3 Tips for Deciding Between Google Ads and SEO Advertisting
by Robert Clough
Does your company need a ppc campaign like google ads or SEO advertising? Read these 3 tips to find out the best choice for you!
SEO and PPC advertising models seem to be locked in a nearly endless war.
While the truth is that most businesses can benefit from both when you’re just starting out you likely don’t have the budget or manpower to hire someone to manage both.
If you’re wondering if PPC or SEO advertising is right for your business then you’re in the right place. Let’s get to it with three tips to help you figure out which is best suited for your business.
1. Figure Out How Much Research Goes Into a Purchase
You should have a good idea of a target audience if you’re going to move forward with any marketing campaign.
The CTR on most pay-per-click advertisements isn’t very high but it has its uses.
The biggest one? Impulse buyers.
When someone is going to spend a lot of time researching their purchase, especially for B2B purposes, the chances of them clicking on an ad to figure things out are pretty low.
You can create leads this way, but the chances of actually converting the customer immediately are pretty low. The CTR for a B2B company with an AdWords display is about 0.46%, compared to the 2.41% for standard searches.
On the other hand, if you’re selling goofy hats and someone is searching for them then you’re probably in a good place.
The majority of PPC campaigns are run through Google AdWords and the fact of the matter is that most people with internet savvy completely ignore the advertisements at the top of the page. They’ve just trained themselves to do it over the years.
Those same people, when they’re looking to immediately buy something rather than research their purchase, probably don’t mind clicking on an advertisement if that’s the case.
For those who can’t afford to manage both just yet figure out the amount of research which goes into product or service. Research-intensive items tend to do better with SEO while PPC campaigns are excellent for buyers with immediate commercial intent.
2. Ask If You Can Do Your Own Content
Many webmasters are able to write as well as handle their sites and most are aware of basic on-page SEO techniques.
There aren’t nearly as many who have the skills to manage a PPC campaign, which is a specialized art in and of itself.
If you can produce your own content for a blog and other basic content marketing campaigns then you may want to initially invest in PPC management. This will let you get both off the ground, even if your SEO content might not yet be able to compete with the bigger names in your industry.
Later on, you can switch to using an agency to handle your SEO content.
Even if you’re on a tight budget you can look into seeing just how much a PPC management company will run you. While some charge pretty high fees it’s not too hard to figure out what you should be paying. You can learn more here about that.
It’s also important not to overestimate your abilities in this realm, however. While putting together a slapdash blog is pretty easy you can also hurt your brand if you’re not able to put out quality content on a regular basis.
It’s all about balance here.
If you can’t produce, then go with whichever technique is better for your industry and existing revenue stream to start with.
3. Determine How Quickly You Need Traffic
In the long run, SEO advertising is pretty much a requirement. The traffic will grow, you can gain brand recognition with Google, and as long as you keep ranking you can take advantage of the overall higher CTR ratio that’s found in natural search results.
Ranking takes a lot of time, however, and even the best content marketing agency won’t be able to have you on the front page of search engines immediately.
PPC advertising, on the other hand, will almost immediately begin to show results. If you’re just beginning your business then you may want to risk the lower click-through-ratio of PPC ads just to gain immediate visibility.
This is especially important for start-ups, where the first few months can make or break you depending on how visible you are. For an established business with enough revenue to keep the business rolling it’s not quite as important and the long-term investment of SEO marketing might be the way to go.
This is a big reason why many businesses start with PPC: you get pretty much immediate visibility. It’s the same reason why social media marketing has grown so quickly as well, the faster you can get to your target audience the more quickly you’ll be able to see the effects of your marketing.
For an established business with enough revenue to run there’s no reason not to invest in the long-term effects of SEO. On the other hand, PPC is great for those who are relying on the revenue of their first couple of months in order to expand.
SEO Advertising vs. PPC Advertising
The truth is that no matter what the statistics say pretty much every large company out there uses both.
Which of the two techniques is best for you will largely depend on your industry, your existing revenue, and what the capabilities of your current team are. The answers for any kind of marketing campaigns are never cut and dry, unfortunately, but the truth is that both PPC and SEO advertising are going to be necessary for the long run.
If you’re still on the fence then check out SEO section and our PPC section to get the information you need to make the right choice.
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