We are asked daily which is better for brands; Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
The thing is, being completely honest with you. They are so incredibly different that it depends on your business type and what you are looking to achieve. Not forgetting that it depends on what your competitors are doing, as well as industry trends. One is not better than the other and both are incredibly important for start ups and established brands.
SEO vs PPC
The main difference between SEO and PPC is that PPC costs upfront money and SEO is.. Technically “free” if you exclude the hours of work needed to make it a success. When you are searching for anything on Google or Bing, you’ll be brought to a Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which shows you carefully curated related links to the terms, or search query, you typed into Google.
When viewing a SERP, you’ll notice that the first links are usually an “Ad.” Results which are sponsored, or PPC ads, which have been paid to appear at the top by businesses.
Unfortunately, SEO doesn’t work that way (boy would that be nice). PPC shows immediate results (within minutes), a successful SEO marketing campaign can take up to six months to show measurable results.
The goal of SEO is to achieve organic traffic to your website, meaning you can’t pay/cheat and choose where your website lands on a SERP. Money can buy many things, but immediate SEO results isn’t one of them.
You can only increase your website’s position and rankings on a SERP with hard work and carefully curated research. There’s many wife tales and ‘hacks’ on how to rank fast but the reality is, it’s writing high-quality content that’s been optimised for keywords that are relevant to your business, industry and audience. A quality website that runs smooth and is set up for a great user journey. and so, so, much more. The goal all SEO marketers (Us, hi!) aim for is to help their clients reach the number one spot on a SERP, which is the first link you see below the PPC ads.
What Are the Benefits of SEO?
There are countless benefits to launching an SEO marketing campaign. Using strategic, relevant keywords, your business will gain visibility to potential customers searching for the product or services your business offers. Having strong visibility on search engines, such as Google or Bing, helps your business become an authoritative voice on your business-related topics, thus being placed higher on SERPs. It drastically improves your website, if you are looking for an SEO agency, please make sure they are qualified and experienced with dealing with website back-end and front-end edits otherwise copy changes alone will not provide your desired results.
If you’re ranking page one on a SERP, potential customers will trust your website. Plus, once your website is seen as honest, trustworthy, and you’ll have a better chance of increasing your company’s brand awareness.
It’s said that if you rank from the 3rd Google result, your chances of an organic click reduces by 93%!
How Effective is PPC?
The biggest benefit of PPC is that you can pay to have your ad be seen immediately. Let’s do an example, you sell lovely knitted scarves but don’t rank on Google organically causing you to have low traffic. Black Friday is approaching and you want to cash in and make the most of it. This is where PPC is amazing, you can produce a 2 day long ad for that important Friday and Saturday promoting your amazing deals on page one of important searches relating to your brand.
Users using Google/Bing will always see your ad (if done properly), even if they are just scrolling down the page. Did you know PPC campaigns also give you a lot more space to bulk out your marketing message? You can include locations, site links, bullet points, call outs and more just to entice potential customers.
Another benefit we love about PPC is that it utilises visual product ads. Google provides the option of using visual ads, which allows potential customers to see your product, price and quality with such ease. This not only produces potential sales but also incredibly important brand awareness. By running PPC ads correctly with thorough research, you can ensure that your ad is seen by your target audience. You can set your budget for your PPC campaign as low or high as you wish and choose a set limit for each day.
Lastly, PPC is a great way to get in front of the right potential customers. Your business can appear at whatever time or date you choose, an example is if you’re marketing a B2B product and you notice sales are during the working week - you can set your ad to show Mon-Fri from 9am-5pm. While creating an SEO campaign can be time consuming, a PPC campaign can be created in a few days.
Which One Is Better: SEO or PPC?
Neither, they’re so different and both important in their own way but SEO and PPC campaigns do work best when run in conjunction with each other. PPC will yield results immediately for your business which is great while you waiting for your organic ranking to rise, have great deals to advertise or if you’re a start up, While SEO will sustain those leads on a long-term basis and provide a quality website with brand authority.