PPC or SEO - Which One Is Better?
When it comes to digital marketing, you have two options. You can either spend money on PPC or SEO. There is no denying that both of these generate results. This is why it is up to you to launch a PPC campaign or opt for a more natural SEO strategy to rank at the top.
If you are new to the digital landscape, chances are that you are unable to decide which option to go with. In fact, you might have given both PPC and SEO a try and thought to yourself about which of the two is better or more cost-effective. To help you gain a better understanding of PPC and SEO for maximising reach, here is everything that you need to know.
What Is PPC?
PPC stands for pay-per-click advertising. It uses Google AdWords and Bing Ads for helping you rank at the top. However, you have to pay to rank on the search engine for specific keywords. With PPC, you get complete control over the links and messages shared on the search engine results page. It is important that you realise that paid search marketing acts like an auction. This means that there is no guarantee that your ads would even appear. But, you get a different level of control when managing your campaign in comparison to SEO.
Competitive analysis and research are an integral part of PPC just like SEO. There is even bid management, campaign management, and account architecture. In addition to this, you also get to benefit from testing, landing page development, and ad copy. The thing about PPC is that it is data-driven. This means that you would require a PPC specialist for tracking the performance of your campaign. You would also have to refine the messaging strategy, ad group, and keywords to increase the conversion rate.
Pros of PPC
1. Almost Immediate Results
One of the best things about PPC is that it offers almost immediate results. Although it would take some time to conduct the initial research, you can expect quick results with PPC as it is quite straightforward. No matter how things turn out, you cannot deny the short-term results offered by paid search in comparison to organic search. For instance, if you want to promote new products or services or are running a promotion, you might want to consider PPC as you would require quick visibility instead of having to wait a long time to generate results.
2. Straightforward Data
Data-driven businesses will find PPC to be a great option as it offers immediate results. You can expect to get a clear picture of the PPC campaign. The thing about PPC data is that it tends to be straightforward. The reason behind this is that Google is much more transparent about PPC data which is not the case with SEO data. What Google does is that it rewards paying customers with valuable information which you can leverage to improve your campaign.
3. Audience Targeting
If you are considering targeting a similar audience or specific email addresses, you will find PPC to be a great option. You might even want to retarget users when they perform specific searches. With PPC, you get to target apps, website URLs, and even YouTube videos based on the interests of your audience. Even if you want to run a campaign that has targeted messaging for specific locations, PPC is the way to go. It can be used for showing ads to a certain location.
Cons of PPC
1. Costs Money
If you want to opt for PPC, you will need to spend money. This means that a small budget can prevent you from achieving the results that you are looking for. The fact is that the moment your budget ends, the traffic would disappear. You will need to be willing to spend more money. Otherwise, you would only lose money instead of converting traffic. This is not the case with SEO as it will continue to bear results.
2. Big Financial Investment
A huge advertising budget is needed for PPC. If you do not spend a lot of money, you cannot expect to get the results that you are looking for. With the cost of PPC advertising on the rise for many keywords and locations, you will have to be willing to spend more in order to generate results. Besides, PPC requires constant fine-tuning. You will need a specialist to test different campaign settings, landing pages, keywords, ad copy, and bids in order to continue hitting the sweet spot.
3. Higher Cost for Customer Acquisition
Running PPC comes at a hefty price, especially when running customer acquisition campaigns. In fact, large corporations spend anywhere from 6 to 7 figures every month on PPC advertising which makes it rather expensive when compared to SEO.
4. Banner Blindness Can Be an Issue
For those of you that do not know, banner blindness is a serious phenomenon. It refers to people who completely ignore advertisements. The fact is that many searchers tend to overlook online ads and end up going through the organic search. They have become accustomed to ignoring ads in order to find valuable information. Eye-tracking studies clearly reveal that most people go straight to organic results. Therefore, you cannot target such people with PPC advertising and would have to rely on SEO.
What Is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and refers to tactics that you can use to ensure that your website ranks at the top. With a properly-executed SEO strategy, you can expect your website to benefit from a higher ranking. Whenever someone searches for something on Google, the search engine would show them the most trusted, relevant, and useful pages. You will require an SEO expert to ensure that your website appears in the top 10 list. What you want is for customers to be satisfied when they view your website. In order to make the most of SEO, you will require content audits, keyword research, on-page optimisation, technical SEO, and competitive analysis.
Pros of SEO
1. Highly Profitable
The best thing about SEO is that it is highly profitable. You will find it to be highly effective when marketing your products or services to your target audience. Besides, it tends to be a much more profitable option in the long run. What SEO does is that it improves the customer lifetime value (CAC) metric which marketers use for ensuring that their prospects are engaged.
2. Highly Scalable
When you invest in SEO, you can expect compounded results. It does not have any limitations, unlike PPC. You can add as many web pages as you want and ensure that they are optimised for SEO. You would have no trouble working with future content when you focus on PPC.
3. Always On
A major difference between PPC and SEO is that organic search rankings would continue to work for you 24/7. The same cannot be expected with PPC as your business would no longer be visible once your budget ends. You would not need to add advertising spend for SEO. In fact, the organic search engine results would provide constant promotion.
4. Long-Term Returns
A great thing about SEO is that it provides long-term results. As your website would continue to be visible, it would continue to generate results for a long time. Positive organic search visibility can last months or even years. Therefore, SEO would increase your return on investment exponentially and compounds exponentially with time.
5. Ensures Positive Branding
By proving to your customers that you dominate Google search, you can expect to benefit from positive branding. Everyone takes ranking at the top on Google results seriously. In fact, your business would be considered a serious player when you invest in SEO. It would allow you to establish trust. Besides, SEO tends to occupy more space on the search engine results page which means that you get more chances for positive branding.
Cons of SEO
1. Takes Time
A major disadvantage of SEO is that it takes time to provide results. This makes PPC a clear winner in situations where you need instant results and do not have the time to wait around. You can only rely on SEO in situations where you can be patient.
2. Google Constantly Changes Its Algorithm
Another con of SEO that is worth keeping in mind is the fact that the algorithm changes with time. This is why you will have to constantly make changes to your SEO strategy to keep up. Otherwise, your efforts could go to waste.
Leverage Both PPC and SEO
Since both PPC and SEO have their fair share of pros and cons, it is important that you leverage both of them by hiring Rose Aspen Consultancy. We are a digital marketing agency in London that offers website design, SEO, PPC, and other services. You can rely on us to make your brand stand out online. All you have to do to take advantage of PPC and SEO is contact us. You can schedule a consultation with us by sending an email to info@roseaconsultancy.co.uk.
