If you are just beginning with marketing strategies, you must be struggling to understand the difference between SEO and PPC. To be honest, they are related in many ways. Both SEO and PPC strategy serve the same end goal: expansion of your brand, growth in organic traffic, and optimum conversion rate. However, they are two different ways of reaching your target audience. If you have been wanting to understand the difference between SEO and PPC, this is the article for you. Here, we will explain everything you need to know about SEO vs PPC. 

What Is SEO Marketing?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a method of optimizing the content on your web pages and website so that you rank higher in search engine results. A search engine is basically a software that allows you to search for anything and everything. Some of the most popular ones are Google and Bing. 

There are several aspects to improving your SEO like using relevant keywords, creating links, etc. the one downside is that you will have to constantly be on top of your game because search engines don’t let you buy a better SEO rank. The relevance and quality of your website are determined by a search engine’s algorithm. 

One of the most important things to remember while optimizing your website is to understand the workings of a particular search engine’s algorithm. 

PPC Vs SEO Pros Cons

Pros Of SEO Marketing 

Organic Traffic Stays For Good

Here’s the thing. Although SEO is slightly difficult, the organic traffic it generates stays for good. Once you achieve a certain level of success, you don’t have to constantly grind to keep your customers on your website. For this, you need to figure out which keywords are best for your brand. 

This is one level that SEO wins in the battle between SEO vs PPC. 

Paid advertising campaigns, on the other hand, will generate traffic as long as you have financial resources. Once you stop paying for advertisements, you might face a significant decrease in traffic. 

SEO Is Pocket-Friendly For Long-Term Goals 

The great thing about SEO marketing is that it helps you generate leads organically. This means hard work, but it also means that the customers you receive will be genuinely interested in your service and products. And this is something that you must be aware of even without us mentioning it, genuine customers help you achieve your long-term goals. 

Unlike PPC marketing, you won’t have to constantly spend money per ad to drive traffic.

Cons Of SEO Marketing 

Needs Constant Work For A Long Time

This is probably why a lot of people go for PPC marketing when choosing between SEO vs PPC. 

Studies show that only a meager 5.7 percent of websites manage to get a top 10 ranking after a year into publishing. Even with these websites, it will take around 5-6 months for any website to get such a higher ranking. 

If you are looking for quick traffic, you should definitely not just stick to the traditional SEO marketing strategies. 

You Need Creative, Unique, And Expert Content

When you look up something on a search engine, which article do you click from the tens and hundreds of search results? Obviously, the one that has experts on the subject matter. This is what determines your SEO ranking as well. 

If you are an expert on your gender, well and good, it will lead you a long way. But, if you are not, the competition can be quite tough. One way to solve this issue is by interviewing or collaborating with experts. However, this solution can be a bit time-consuming and expensive for independent brands. 

What Is PPC?

Let’s jump into understanding what is PPC marketing. It stands for pay-per-click. It is a marketing model where advertisers pay for each click, which leads customers to their landing page. Generally, PPC marketing is associated with SEM such as Google Ads and Bing Ads. 

However, nowadays most of the social media platforms such as Twitter, Quora, and Facebook offer PPC marketing options to brands as well. 

PPC Vs SEO Pros Cons

Pros Of PPC Marketing 

It Works Fast

If you are a brand that’s looking to generate instant traffic, PPC marketing is the best option for you. Unlike SEO methods, the results of the PPC show as soon as you invest. 

You Can Customize Your PPC Ads

This marketing method allows you to customize your ads and control which customer groups get to see it. This way, you control the dissemination of your ads according to your target audiences. You can modify data content like the location you want to focus on, the certain demographics that you want to target, etc. 

You Can Test Your Ads Before Investing

Since PPC marketing shows results quite fast, you can easily set up marketing campaigns for each ad group to test which one does better. This is not possible in SEO since it takes months to generate traffic. 

Cons Of PPC Marketing

Heavy On Your Pocket

This is one of the reasons many marketers are hesitant to pick PPC advertising when choosing between SEO vs PPC. It’s much more expensive than SEO marketing. 

Especially if your brand has a lot of competition, bidding in certain keywords can get extremely expensive. If not done correctly, you might even end up losing more money than you earn through PPC advertising. 

Not Great For Long-Term Effectiveness

Look at things from the point of view of customers. What happens if you see an ad many times? You get irritated or indifferent to it, right? This is why we say that one ad campaign does not work for a long time.  It loses its effectiveness. This is why you need to come up with new ideas, images, and copies and update your ad campaigns. 

Heavy Financial Investment

It’s in the name. You pay per click. So, if you are an independent business owner with little to no marketing funds, it might be heavy on your finances. Especially if you are not familiar with what is PPC, it might take some time before you see any return of investments. 

Should You Choose SEO OR PPC?

We have explained to you the difference between SEO and PPC and the PPC vs SEO pros and cons. Now, we will tell you which marketing method you should choose: SEO or PPC. 

One thing you should remember as a marketer is that one marketing strategy does not work the same for all. Depending on your brand, the service type, and the topics you cover, you need to customize the best marketing strategy for yourself. 

SEO optimization and PPC advertising are both legitimate marketing strategies that drive traffic to your website. However, there are certain instances where you should choose one over the other. 

Do You Offer A Unique Product?

As we have mentioned, SEO tools are as effective as your SEO keywords. If you have a brand that works on topics that are heavily looked for on search engines, you have great chances of optimizing your website to attract customers. However, if you offer a unique product, how are you going to use SEO tools effectively when no one is looking for you? 

When there’s no awareness about your product or service among your target audience, it is quite unlikely that you will generate leads through SEO keywords. This is one particular instance where you should definitely choose PPC marketing in the SEO vs PPC battle. 

One way to kick start your brand marketing in such a situation would be to use social media PPC. 

Are Your Launching Your Brand? 

If you are launching your brand with some kind of offer that means you are looking for quick traffic. If it’s a time-bound event, you need to make sure that people know about it before it’s over. Like we said about SEO for websites, they take time to show results. This is why, for situations like this, PPC marketing would make much more sense for you. One quick way to reach your target audience is to engage with Google AdWords PPC. 

You Own A Website With A Long-Term Goal Of Selling

In this situation, you should go for SEO Marketing while picking between SEO or PPC. 

Using SEO tools and relevant SEO keywords will help you generate organic traffic that won’t die off easily, which tends to happen with PPC marketing. While SEO might take longer to show results, it’s much better suited for long term goals. 

When you succeed in getting a high ranking, other websites will link to you and more customers will visit your website too. This, in turn, will continue to keep you in a high rank. This is why SEO wins in the SEO vs PPC battle when you focus on long-term goals. 

Your Brand Doesn’t Fit Either SEO  Or PPC?

Don’t worry, if this is the case for you. Like we mentioned, each brand needs its own marketing strategy. Here are three steps that you can follow to come up with the best marketing strategy for you. 

Brainstorm

Who are your target audiences? Where do they spend most of their time? These are the basic questions you need to answer before creating a marketing campaign. 

Conduct Cheap Tests

Nothing will show you accurate results like testing. Planning only goes so far. So, whatever small and cheap test you can afford, conduct it. 

Choose The Best Option

After you have conducted tests, analyze the data, and go for the best option. Always trust data. 

SEO Vs PPC: Can You Use Both?

Both SEO and PPC strategies are great methods of digital marketing. We will repeat what we said at the beginning, both methods serve the same purpose: driving traffic to your website, expanding your brand, and optimizing conversion rates. 

Since we have already told you what is PPC and what is the difference between SEO and PPC, we are now going to tell you that it is possible to use both the marketing strategies together. After all, they work best together. 

Let’s see some of the ways you can do this. 

Utilize Facebook Ads

Why not use your SEO friendly blog as a PPC ad? Writing an SEO friendly article is not that easy. You need to figure out the relevant SEO keywords and add the right tags, among other things. Why aren’t you using them as PPC ads?

Get these blogs in front of your target audience through Facebook ads. Don’t limit yourself to social media PPC ads. You can use PPC google as well. This search engine boasts millions of searches per minute. 

Retarget Your Customers 

Another way to mix SEO and PPC marketing strategy is to use blogs on PPC ads to retarget customers. Retargeting means that you are showing people ads who have already visited your website, but for some reason, they did not go ahead with buying the product or signing up for a service. 

Retargeting is an excellent marketing strategy since it allows you to convince customers who have already shown an interest in your product. They are much more likely to engage with your brand the second time around. 

Focus On Highly Bid Keywords 

In this discussion between SEO vs PPC, we should not forget that highly bid keywords are crucial to both these marketing strategies. Whether you are using SEO or PPC, keeping an eye on your competitors and utilizing the highest bid keywords will lead to higher conversion opportunities for you. 

TakeAways

We have told you all there is to know about what is PPC and the difference between SEO and PPC. Now, it’s up to you to decide which marketing strategy is better for your brand. 

We cannot really pick a winner in this battle between SEO vs PPC because both have their own specialties. They serve the same end goal. At the end of the day, you have to work in tandem with both strategies. 

Adios, let us know if this article helped!