SEO vs PPC which is better?

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SEO vs PPC which is better?

 

I suppose a good place to start would be at..

 

 ..distinguishing the differences between the two.

 

SEO: Traditionally known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of combining on-page optimization and off-page optimization (both of which require different tasks that need to be performed) to rank high in the search engines.

 

As an example, some “on-page” SEO would be, if I knew as someone who is an SEO specialist(which I happen to be) that using the term SEO (or any other keyword) 3 times was the ideal amount of times, then I would make an effort to use that keyword “SEO” at least 3 times, so that the “crawlers” (as they’re called,) realize that that keyword is being “mentioned” not just spoken of.

An Example of off-page would be, people commenting on Facebook comment boxes and linking back to your site (or my site), back-linking (when someone ‘links back’ to your website from theirs), tweets with your link, etc.. there are varying ways of increasing off-page SEO but this isn’t the time nor the place.

Those are just examples.

If your SEO Campaign is good, then you’ll show up higher in the rankings than your competitors.

It’s said, that good SEO can save an upwards of $10,000’s/mo in marketing that would normally have to be generated through Paid Advertising, i.e…

PPC: Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is basically purchasing ad slots whether on Facebook, or using Google Adwords, or Bing, or Yahoo, etc..

Instead of paying a flat fee for a certain number of impressions which is, pay-per-impression (1,000 views PPM), PPC ads are charged based on the number of clicks an ad receives, based on the bid price offered by the advertiser.

 

BEFORE I Go ANY Further.

I should say that:  There is a time and a place for everything.

 

..and it really depends on what the goal you’re trying to achieve is. There are varying arguments and die hard fans of PPC and SEO that will fight to the death of why SEO will always be better than PPC or why PPC will always be better than SEO, but the truth is.. it really depends on what you’re doing.

So, with that.. let’s continue.

Both SEO and PPC have their pros and cons.

SEO for instance, often results in sustainable, free traffic, once high Search-engine-ranking-positions (SERPs) are achieved. At the same time, it may take more than a year to reach these top spots, depending on how competitive your keywords are.

Alternatively, PPC advertising results in an immediate influx of website visitors, but at a price.
Anywhere from $.01- $20+ per click.

 

So let’s talk about instances you would want to USE SEO instead of PPC:

1) You or your company have low or no budget.

If you have no money to spend on PPC, then this is where you would want to get to writing – and aim for SEO.

2) Click fees for keywords are too high.

This instance usually occurs when people are targeting VERY competitive keywords,

(which I completely discourage as there’s no reason to if you’ve done your market and keyword research properly)

with companies that have ultra budgets to pour into those same campaigns.

3) Aren’t able to manage PPC Campaign

 

Short story on this one..

I was once following a company very closely reading everything related to it, and getting into the heads of the companies affiliates, and employees..I had just found out that the company went under.

I immediately put a PPC Ad on Facebook and targetted ONLY the people who had “liked” the company, (couldn’t select “worked for” at the time unfortunately, otherwise I would – and suggest you do the same)

my Ad budget was $25. Not much, I know.

But I made sure to laser in on my target market, and made sure I had an image & copy that I KNEW would pull their heart strings and make their curiosity go wild.

What was my result?

Opening PPC bid was $1.12 (here I had earlier been getting leads for under .50cents a click) as you can imagine I was thinking..

“That’s BS, that’s only like 25 clicks.”

So, here’s what I did..

I made sure to stick around until after my Ad went live, and then checked up on it every hour or so..

One thing I really like about FB PPC ads is that they will automatically LOWER your bid if it’s not necessary to have it higher. Which they did.

..But.

It could be lowered even more.

After checking back an hour or so later (maybe 2) I noticed it had been taken down to 16cents. NOT BAD!

Especially since a couple hours earlier I was paying $1.12 or so for those same clicks. Luckily, by that time I had only gotten 3-6 clicks or so.

So now, as I went in to adjust the bid price myself, I noticed that my suggested bid price was actually .04-12cents.

So I put it at 5cents, went to sleep and woke up the next morning with…

 

• 475 Clicks
• 4.25% CTR (THIS is REALLY REALLY REALLY good). Avg is .02%
• All for under $25.
• This campaign netted me $475.

Not bad right?

So you can imagine..

If you don’t have the time to watch your campaign especially your initial ones, you’re going to have a hard time tuning what’s working and what’s not, all while minimizing the $ you’re spending.

—

So let’s talk about when you WOULD WANT TO USE PPC.

1) You have more money than time.

PPC is definitely the suggested route if you have the budget. It’s almost instantaneous as long as soon as the campaign is launched that you can expect to have visitors clicking on your ad and going to its landing page.

So long as your website/landing page is set-up to convert, then I’d suggest this route 10x over.

2) You’ve been slapped in the past due to SEO Algorithm changes.

(when I say slapped, I am referring to the ‘google slap’ google it if you don’t know what it is)

For this, I say, the best SEO is and has always been – content marketing.

3) Speed up split testing

As someone who also specializing in conversion rate-optimization (CRO – yes there is such a thing) it goes without saying that this is an excellent way (again if you have the budget) to speed up split (aka, AB tests)

Whether you’re testing..

• Landing pages
• Copy
• button
• Colors
• etc..

Being able to turn traffic on with the click of a button to see which converts better is priceless. (Well not really, depending on your PPC it could be anywhere from .01cent to $20+ per click) 😉
Lastly,

One thing to remember is that you don’t have to go ‘either or’ meaning, you don’t have to CHOOSE between SEO or PPC.

You can USE THEM BOTH.

(If you have the budget)

There are many strategies for both PPC and SEO, so much so that I’m not going to get into it in this article – but, using them both the right way can do things you’d never thought possible for your traffic, leads, and inevitably sales.

Best,

Kevin

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