SEO VS PPC?
Which should you adopt to grow your business revenue quickly in Singapore?
If you have this question in your mind then it’ll really help you make a decision if you understand deeper about what they both mean.
Let’s get right into it…
PPC (Pay Per Click)
It is a process where you need to pay in order to be displayed on SERP or search engine result page in an advertisement form. For Google Search Engine, these are the ads on top and in the far right column of the search result with a yellow “Ad” icon. You get to appear on the “sponsored links section” when users search for a certain keyword you bid on.
Here are some advantages of PPC:
1. Targeted Ads
PPC are ads. However, not like your ordinary online ads, with PPC you have more control and space to deliver your marketing techniques. Bullet point or callouts, pricing, site links, locations, or calls are some of the choices for creating an ad that dominates the page.
2. Position on the page
PPC dominates the topmost part of search engine results. A user will always see paid search ads with three ads for mobile and four on the desktop.
3. Brand Visibility
Through paid search ads, you will be seen by the right people. Even if they ignore you and do a brand search before clicking your site, your visibility pays dividends to your marketing.
4. Visual Product Ads
If you sell products, Google offers you the choice of visual shopping ads (PLAS or Product Listing Ads) which provides the user an image of what they will be clicking. This type of ad provides an improvement in the click-through rate by providing a feature that is not available in organic searches.
5. Speed
PPC campaigns provide results fast. It can be created within days and be ramped up in only a few weeks. There is no quicker way to be in front of your customers at the moment they are ready to buy than paid search engine advertising.
6. Cost
A PPC account that is well managed and set up can be a low-cost way to generate leads for businesses. For example, if you are a local business that targets a small set of keywords and geographic area then you can generate enough leads without breaking the bank. Moreover, PPC accounts can be optimized further overtime in order to drive down costs and increase revenue.
When should you use PPC?
- When you want fast results
PPC delivers you immediate results! This is because when your PPC campaign is approved, your ads will be displayed immediately for millions of people to see. This is why PPC is great for product launches and CPA marketing like analogous online business campaigns, event-focused marketing, seasonal promotions, and joint venture projects.
- Promoting time-sensitive offer
As I have said, PPC generates fast results. Marketing products, events or services that have expirations dates are in a race against time. For such time-sensitive campaigns, PPC is perfect. Do you want to promote an offer that will end in 3 days, PPC can provide results within minutes.
- Websites that are not designed for SEO
For SEO, a website needs to be rich in contents and are regularly updated. Some websites are not designed for this. For example, squeeze pages will not have the required content for Google to glance at. Traffic can be generated to a website like this through PPC.
- Dominate search results
PPC, like it or not, dominates the search engine result page right on top of organic search results. This is its prominent place and more than 50% of search traffic goes to the top three sponsored links.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
It is the process of increasing visitors to a certain website by pushing the site to appear on higher result lists returned by a search engine. All contents with the same keywords are pitted against each other by search engines in order to identify which pages to display and in what order. The highest quality pages and most relevant contents are shown on every search engine’s first page.
The advantages of SEO are:
1. Website Traffic
By increasing your website traffic you will have more opportunity to create awareness of your services and products and educate possible customers why they should buy from you.
2. Trust and credibility
Having your website to return organic results can show perceived credibility with customers looking for your products and services. Most users trust organic ads and more likely skip ads.
3. Branding
Being visible to informational queries and commercial search term to your area of business can create a positive branding effect. Your brand will most likely be trusted and relate to searchers who are asking questions for research that might lead them to purchase. Through this, you will become an authority on a given topic.
4. Cost
SEO is neither easy nor cheap. People usually think that it’s free but it’s not. Well, unless you’re the one writing all the content yourself. However, SEO takes a lot of time before you see results. And time is money. This is why it’s normally best to do both SEO & paid traffic at the same time.
5. Sustainability
Not like paid search marketing or PPC, organic traffic does not stop the moment you stop paying. The efforts in order to build organic traffic can sustain a business even when the marketing expense is cut back.
6. Strategic Advantage
Organic search visibility is not easy or quick — which can be a bad and good thing. However, once you have established your business in the organic results, no competitors can simply buy their way through you.
When should you use SEO?
- Increasing your website’s value
Websites are real estates, virtually. If you want to sell your website for a good price, then you need to improve its value. Factors that help in increasing website value includes link popularity, SERP ranking, traffic generation consistency and the amount of traffic generated. All these factors fall into the domain of SEO.
- Building an Authority Site
Authority websites are established site sources in a certain niche. In simple words, it is the “go to” website when members of a particular niche need info. Once it gets going, an authority website can generate a lot of traffics based on its URL recall alone. The only way to create an authority site is through the effort of SEO.
- Consistent result
SEO is hard. Being on the first page of SERPs will never happen overnight or even a week. It takes time. It’ll take you months or close to a year to start seeing results with your search engine ranking. Once your website gets there, however, through SEO efforts then you will achieve sustained traffic. Moreover, if you maintain and improve your SEO campaign, you will reap long-term benefits and stay on top for a very long period of time.
–
If you’d like the most effective digital marketing strategies that impact your business revenue, get our FREE e-Guide on “ROI-Based Digital Marketing” by clicking here or the image below.
Discover what goes on behind-the-scenes to make sure your Digital Marketing brings extraordinary results for your business!
