9 Advantages of PPC over SEO
9 Advantages of PPC over SEO
We have been doing SEO and PPC, so we made a list of reasons that give PPC an advantage over SEO. This article doesn't state that PPC is better than SEO. We always advocate using both channels. You can make the best decision on getting conversions by knowing how both channels work.
Almost immediate rankings
SEO takes months or even a year to work well. That's why it can be a risky investment for business owners. SEO success depends on your company, competition, budget, and SEO person. PPC results (good or bad) come in much quicker.
You have much More Control and Way More Insights.
With PPC, you can see the bounce rate, conversions, the number of people who clicked on a single keyword that you target. You will never know that with SEO.
If you had such insight for SEO, some of SEO's work would fail because the keywords aren't converting as much as you think.
Switch Ads ON and OFF Better for TESTING!
I usually recommend running PPC ads first for your target keywords. You can see if the keyword works because of the insights, conversion rates, etc.
Sometimes it turns out that the keyword you thought would be best has a 70% bounce rate and no conversions. This happens a lot in SEO because of the lack of insights for organic traffic. Why invest in 6 months of SEO to rank for it?
Immune to Google's organic algorithm Penalties and significant ranking Position Movements.
Organic positions change every day. In SEO, you can spend months to rank well for a keyword and later lose positions in Google.
In PPC, ranking movement happens, but not nearly as much as organic.
People still click on Ads
Studies have shown that many people browsing the web still don't know that the top 4 results on top are ads.
No matter how well you rank with SEO, the people using search ads on top will get a high CTR (the percentage of people who searched for a keyword and then clicked on it). You might rank 1st organically, but it comes above the organic position and gets 15-30% CTR if someone puts an ad.
Ad Text that Stays the Same as you wrote it
Google sometimes changes the meta titles and descriptions in organic, so your results might be less clickable. In PPC, you can limit this and control what kind of messages you display in the search results.
Also, if you have a new promotion you want people to see, you can make brand ads and put that promotion as your main landing page when people search for your brand.
Easier to Calculate ROI and Conversions.
ROI or conversions from marketing are always hard to calculate. Because of the insights from PPC, especially in e-commerce, you get a clearer picture of the return on ads.
Organic traffic mixes brand, non-brand, and hidden search terms.
You get Support from Google
Google offers support and is willing to help you and give you advice. You can ask, "Why did my clicks drop?" or "Why something isn't working?" and they will help you.
Sometimes, you will get a dedicated Google Ads account manager to email or set up calls. In SEO, you are left alone if your rankings drop, pages don't get indexed, etc.
Other Marketing options are available
You can use other Marketing options like Display ads, Retargeting past website visitors, Video ads, Shopping ads.
These are marketing mediums only available with PPC.
These are marketing mediums only available with PPC.
There you have it, 9 advantages PPC has over SEO. There will be a blog soon about the advantages SEO has over PPC.
The point is to know how both channels work and get the best out of each one. That is why we always ask for information about the company up front to assess which channels and tactics would be the most efficient.
Every business is different.