SEO vs PPC Advertising – Which One is Better for Your Business?

Digital marketing holds the unlimited potential to grow your business. There are multiple effective digital marketing that can help you reach new customers. The most often used nowadays is SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.

Let’s break down what they are and what makes them so popular:

The Difference between SEO and PPC Advertising

Both SEO and PPC advertising serve one purpose: to nurture leads and increase your online presence. They go about it a little differently: SEO practices focus on driving organic traffic, while PPC advertising is about smartly targeting the audience with paid ads on SERPs.

An example of an SEO strategy would be posting high-quality, optimized articles in your niche on your website. Optimized means that the pieces use relevant keywords and match specific search queries to help with web visibility.

PPC Advertising, on the other hand, is all about presenting attractive ads to potential customers on SERPs. If your ad is appealing and people click, that gives you a quicker reach to the audience than SEO would. The trick is to make the ad personable and target the right audience, one that’s more likely to be interested in what you’re offering.

The Pros and Cons of SEO and PPC Advertising

While SEO practices and PPC advertising can benefit your business, neither are without drawbacks. So before settling on the one you want to implement, you should carefully consider the significant cons and major pros and ensure that the pitfalls aren’t bigger than the advantages when it comes to your goals, specifically.

3 Pros and 3 Cons of SEO

Pro #1: Organic growth for brand awareness

Optimizing website SEO is a proven way to raise your brand awareness over time. Constantly posting and promoting high-quality SEO content that matches well with search queries helps your website rise in SERP ranking as more and more people start going to your page when they google your niche.

Con #1: High competition

SEO is the most common tool used by websites to achieve a higher SERP ranking. Everything you’re doing, assume your competition will be doing as well. To beat them, you must constantly update and tweak your SEO tactics.

Pro #2: Makes you seem reputable and trustworthy

Most potential readers click on the top of SERP results, assuming it’s the most trustworthy source. The higher your website appears on the Google search page, the higher the trust of the potential target audience. With organic growth, you may attain such a reputation in your niche that your website will become the go-to for the topic.

Con #2: Rules and algorithms keep changing

Search engine algorithms are ever-evolving and as they keep evolving, so are the SEO rules. What could successfully help your rise in SERP ranking yesterday could get you penalized and dropped tomorrow. Keeping up with all the changes is challenging, yet SEO cannot be successfully utilized without it.

Pro #3: Highly cost-effective

SEO services are not cheap, especially if you’re getting a qualified SEO expert involved. Effective SEO means specific tools, analytics, and constant upgrades to beat the competition. Yet, suppose you consider other marketing strategies, like printed ads, cold calling, etc… In that case, it’s immensely more cost-effective since it has a much higher chance of yielding visibility and leads (and thus, profit).

Con #3: You’ll have to strap in for the long haul

Even the best SEO expert can’t get you to the SERP top overnight. If you decide to use SEO, you’ll need to consistently generate quality optimized content for a long time and be satisfied with a slow rise.

3 Pros and 3 Cons of PPC Advertising

Pro #1: Personalized to the target audience

PPC Advertising campaigns can be personalized through Google Ads to reach specific groups of people: by demographics, interests, etc.

Con #1: Costs a lot

PPC Ad campaigns cost a lot, especially compared to SEO. Therefore, an increase in return on investment (ROI) isn’t guaranteed.

Pro #2: Measurable efficiency

You can monitor how well your campaign is working and if it’s worth it: you only need to check generated ROI.

Con #2: Isn’t easy to use

Effective PPC advertising methods are complicated. Without an expert on the team, setting up an effective campaign, especially from the get-go, is highly unlikely (and can result in a significant loss).

Pro #3: Can quickly boost sales

An effective PPC Advertising campaign can help you reach prospective customers and boost your sales much quicker than SEO.

Con #3: …but clicks ≠ (not equals) sales

Higher traffic to the website doesn’t automatically translate to higher revenue through sales. All PPC Ads can do is get more eyes on your products. Convincing them to make a purchase is on you. This is why PPC advertising can be more effective when combined with on-page SEO practices.

Which is Better: SEO or PPC Advertising?

Depends entirely upon your goals, deadlines, and budget. Both SEO and PPC Advertising can be highly useful in the skilled hands, but both come with certain drawbacks.