For a business owner, online marketing has always proven to be a daunting task. One of the primary reasons behind this stress is the involvement of money and effort that goes into online marketing. If you are well aware of the digital marketing industry, then you might know that there are two major ways by which you can bring conversions to your business. These are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google Ads.
Each of these methods is no doubt productive when it comes to boosting visibility and sales. However, the application of these methods varies from business to business. As compared to SEO, running a Google Ads campaign requires a good amount of money. Thus, for a business that is doing well in terms of sales, Google Ads is a better option than SEO because they can afford to let go of a few dollars in exchange for visibility.
To better understand the difference between SEO and Google Ads, let’s dig a little deeper into the basics of these strategies.
What is SEO?
To be frank, most of us scroll through only those links that appear on the first page of Google when we put in a search term. Thus, if your website does not fall on this first page, then you are probably missing out on good profits for your business. This is where SEO comes into the picture.
In layman’s terms, Search Engine Optimization is the steps you take on your website to make it rank higher on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Having the right content with relevant keywords, linking other sites to your website, optimizing your page title, making your site mobile-friendly are some of the steps that can catapult your website on the first page of Google.
Improving your organic ranking is not something you can achieve in a day. This is a long process that might take weeks. However, once your website reaches the first page of the search engine, then there is no stopping your business from reaching new heights of success. Moreover, customers tend to trust a website more which achieves a higher ranking on its own.
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads is a type of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that displays your ad on Google whenever someone searches for your relevant keyword. You are charged a particular amount every time someone clicks on your advertisement.
Google Ads is one of the quickest ways for getting business as people tend to click more on the top three ad positions on Google. Here, you have the freedom to decide the max CPC (cost-per-click), which enables you to set a budget for your advertising campaign in advance.
The price of your product will also matter if you wish to go for Google Ads. In order to make a profit, it is necessary for you to ensure that your products are priced much higher than your CPC. For example, if you are selling a t-shirt for $10 and you are paying $8 every time someone clicks on your advertisement, then the net profit would be too low. However, if the product cost is $5000 and you are getting one conversion after every ten clicks, then you are spending $80 and making $5000 which is highly profitable.
Which marketing strategy is best suited for your business – SEO or PPC?
Now that we have discussed the basics of search engine optimization and Google Ads, let us understand which strategy will get results for your business.
SEO is something that will help you in the long run. Once you get proper knowledge of your demographics, target audience and keywords, increasing your website rankings organically will be a cakewalk for you. This is a long-term investment that will yield positive results after some time.
As for Google Ads, it is better for businesses that need quick results and does not have a lot of time to spare on optimizing their website. As a matter of fact, you can run a Google Ads campaign even if you don’t have a website as you can create a stand-alone customized landing page that highlights a particular service or product you wish to promote.
Doing this also gives you a good amount of time to build your own website without having to worry about the conversions. Once your website is fully functional, you will have two choices – stop the ad campaign and get started with SEO or implement both these strategies simultaneously for better results.
Conclusion
Whether you should opt for SEO or Google Ads will depend entirely on the current situation of your business, the market situation and your goals. The key is to choose the right marketing strategy at the right time that will keep your business afloat and running without any difficulty.
If ever you feel that making this decision is tasking, you can always find a good digital marketing agency that will guide you on the right path. A good SEO expert will always be able to tell what would work best for your business – organic search paid search or a combination of both.
For further information on Digital Marketing, you may contact us or visit our website www.bmconsulting.in
**********This blog is compiled by Shardul Sant**********