Pay-Per-Click vs. SEO: Determining the Best Returns for Your Business
Online marketing requires making a vast number of decisions. Among these, you will have to determine whether a paid advertising or an organic search engine optimization (SEO) approach best suits your business model.
This can be an incredibly complex decision to make, with various benefits and drawbacks to each approach. While some businesses will have the resources to create a satisfying blend of these two strategies for building a strong brand image, many others will have to focus on one to the detriment of the other.
Making this difficult decision requires the help of a comprehensive comparison. We provide that here.
The Pay-Per-Click or SEM Approach
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the primary approach of search engine marketing (SEM). This strategy focuses on visibility through the purchase of ad space determined by keywords, which search engine companies value based on competitiveness and traffic. Companies then bid on specific keywords in an attempt to get their ads to show up in corresponding search results and drive traffic to their websites.
Search engine companies examine ad quality and the bidding price, then award the winning bidder with ad space relevant to the keyword. When users search those specific keywords, they’ll see the crafted ad pop up in the allocated space on the search results page.
Such an approach to marketing a business is valuable in that it is much cheaper than traditional television advertising, for example, and companies only need to pay when a user actually clicks on the ad. The average cost per click is within the $1-$2 range, and with an effective PPC strategy, small- to medium-sized businesses typically pay $9,000-$10,000 per month.
Google reports that with every $1 a business spends on Google AdWords for their PPC content, the average return on investment (ROI) is $2. Your ROI will of course depend on your data, your marketing quality, and your ability to adjust your strategy on the fly to achieve ideal results. Of course, the beauty of PPC is that making these adjustments while keeping track of transparent metrics is super simple.
The Search Engine Optimization Approach
While SEO and SEM share many similarities, these two approaches to greater visibility and returns also have many inherent differences. Search engine optimization is the broader process of designing and streamlining a website and content pages so that users can organically find it through search engine results pages (SERPs).
You will still obviously need to pay employees for crafting an SEO strategy, but the key difference here is that SEO doesn’t continuously require you to pay for added visibility like PPC ads do.
An effective SEO approach focuses on every element of your web content in order to maximize the ways search engines rank it. This includes everything from loading times, overall content, mobile functionality, keyword integration, authoritative backlinking, and more. SEO experts use a site’s content and metadata to match what search engines look for to the very structure of a website with the end goal of ranking as high as possible when a user types in a relevant search term.
Like SEM and PPC ads, SEO is still all about drawing in traffic in the hopes of converting an audience into customers. The approach differs in nature, however. SEO is all about the long game, drawing in audiences and customers over time through the power of organic searching. SEM strategies can be layered over an SEO approach to bring out even greater results, but the two strategies operate for the most part independently of one another.
Another key difference between the two is that SEO is difficult to gauge both in terms of costs and returns. Outsourcing your SEO can run you anywhere between $500-$5,000 a month depending on the firm, while the returns can sometimes take months to see.
Once successful, however, SEO growth can be exponential, meaning those months waited were well worth it. Picking one strategy over the other will likely come down to your overall goals and the timeframe you have to work with.
Which Will Give You the Best Results?
It is impossible to say directly whether a PPC or SEO approach to online marketing will lead to better returns for any business. These two strategies can serve different functions and produce returns in a variety of timeframes, so the choice will ultimately be determined by your business model.
For example, if you are looking to establish an online presence and cultivate conversions over time, investing in SEO is the right choice. This method is worthwhile for any new business looking to grow an audience and will inevitably increase your traffic and conversion rates over time.
On the other hand, SEM and PPC advertising can help give your digital presence a boost. If you are just starting out and looking to establish an audience or want to draw in new customers with a timed promotion, SEM can be extremely effective. You’ll maximize your returns without paying into PPC ads long-term.
Another vital consideration is your immediate cash flow. Obviously, PPC ads are going to cost you consistently for as long as you run them. SEO, on the other hand, can be studied and implemented by existing staff if your budget is low. Calculate your overall cash flow to determine a working budget for your online marketing approach, then make the best decision for your business.
