We always tell our clients that to increase your chances of being found online you need to look at your SEO and PPC campaigns. But which one is actually better?

SEO

Firstly, let’s look at SEO in greater detail. SEO helps build credibility and authority online. 82% of marketers report that the effectiveness of SEO is on the rise, and they’re not wrong. With SEO bringing in 15 times as many clicks as those from PPC it offers a sustained inflow of traffic that builds long term results. PPC, however, focuses on short term immediate results.

SEO is also cost-effective. It involves content and link building that often only costs your time. Plus, it gives you an advantage over your competitors that can’t simply be bid for. This means that it’s harder for your competitors to easily displace you , rather it takes time and hard work to beat good SEO.

PPC

However, PPC also has its benefits for brands as well. As we’ve mentioned PPC offers short term, yet instantaneous results. That means that you don’t waste time waiting for your page to become more visible on Google, as it happens almost immediately. This does, however, mean that your competitors can also take away your SEO crown with the click of a button. If they’re willing to pay more than you for an ad, you’ve instantly lost your SEO gain.

PPC also allows you to better target your traffic turning ads into customers more effectively. And with 40% of brands planning to increase their PPC budgets by the end of 2019 more and more businesses are seeing the importance of PPC.

So which one’s better?

In short, neither is better than the other. Rather it depends on your business and aims for your marketing strategy. Let’s look at the specific variations between the two…

1.End Goal

SEO and PPC’s end goal is for both to improve traffic

2. Cost

SEO costs only the labour time of creating and monitoring the content. Whereas, PPC is the cost of creating content plus the cost of advertising it.

3. Time

SEO can take time to work, but with PPC the results are immediate.

4. Results

SEO is sustainable, even with no effort or money it can still garner positive results. However, with PPC you need to consistently invest money for it to be successful.

5. ROI

SEO brings in over 25% of organic searches for a keyword, whereas PPC brings in 2-3%.

So, in the battle of SEO vs PPC who has won.

Well, neither. Ultimately, they are both incredibly important for brand growth. However, where you invest more time and money depends on your aims, the time you have to make this impact and your budget.

So, for an all-encompassing, effective strategy both PPC and SEO need to be used and considered.