The difference between SEO and PPC is price, placement, and performance.
| Difference | SEO | PPC |
| Price | No charge for website clicks.
Management rates vary. |
Charged per ad click.
Management rates vary. |
| Placement | Appear below paid search results. | Appear first in search results, above organic results. |
| Performance | Able to deliver results within 3-6 months. | Able to deliver results immediately after launch |
Learn more about SEO vs. pay-per-click advertising, including when to use the strategies together and their unique advantages (and disadvantages) in marketing campaigns!
What is the difference between SEO and PPC?
The difference between SEO and PPC is SEO focuses on organic visibility, while PPC focuses on paid visibility. The two marketing strategies use different tools and tactics to deliver short- and long-term results.
Is SEO or PPC better?
Whether SEO or PPC is better depends on your goals. If you want to generate sales fast, PPC is the better option because it provides instant visibility. In comparison, if you’re looking to grow traffic long-term, SEO is the better option because of its effectiveness.
When should I use PPC vs. SEO?
Every business is different, but these are our recommendations for:
- When to use PPC vs. SEO (and vice versa)
- When to use PPC and SEO together
| Scenario | Use PPC | Use SEO |
| New product or service | X | |
| Company rebrand | X | X |
| Pre-determined audience | X | |
| Full-funnel reach | X | |
| Sales or promotions | X | |
| Brand awareness | X | X |
| Nurturing | X | X |
| Conversion | X | X |
| Long-term ROI | X | |
| Short-term ROI | X |
Learn the basics of SEO
Learn the basics of SEO, from what makes SEO worth it to how it differs from PPC.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is optimizing a website to improve its visibility in organic search engine results pages (SERPs). Common optimizations include researching keywords, creating SEO content, writing title tags, and building backlinks.
How much does SEO cost?
SEO costs $1500 to $5000 per month, though, there are affordable alternatives if you’re looking for cheaper options. For example, you can learn and do SEO yourself (though this involves several skills besides SEO, like writing, design, and development).
What are the pros of SEO?
The advantages of SEO include the following:
| Pro | About |
| Cost | Unlike PPC, you do not pay when someone clicks on your listing in organic search results. |
| Return on investment (ROI) | SEO is an effective long-term investment because its results compound over time as your SEO efforts grow. |
| Reach | With SEO, your business can reach users throughout the buying funnel. You don’t have to worry about ad blockers hiding your site. |
| Trust | Appear in search results throughout the buying funnel, and you build trust with users by demonstrating that you’re a real business. |
| Quality | Based on your keyword targeting, you can attract qualified traffic with SEO, which can help your business generate more leads and sales from SEO. |
| Maintenance | While SEO is ongoing, it doesn’t require the same maintenance as PPC campaigns, which often need targeting and budget adjustments. |
What are the cons of SEO?
The cons of SEO include the following:
| Con | About |
| Time to ROI | Compared to PPC, SEO does not deliver overnight results. Instead, most businesses invest in SEO for three to six months before seeing ROI. |
| Skill sets | SEO also requires several skill sets to succeed, from search engine optimization to content writing to web development. |
| Competition | With more businesses doing SEO, it’s become a competitive market. That means appearing for high-volume keywords is harder, which can affect your ROI. |
| Algorithms | Search engine algorithms can change their ranking factors anytime, requiring your team to pivot its efforts, like resolving page speed issues. |
| Measurable ROI | Measuring SEO’s return on investment is more difficult than paid strategies. In most cases, you’ll need to calculate this manually. |
What are the use cases for SEO?
Based on the pros and cons of SEO, what are some of its best use cases?
SEO is great for the following:
- Building brand awareness
- Reaching all buying funnel stages
- Increasing website traffic
- Improving lead quality or average sale value
- Growing search real estate by appearing in both organic and paid results
- Optimizing marketing costs
Typically, companies see SEO as a long-term investment in their marketing and business objectives.
Learn the basics of PPC
Learn more about PPC in the SEO vs. paid search debate below:
What is PPC?
PPC is advertising a brand, product, or service on ad networks using the cost-per-click (CPC) bidding model. Common tasks performed by PPC companies include researching keywords, writing ad copy, adjusting budgets, optimizing landing pages, and more.
How much does PPC cost?
PPC costs include ad spend, plus management expenses. On average, businesses pay $100 to $10,000 per month. How much you spend will depend heavily on your average cost-per-click (CPC).
What are the pros of PPC?
The pros of PPC include the following:
| Pros | About |
| Time to ROI | PPC delivers a fast ROI. As soon as your ads go live, they can drive revenue for your business. |
| Measurable ROI | You’ll also find it’s easy to measure PPC’s ROI. Google Ads, for instance, tracks your return on investment for you. |
| Targeting | PPC offers advanced targeting options, from interests to location, which you can use to reach your target market. |
| Reach | Like SEO, PPC can reach users throughout the buying funnel. You will have to pay for this reach, which gets more expensive the closer you are to purchase. |
What are the cons of PPC?
Learn more about the cons of PPC below:
| Cons | About |
| Cost | PPC requires an ongoing investment. If you stop paying, your ads stop running, so your sales will also stop. |
| Maintenance | PPC also demands more maintenance than SEO. You’ll need to revise keywords, bids, ad copy, and more to minimize ad fatigue. |
| Effectiveness | Ad fatigue and ad blockers can all affect PPC’s effectiveness. Fraudulent clicks can also drain your budget quickly. |
What are the use cases for PPC?
Based on the pros and cons of PPC, what are some everyday use cases? A few include:
- Supporting a new product or service launch
- Building brand awareness for a rebrand
- Promoting a recent acquisition
- Targeting your brand name(s)
- Attracting middle-of-the-funnel traffic, like with a free guide
- Capturing bottom-of-the-funnel traffic
- Maximizing search real estate by appearing in both paid and organic search results
Because of its cost, PPC is often a short-term investment, though businesses will have long-term campaigns with lower costs, like campaigns targeting your unique brand, product, or service names. Of course, this approach varies.
How to use SEO and PPC together
People might say SEO vs. PPC, but in our decades of experience, we’ve found SEO and PPC is the better option. Together, SEO and PPC marketing can help you generate:
- Traffic
- Leads
- Sales
If you’re looking to get started with SEO and PPC together, check out these tips:
1. Promote SEO content with paid ads
Help organic content get traction in search results with paid ads. Target relevant informational keywords, and then analyze the paid traffic data to better understand:
- How users interact
- Whether users convert
- What users read next (if anything)
For the best results with this strategy, create content targeted to your audience. Too many businesses focus on high-traffic topics in their industry that aren’t relevant to their specific slice of the market, which results in poor ad performance.
2. Improve organic CTR with PPC data
Click-through rate (CTR) is an influential metric in search engine optimization. Whether you’re targeting top-, middle-, or bottom-of-the-funnel terms, use that data to inform the title tags and H1 headings of your corresponding organic content.
3. Retarget organic traffic
Retargeting is a fantastic (and effective) way to combine PPC and SEO. With retargeting, you can deliver ads to users that visited certain sections of your site along with matching additional filters, like following a specific page flow, living in a certain location, and more.
4. Optimize SEO content with CTAs
Paid ads have a universal goal: Drive conversions. Building your SEO content’s visibility and including relevant calls-to-action (CTAs) can support your conversion goals while also leveraging effective CTAs from paid ads.
5. Target competitor ads with organic content
Where your competitors advertise can reveal what searches matter most to them — whether by driving qualified traffic, leads, or sales. While you can advertise on these terms, you can also create organic content to capture the traffic at a more effective price.
Turn SEO vs. PPC into SEO and PPC
Bring SEO and PPC together with WebFX, the team behind SEO.com. We offer award-winning SEO and PPC services that have helped our clients generate more than $10 billion in revenue over the past five years.
Reach us online by contacting us today (we’ll be in touch if we think we’re a good fit for your team)!
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