Paid search vs SEO – Which is better?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a broad term for strategies to increase visibility on search engine listings. It includes 2 popular ways for advertising on search engines – SEO and PPC. (1)

SEO and PPC are vital to the success of your business and both offer measurable results and real-time analytics.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising a website to appear in organic listings in search results, it is unpaid for traffic that involves creating high-quality content, building backlinks and optimising for search engines including Google.

In contrast to SEO, paid search, commonly referred to as pay per click (PPC),
is the process of paying for top results in paid listings of the search results.
Google Ads is an example of PPC marketing, enabling ads to be shown outside of search engines (using Google Display network) Involving targeting keywords, audience, creating ads, driving traffic to landing pages and driving conversions.

What is a good ROI percentage for SEO? and which one will help your business grow faster? The answer to this question is more complex than you might think because both strategies have benefits and drawbacks.

• Long-term strategy to build organic traffic
• SEO brings more qualified traffic to your website
• SEO is a better investment than PPC if you’re in a competitive market because it could drive more targeted traffic to your website over time
• Less expensive long terms compared to PPC, you don’t have to pay every time someone clicks on your website
• Trust and credibility – customers won’t be put off by sponsored ad tag and higher up results tend to be viewed as more credible
• Sustainable long term growth – traffic can continue to increase even if you stop updating the page
• With the rise of voice search, having great content on your site will be even more important in the future. When customers look up something they need or want by speaking into their phone, they’ll want sites with good content written specifically for that type of search
• Most users click through organic results more often than paid ads

• Steady traffic over time, can take 6-12 months or more to see results
• Restricted to marketing activity solely on search engines
• Doesn’t work on sites that don’t have high-quality content or links and doesn’t drive traffic directly to the site as PPC does
• First page SERP results tend to be around 2 years or more
• Competitive keywords – competitors optimising for some of the keywords you want to target can make it difficult for you to stand out
• Updates – changes to algorithms, making it hard to rank consistently.
• AI overview – has already changed our browsing experience, in addition to sponsored ads makes it harder to be on the first page of Google because organic content has been pushed further down the page.
• SERP features – people also ask provide quick answers to popular questions eliminating need for searchers to click on content. reviews, knowledge panels, local search can all detract visibility from organic searches which can appear lower down on the page. as a result, ranking well for valuable keywords produces lower return than it did in the past, most searchers will never have to leave the top of the SERPs page to get their answer. (2, 3)  

• Instant results- You get instant ad feedback, so you know what’s working and what isn’t as quickly as possible.
• You pay when a user actually reaches your website (clicks on the ad) making it cost effective and have budgeting options – can spend as much or as little as you like
• Showcase outside of search engine, on multiple different sites, networks, social media
• You don’t need any special knowledge about internet marketing. You choose which search engine you want to advertise on, how much you’re willing to spend each day, and what ad type you want (text ad or banner), and then pay Google when someone clicks on your advertisement.
• It’s easier to track conversions and ROI with PPC than with SEO. You can also use conversion tracking codes to determine the success of different campaigns. PPC allows you to place bids based on either daily budget or cost per click (CPC). A CPC bid sets an absolute maximum amount spent each day, while the daily budget establishes an upper limit for spending.
• Can be used on social networks
• Instant exposure quick and easy to bring business ad to top of SERP

• Most users click through organic results more often than paid ads, you won’t gain the same level of visibility and conversions with PPC as you would with effective organic SEM.
• Results can be inconsistent, clicks don’t guarantee sales.
• There’s no guarantee that your ad will be seen, even if you pay more.
• PPC campaigns have deadlines, so you’ll need to monitor your campaigns and adjust accordingly.
• Doesn’t work on AdWords that don’t have high-quality content or links
• Short-term, results stop as soon as budget runs out

• Can decrease your credibility as people tend to prefer organic search results.
• It can get expensive but the more ads the more website traffic you are likely to generate

• Both work based on keywords. Can be tuned to target specific keywords, which ensures that your pages or ads are relevant to the content of your website
• Measurable results and analytics
• You can track all your results and monitor campaign performance using tools such as Google Analytics
• Both can be time consuming, need to optimise and improve to get the best results
• Requires skills to set up effective campaigns and strategies, often businesses will choose to use specialist SEO or PPC freelancers or agencies
• It can take a lot of work to determine which keywords drive traffic and conversions.You may compete with other businesses in the same industry, making it harder to rank on search engines.

The answer to the question of which marketing technique is better depends on your goals. Ideally you would run both PPC and SEO strategies concurrently to get the most of your marketing campaigns.

If you have a product that needs to sell fast and you need people searching for it right now, then PPC ads might be more effective. (4)

If resources are stretched and you have limited budget of around £1000, it may be wiser to invest in setting up SEO first. if you have time to build awareness and increase your website’s authority before your product launches, then search engine optimisation (SEO) is more beneficial. (4)

Both methods provide different information and can benefit each other by boosting one another’s effectiveness. By running them in conjunction, you’ll always be able to find the best strategy for your business and take advantage of opportunities as they come up.

SEO looks at how well your content will rank organically in search engine results pages, while with PPC, you look at how many people will click on your ad and be brought directly to your website.

For example, if you have no clicks on your ads, but an excellent organic ranking on Google, it might be time to re-evaluate that PPC campaign.

If you see good traffic numbers but low conversions (purchases), then it might be time to try some new tactics in SEO.

A tailored SEO strategy boosts your visibility, drives qualified traffic, builds credibility, and helps you outpace competitors—all while improving user experience and conversion rates.

Take the first step with our custom SEO packages, designed to enhance your site’s visibility and performance. Let’s work together to create a website that attracts, engages, and converts.

1. Are SEM and PPC the Same Thing?, LOCALiQ
2. AI Is Killing Traditional Organic Search Engine Optimization for Your Company, Square 2 Marketing
3. SEO vs. PPC: What’s the Difference?, Square 2 Marketing
4. ROI Comparison Between SEO and PPC, V4 Digital Services