More Opportunity.

You are basically paying for exposure and visibility thus opening a path to crazy potential on conversions. 

PPC ads are the first thing you see when opening google on mobile or PC. It also unlocks advanced features of mentioning your links and phone numbers which is not possible with SEO.

You also get to pinpoint the areas you want visibility from. Want eyeballs from people of a specific age? Location? Interests? – It is your ultimate weapon. 

Effective Data Accumulation.

The Campaigns allows you to track helpful data such as which ad converts more, which landing page closes more and which keyword generates good traffic. This is helpful to run other digital marketing and SEO campaigns.

Disadvantages

Pay2Win.

Money is the fuel for this digital marketing tactic. Without it, you can’t run them. A specific budget needs to be dedicated and with every click on the link, it gets cut from this budget. Once this budget dries up, the traffic dissolves. 

It is expensive as high saturated areas such as medical or legal worlds have high keyword volumes demanding great CPC (Cost per Click that can go upto $50). 

If your landing page doesn\’t convert, you might have blown probably hundreds or thousands of dollars without much results. Hence, you have to be well prepared.

It can get Stale.

You have a regulated control under specific policies of Google. Your wordings might get similar to your competitors which can make your ad copy look boring and it can fail to land a lead. 

Audience can sense what is ad and can read past them, hence you have to constantly refresh them to keep them engaging. To know what works, you have to constantly try and test which ad works which needs additional budget.

Two Is Better Than One

Since you are aware of both of the concepts, you must have realised that everything has its own set of benefits and the reality is, you shouldn’t choose between them rather, combine it and work it together for the brand exposure. 

Retarget Your Ads.

Retargeting ads is a prompting method for a lead which visited your landing page but didn’t purchase. You can retarget these visitors to lure them into finishing their purchase. From the information you can gather, it can be helpful in efficiently strategizing your next ad campaign.

Promoting Your Content through Ads. 

Content takes time to rank organically and on the side you can attract visitors by simultaneously running ads on facebook or such social media platforms. 

You can also maximise your effectiveness of backlinks with the info gathered from your social media visitors.

Implement Data into Strategising.

With Google Ads, you garner valuable information on leads, keywords, Working CTA Methods and Ad copies converting the most.

All of these can be implemented on your next digital marketing campaign with less time put on research.

Conclusion

A better cost effective and increased potential of sureshot results can be secured when a brand decides to work with both the tactics. 

SEO makes your site visible and garner a better audience for the long term while PPC works for instant conversion and leads. 
Get started with your campaign journey today with trusted marketing and PPC agency Sydney experts at Digitalzoop. Contact Us Today to learn more!