Nowadays, there’s really no need to state the importance of proper digital marketing repeatedly. To put it simply – most service-oriented companies find their customers online or vice versa. There’s really no other kind of marketing that can bring in more business compared to having a quality presence online. But with that in mind – what digital marketing strategies are the most viable ones to practice? A typical example of one such dilemma is what drives more leads in the battle of organic SEO vs PPC? We’re here to answer that question for you!
Which should you use?
So, why is search engine optimization such a big thing to begin with? Well, a business of all types and sizes have fully realized just how crucial online marketing is. And search engines are essentially the driving machines of online marketing. In fact, some studies estimate that around 80% of people find the website they’re looking for via search engines. And when we’re talking about someone looking for a specific service for the first time; there’s simply no getting around search engines.
That’s why any company worth its salt would do well to hire a company for SEO to help them achieve a good search engine ranking. That’ll be crucial for making sure that your website is presented to the target audience as much as possible. But here lies an interesting question: what method for lead generations should you use – organic SEO vs PPC? On the one hand, you’ve got natural methods of achieving a high ranking in search results. And on the other, you’ve got PPC, or Pay Per Click methods; meaning using purchased Google ads and sponsored links. So, is one better than the other?
Let’s get one thing out of the way – if you use these methods correctly, both will result in lead generation via search engines; as you’ll constantly be at the top of search engine results for your niche keywords. So, the real question here is which method proves to be more productive. And as you’ll see in detail below, both methods have their own pros and cons.
Advantages of Organic SEO
If you’re wondering how to increase your customer base and whether to use organic SEO vs PPC; you genuinely need to get into the details. And let’s have one piece of information out in the open right away; organic SEO results are better than PPC in one key regard; people click on paid ads far less than on results that are generated organically. We’re talking about a vast disparity, where organic SEO has around eight times higher chances of generating a lead.
It’s no wonder, seeing as organic results are viewed as far more trustworthy. Also, over these couple of decades of using search engines, people have accustomed their eyes to immediately looking at the top organic results. Research shows that they barely give a thought to the paid ads on the side.
Taking this into account, the choice between PPC and organic SEO may seem crystal clear; defeating the entire point of writing an entire article about it. But, as with most things; there’s another side of the coin. And in this case, the other side of the coin is – money!
Advantages of PPC
In the struggle of organic SEO vs PPC, the latter has one big thing in the ‘pro’ column – it’s extreme speed. If you run a PPC campaign well, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t land on the first page for your chosen keywords within a single day. But, the trick is in the cost. Pay Per Click campaigns is just what their name implies; meaning that any click may cost you anything from a couple of pennies to quite a few dollars, not to mention stuff like brand bidding. Also, PPC campaigns are rarely done by companies in-house; usually, you need to hire a professional digital marketing company to execute one successfully. Which, in turn, means accruing additional costs.
That’s why trade organizations estimate that PPC campaign budgets are far larger than the money needed for organic SEO; in fact, PPC efforts make almost 90% of digital marketing budgets! With the expensiveness of PPC in mind, the natural question poses itself; why do people use it in the first place?
A time and a place
As we’ve mentioned above, the main advantage of PPC is its speed, and its biggest disadvantage is its cost. But there’s a reason both of these exist and are actively used for lead generation. It’s simply the matter of knowing when is the right time for these different lead generation methods. For example, when your company is just starting out – PPC is a great way to build some awareness for your brand. When you’re working within a limited budget for a specific event, organic SEO vs PPC is a no-brainer; you go with the latter. But once that’s done, you still need SEO to produce long-term results, that don’t involve paying a huge amount of money on a daily basis.
Conclusion on organic SEO vs PPC
For those constructing a long-term brand, organic SEO is not only a great option; but an utter necessity. Considering limited digital marketing budgets, and the long-term effectiveness of SEO that’s far bigger; you should opt for it in the long term, and only use PPC for a limited time period.
