Both put you in front of people who are searching for what you sell. They differ in how you pay, how fast they work and what happens when you stop. The choice is not a matter of taste. It follows from your situation.
How they differ
Paid search. You bid to appear above the ordinary results and pay each time someone clicks. Ads can run within a day of setting up an account. You control which searches trigger them, what they say and how much you spend. When the budget stops, the visits stop the same day.
SEO. You earn a place in the unpaid results by having the page that best answers the search. There is no charge per click. It takes months to show, the position is not guaranteed, and it continues to bring visits after the work is done, though it needs upkeep.
Start with ads when
- You need enquiries now. A new business or a new product cannot wait six months.
- You are testing. Ads show within weeks which searches, messages and offers produce customers. That knowledge then guides the SEO work.
- The offer is time-limited. A sale, an event or a seasonal product.
- The results page is full of ads. For some commercial searches the unpaid results start far down the screen.
Start with SEO when
- Clicks are expensive compared with your margin. In competitive fields a click can cost more than a small sale earns.
- Buyers research for a long time. For considered purchases, people read guides and comparisons for weeks. Those are unpaid results.
- The site has technical problems. A slow or badly structured site wastes ad money as well. Fix it first.
- You already have useful content that ranks on the second page. Small improvements bring quick gains.
The costs people overlook
Ads are not only the click price. Add the time to manage the account and the cost of landing pages. An unmanaged account wastes a large share of its budget on irrelevant searches.
SEO is not free either. It costs writing, development time and patience. The honest comparison is the full cost per customer over a year, not the cost per click against zero.
Using both
For most businesses the answer is a sequence, not a choice.
- Fix tracking and the main landing pages, so that every visit is measured.
- Run a small, tightly targeted ad campaign to get enquiries and learn which searches convert.
- Build SEO on the searches that converted: pages, content and technical fixes.
- As unpaid positions improve, reduce ad spend on those searches and move it to new ones.
The two also share data. The search terms report from ads is the best keyword research available, because it shows real searches with real results. Ad copy that gets clicks suggests better page titles. And appearing in both the paid and the unpaid results for an important search takes more of the screen.
How much to budget
There is no universal figure. Work backwards: what is a new customer worth, what share of enquiries become customers, and so what can one enquiry cost? Start ads with an amount you can afford to lose while learning, for at least a month, since a few days of data prove nothing. Give SEO a fixed monthly effort and judge it after six months.
What not to do
- Switch ads on without conversion tracking. You will not know what worked.
- Send ad clicks to the home page.
- Stop SEO after two months because nothing has moved yet.
- Judge either channel by visits instead of enquiries and sales.
Summary
Ads buy speed and information. SEO builds a lasting source of visits. Start with whichever your situation calls for, measure both against the same goal, and let each inform the other. Both are part of our SEO and digital marketing service. If you are unsure where your budget should go first, tell us your numbers and we will work it through with you.