You want to be seen by potential customers on search engine results pages.
You have two choices. Get your website ranking organically, or go down the paid route with pay-per-click (PPC). Both options have the same overall goal — generating revenue from the new business they bring in.
What’s the best way to achieve that goal? To pay, or not to pay?
In this blog, we’ll be looking at the pros and cons of each marketing approach. Organic search or PPC. Which is better?
But first, a quick explanation of the difference between the two.
Organic search
When you type something into a search engine, organic search results appear below the ads.
Those pages are there on merit. They appear because Google’s algorithm has calculated that they contain informative, authoritative and trustworthy content.
They also include keywords, which help Google decide which pages are the most relevant to your search query.
Paid search (PPC)
PPC results appear at the top of the page. They’re tagged with an `ad’ marker.
As with organic search, the results are based on keywords. The advertiser has bid on that particular keyword, and pays Google a sum of money each time someone clicks on the ad.
The cost varies according to the search volume of the keyword. Some are considerably more expensive than others.
Now, let’s look at the pros and cons of each approach, starting with organic search.
Organic search — The pros
We’ll get a couple of acronyms out of the way first. Organic search relies on SEO (search engine optimisation) to get website pages to appear on SERPs (search engine results pages).
OK, on to the pros of organic search.
There’s no `off’ switch
Once a website page starts ranking on the organic results pages, it’s likely to remain there.
Maintenance will be needed — blogs, fresh pages and so on — but you won’t need to worry about the sudden PPC `off’ switch when the advertising budget runs out.
You’ll keep ranking because Google sees your website content as a safe bet. It’s informative, relevant, original and engaging.
It’s user-friendly
These days, SEO is all about creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.
When your content is primarily created to benefit people, it stands to reason that if the website is ranking, you’re giving users what they want. The more you do this, the better you’ll rank.
Even more importantly, you’ll see your conversion rate rise. In other words, you’ll get more customer enquiries coming directly from the website.
It’s free
Well… sort of free. We’ll qualify that by saying that organic search is cheaper on a long-term basis.
It depends on how good you are at creating content, and how much time you’re prepared to spend on it. Provided you can produce high-quality content on a regular basis, organic search is free.
However, it may be necessary to pay a professional to create content for you.
Despite this, even with freelancer fees, organic search is considerably cheaper than PPC in the long run.
It boosts credibility
Content which appears organically at the top of SERPs has kudos. It’s there because it’s original, engaging and useful..
This is a massive thumbs up for brand credibility. You’re automatically seen as the industry expert, knowledgeable about the subjects and topics which relate to your sector.
Again, this leads to a higher website conversion rate. Customers can trust you to deliver what they need.
Organic search — The cons
Organic search isn’t all hearts and flowers (and hundreds of website enquiries). There are a number of disadvantages.
It’s slow to deliver
It can take a long time for organic content to start ranking.
With SEO, you can wait 6-12 months for Google to crawl, index and rank website pages.
The wait is especially interminable if your domain name is freshly minted. As the new kid on the internet block, the website doesn’t yet have any domain authority. It’s not yet a trusted source of useful content.
When you’ve paid someone to create organic content — or invested time in doing this yourself — it’s hard to measure the return on this while you’re waiting for the content to deliver new business.
SEO is difficult
It’s hard enough running a business.
Who has the time to take classes in SEO copywriting, keyword research, link building, technical SEO and everything else which goes into organic search?
SEO requires a high level of skills and expertise. When you’re busy with the day-to-day, it can feel overwhelming.
Google keeps moving the goalposts
There are more than 200 ranking factors with organic search and, to make things worse, Google keeps changing them.
As soon as you think you’ve got to the hang of SEO, another algorithm update comes along.
Even though almost every update works in favour of websites with high-quality content, it’s still necessary to keep a close eye on the SEO news.
It takes work
It’s hard work to regularly produce content that’s valuable to people while simultaneously ranking for specific keywords.
What’s more, generative AI won’t necessarily help — especially if it’s used indiscriminately.
Google’s March 2024 core update (yet another update) kicked off a major fuss because it specifically targets and drastically penalises websites which exclusively rely on poor-quality, inaccurate AI-generated content.
PPC — The pros of pay-per-click
It’s quick to deliver
Unlike organic search, PPC delivers almost instantly.
Depending on your budget and the competition for your chosen keyword, your ad could be at the top of page 1 within a few hours of setting up an account.
You can target the ads
With PPC, you have control over who sees your ads.
For example, you can target an ad according to the location of your prospects, the time of day they’re online, age, marital status, their particular interests…
In short, PPC is flexibly targetable. You can pinpoint different sectors of your target audience and run ads specifically for them.
PPC gives you data
Paid search quickly provides you with a wealth of handy, actionable data. Unlike organic search, PPC makes it easy for you to calculate the return on ad spend (ROAS).
You can use this data to make improvements to the campaign.
Run two ads at the same time and see which one brings the highest ROAS. Try out different keywords, headlines and description copy, calls to action and landing pages until you find a winning formula.
There’s an `off’ switch
As an eagle-eyed reader, you may have noticed something.
Earlier, talking about organic search, we sang its praises because it doesn’t have an `off’ switch. How come the very same `off’ switch is so great when it comes to PPC? Are we contradicting ourselves?
Well, no. Because with PPC, when an ad isn’t delivering, you can quickly kill it off.
Is your target market unreceptive during the working day? Just switch off your ad during office hours, and switch it back on again in the evening.
The cons of PPC
The cost
The clue’s in the name. Paid ads cost money — and depending on the keywords, and how often you want your ads to be shown, the cost can be substantial.
Remember, you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. That cost-per-click (CPC) can be expensive, especially if your chosen keyword is popular and attractive to direct competitors.
When the money runs out, that’s the end of the ads. If you’re relying on PPC for leads, it’s also the end of landing page traffic.
To keep things going, you’ll need a budget.
Click fraud
Click fraud is where a person or (more frequently these days) a bot clicks on your ad multiple times.
Often, it’s a malicious attempt to exhaust a company’s advertising budget. Sometimes, click fraud is carried out to skew the ad data and, in some cases, fraudsters steal the cost of the click for themselves.
Ad fatigue
Many internet users automatically scroll past the ads.
It’s understandable. Online, we’re exposed to hundreds, if not thousands of adverts per day. In order to stand out and get results, your paid ads have to be scroll-stoppingly good.
That’s not always easy to achieve.
PPC can be tricky to get right
While it’s relatively easy to set up a PPC account, getting the most out of an ad campaign takes a certain amount of skill.
It’s worryingly easy to waste money on paid ads. Poorly chosen or costly keywords, lacklustre copy and inaccurate targeting are some of the most common mistakes.
Effective PPC is about connecting with the right audience, in the right way. It’s a tricky balancing act which involves finesse and fine-tuning.
In a nutshell…
| Organic search | PPC | ||
| Advantages | Disadvantages | Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Long-term result | Frequent algorithm changes | Instant results | Cost |
| Attractive to users | It takes effort | Easy to target | Ad fatigue |
| Low cost | Slow results | Provides useful data | Click fraud |
| Credibility | SEO knowledge is needed | Flexible | Requires skill |
So, which is better — organic search or PPC?
As you’ll have probably gathered by now, it’s not either/or. They complement each other, and most businesses would benefit from using both.
For example, PPC can bring quick results when promoting a new product, or for attracting attention to seasonal content. You can easily test out new keywords with PPC. If you get a good response from them, consolidate the success with high-quality organic content using the same keywords.
The secret to this is consistency. If your paid ads don’t match the tone and feel or your website content, readers will get confused and leave.
When someone clicks through to a landing page, whether it’s through an ad or organic search, they want content which solves their problem and answers a need.
If you’d like some help and advice about both PPC and organic search, we’re here for you. Get in touch with Neil and Sonya at Pumpkin.
