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At a certain period, every site owner comes up with a question: what is better – SEO or PPC? What promotional option is better to use in my case? Perhaps a combination of the two is the optimal option. Before you decide for yourself what to choose, you need to figure out how PPC differs from SEO. So, let’s start from the very beginning.
Understanding the Difference
To find your winner in the SEO vs PPC competition, it is worth understanding the difference between these popular promotion tools:
Context advertising (PPC) is the way of promoting your business in search engines. As a rule, such ads are shown above and below the search outcomes, on the body page of the partner’s website. The display of ads depends on the user’s queries and interests.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a progressive advancement of the webpage structure and its content; adaptation of the site under Google terms for Webmasters, due to which the search engine algorithms determine the website to be more corresponding for user requests.
Now, let’s compare which tool better suits your case.
Pay per Click (Contextual Advertising)
Pay Per Click tool is most often used when it is necessary to achieve a quick result in engaging customers. The key purpose is to get quick sales or to test a certain hypothesis. The amount of commercials placed in search engines is constantly increasing, which indicates the popularity and effectiveness of this advertising tool.
Here are just some of the PPC advantages:
- It gives quick results;
- This is a good tool for starting a promotion;
- Perfectly suits to seasonal projects;
- It has many different ad formats (remarketing, Google shopping, etc.);
- You can quickly test a new product or niche;
- It helps to quickly check the possibilities of the new design and other changes;
- It allows you to reach the target group of people on all gadgets.
Today this method of engaging clients is becoming more and more in demand and the key purpose for this is the rapid achievement of the expected outcomes. If you configure the settings right, you can feel the result from launching contextual advertising on the first day, which captivates many businessmen and promoters.
If you managed to perform all the necessary tasks correctly and work out appropriate keywords, in 99% of cases it will engage new clients who are already interested in your goods or services. However, if you have no experience in starting the advertising of services and goods, it may cost you more money.
Pay per click tool is perfect for short-term projects, or if you have to promote your own brand in a short time. As research shows, pay per click advertising may boost brand awareness by 80%, which is why even such companies as Amazon and Facebook continue to use it.
Why You Need SEO
Anyone who wants to create an Internet business that could be competitive in the long-term has to consider this promotional method. Even whether you have a truly huge budget, using it only on PPC would be out of logic.
Over time, engaging clients from a free-traffic channel will save you enough money. Rivals who show bad SEO performance will be forced to focus on generating costly traffic and wouldn’t be able to change marketing channels. If you don’t want to spend much money on PPC – this is a reason why you need SEO.
Look at the advantages that SEO can bring to you:
- As a general rule, the effect of SEO will be stronger than from contextual advertising. However, you need to wait at least 6 months, and sometimes even about a year to feel the result;
- Search traffic will continue to go to the website even after you no longer financially support this internet marketing channel;
- The main plus that most SEO advocates point out is that there is no need to inject large sums in a short period;
Your purpose is to come up with a plan of action, so it may be implemented when the funds will be available. That is why in the battle “Promotion in Search Engines Vs Context Advertising”, newbies often choose the first option.
Moreover, if your website has already entered the Tops of search results, the likelihood that it will leave the first positions soon is small. So, you can reduce your SEO funding with minimal loss of search traffic and switch your focus to another type of marketing.
When SEO Is Better Than PPC Advertising?
- When your task is to cut the cost of engaging new clients in the long term;
- When your budget is limited and there is no need to achieve instant results;
- When your priority is to engage users in the long term;
- When you are interested in increasing ROI even after the immediate completion of the promotion.
When Is PPC Better Than SEO?
- When you need instant results;
- When you need the projected level of sales;
- When you need an audience with particular characteristics.
Pick your keywords, configure your advertising, push the Publish button and your website is magically in the TOP of the SERPs. Meanwhile, you can select super flexible settings – even insert the
address of your possible clients. If you need that level of targeting, then PPC is your priority.
In Conclusion
It is almost impossible to single out a leader in such a confrontation since both methods are good under certain circumstances. Need instant outcomes? Set up an advertising and start receiving conversions within the next 24 hours. Are you ready for the long-term development of your project? The best option would be SEO.
The only thing to remember is the following: if you don’t have a clear understanding of the market, it would be more rational to ask for professional help. Otherwise, you risk spending a lot of money but never get the results you want.
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This content is brought to you by Mary Wood.
Photo: Shutterstock
