If you are trying to decide between Google Ads (cost per click advertising) and SEO (Organic Search Optimisation where clicks are free) you should consider some major pros and cons for both of these methods.
Google’s Paid Ads (Previously known as Adwords)
PROS
1. Fast results – Your ads will appear on Google straight away usually same day after starting your campaign.
2. Precise targeting – You can target by customers location, device, specific time of the day and more.
3. Ability to upscale and downscale your ads exposure – you can simply increase your daily budget to start getting more visitors to the website or decrease it to get less. If your business can not handle more leads simply stop your ads and restart when you’re ready again.
4. Precise control of the landing pages – you have precise control of the pages where you want your visitors to go after clicking on your specific ad.
5. Trackable results – You can see exactly how many people visit your website and complete your goals (sales, phone calls, etc)
What you should be aware of:
If you are in a competitive industry and you don’t have any experience with Google Ads, I would not advise you to set it up yourself. In the early days, when clicks were cheap you could get away with a DIY setup and still be profitable, but these days are long gone now and cost per click gets expensive. So professional setup is a must to minimize wastage on unwanted clicks and increase your ROI (return on your investment).
SEO – Organic Search Optimisation
PROS
2. Wide exposure – In general, SEO provides really wide exposure as it’s not limited by precise keyword matching. So you will get many visitors who were searching for the similar phrases instead of just keywords you’re focused on.
3. Business value – As high organic rankings take time to achieve, your business value also increases.
What you should be aware of:
SEO takes time. You’ll have to wait on average between 3-6 months to get your website to the top of search results, but once you are there your business can really skyrocket.
P.S. My basic advice for all businesses is to run both campaigns provided they are profitable. I don’t see any logical reason not to run Google’s Paid Ads or SEO, if your return on investment is positive. Google Analytics can track all your goals and conversions for you so you know exactly what works for you.
The general rule of thumb here is to invest 10% of your marketing budget into proper tracking of your visitors and conversions so you know exactly what brings you customers and sales.
Looking to get more clients for your business?
