One of the most common ways a new customer can find your business is through a search engine like Google or Microsoft Bing. If you want to reach the right people through this way, you may have come across SEO vs PPC – but what’s the difference between the two strategies?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, while PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click (with Google Ads being the most widely used PPC platform). Both can help your business appear in search results, but they work in different ways.
So, when it comes to SEO vs PPC, which approach is right for your wider marketing strategy? In this blog, we’ll break down the benefits of SEO and PPC Search Campaigns, when each approach can be useful, and whether you need to choose between the two.
By the way – when we talk about PPC in this article, we’re specifically referring to paid search campaigns, such as Google Ads. We’re comparing how PPC can help your business appear in search results alongside the organic presence you can build through SEO.
What’s the difference between SEO and PPC?
Here’s a quick snapshot of how SEO and PPC compare, giving you an overview of SEO vs Google Ads:
| SEO | PPC | |
| Where you appear | Organic search results | Paid search results |
| How it works | Improving your website and content so it can appear higher in unpaid search results | Paying to show ads when people search for relevant terms |
| Speed | A longer-term approach – it can take 3-6 months to start seeing meaningful results | Can start driving traffic as soon as your ads are live |
| Cost | You don’t pay for each click, but SEO still requires investment | You pay when someone clicks on your ad |
| How long it lasts | Results can continue to bring in traffic over time | Traffic generally stops when you stop running your ads |
| Best used for | Building long-term visibility and attracting relevant traffic | Product launches, seasonal campaigns, testing and generating traffic or leads quickly |
When should you use SEO?
Think of SEO as a long game. It covers on-page, technical and off-page work that can help your website appear more prominently in search results when people are looking for what you offer.
Here are four key reasons why you should consider SEO as part of your marketing mix:
1. Build a long-term search presence: SEO can take several months to start showing meaningful results, but the work you put in can continue to support your visibility and attract relevant visitors over time.
2. Drive relevant organic traffic: By understanding what your customers are searching for and creating useful content around those topics, you can help your pages appear in front of people who are looking for what you offer.
3. Build your expertise: Creating helpful, high-quality content that answers your audience’s questions can demonstrate your expertise and help search engines understand what your website is about. It can also give potential customers more reasons to choose your business.
4. No cost per click… but it still requires investment: You don’t pay every time someone clicks on an organic search result, but SEO still requires time, expertise and potentially tools or agency support. It’s also not a one-off activity – your website and content need ongoing attention to keep them useful, accurate and up to date.
When should you use PPC?
PPC could be considered more of a fast-lane approach to getting visitors to your website. With search campaigns, you can bid on high-intent keywords to get your ads seen by people actively looking for the product or service you offer.
Here are four key reasons to consider PPC as part of your marketing mix:
1. Gain faster visibility: PPC can help you start appearing in search results shortly after launching a campaign, rather than waiting for organic SEO growth to build over time.
2. Support campaigns, product launches and seasonal activity: PPC can be useful when you want to create targeted campaigns around a new product or service, or seasonal activity such as Mother’s Day or Christmas.
3. Reach high-intent searches: By bidding on relevant high-intent keywords, you can help your ads appear in front of people actively searching for the product or service you offer.
4. Test keywords and messaging: PPC gives you data on which keywords and ad messaging are driving clicks, leads or purchases, allowing you to refine your campaigns based on what’s working.
That said, PPC isn’t a magic wand. It still requires ongoing monitoring, testing and optimisation to make sure your campaigns are performing and delivering against your goals
SEO vs PPC: Do you need to choose?
Now we’ve gone through the benefits of SEO and PPC, the question is: which approach is right for your business? It all depends on your goals. But if you can invest time and budget into both channels, they can work together to boost your presence on search engines.
When you run PPC campaigns, you can gather valuable data on which keywords and messaging not only drive people to your website but also encourage them to take actions that are valuable to your business. You can use these insights to inform your SEO strategy and build long-term organic visibility. Over time, this could help reduce your reliance on paid traffic for some searches, while PPC can continue to support more immediate goals, such as promoting a new product, service or campaign.
The right approach all depends on your goals, timeframe and budget. SEO can help increase your visibility in search engines and build long-term organic traffic, but it takes time, investment and ongoing attention to see growth.
Search PPC can help you generate visibility and traffic more quickly, but you also need to factor in your ad spend alongside the cost of the expertise needed to set up, manage and optimise your campaigns. If you’re working with an agency, this will typically mean an additional management fee on top of your media spend.
Ultimately, organic vs paid search doesn’t have to be an “either-or” decision. They can work together, with PPC supporting more immediate goals while SEO builds your long-term organic presence.
If you need support with any aspect of your search engine marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch to find out how we can help, or email us at amy@verriberri.co.uk.