We get this question at almost every first meeting. There is no answer that fits everyone, but three questions about your own business usually settle it.
The difference in one sentence
Ads bring visitors from day one and stop the day you stop paying, while SEO takes months to build and then keeps working until someone better than you comes along.
Question one: how soon do you need customers?
If you need enquiries this month: ads. SEO can't deliver results that fast, and anyone who says otherwise is either selling something else or doesn't know what they're selling.
If you can wait six months and you want the cost of winning a customer to fall rather than rise: SEO.
Question two: is anyone searching for you?
SEO only works where there is demand. If your product is new and people don't know it exists yet, nobody searches for it on Google, and there is nothing for them to find you by. Then you need ads first, to create the demand.
It works the other way too. If people search for your service every month and you're not on the first page, you are paying per click for visits you could be getting for free.
Question three: do the numbers add up?
Ads come down to arithmetic. Say a click costs 1. Out of 100 clicks you get 3 enquiries, those 3 enquiries turn into 1 deal, and that deal earns you 80. You are losing money on those ads. Do this sum before you spend anything, not after the third month.
SEO has no cost per click, but you pay every month, including the months before any results show up. Check that you can carry that for six months without counting on it.
What we usually do
- New business with no visitors: we start with ads so money comes in, and run SEO next to them on a small budget.
- Established business with visitors that doesn't come up high on Google: SEO first. That is where the quick wins are.
- Seasonal store: ads in season, SEO the rest of the year.
- Website that doesn't turn visitors into customers: neither, yet. We fix the page first, or we'd be paying for visitors who get lost on the way.
The last case is more common than you'd think, which is why the first thing we do is usually a website audit, not a campaign.
