In the realm of digital marketing, there are two general strategies that are available to us. Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click marketing are two of the most sure-fire ways to help your business take off. But, what if you have limited resources? You want to make sure that the time and money that you’re going to be dedicating to either of these strategies is going to yield the best results for you in terms of high-quality traffic that’s very likely to convert into sales.
If you want a quick and reliable return on investment, then you’re most likely going to choose between the aforementioned strategies. However, what exactly are they and how are they used?
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is the method of increasing a website’s quality and its content with the intention of improving website visibility in Google search results. The primary advantage of using SEO over PPC is that it is very cost-effective. While it’s granted that SEO is by no means a cheap endeavor, it still costs significantly less than running a PPC campaign. Because of this, you can treat SEO as more of a time investment rather than one that is financial. Not only is SEO cost-effective, but if done properly, its effects are visible long-term.
However, its primary advantage is also its biggest downside – SEO takes time to build up. It also requires a lot of experience and expertise to perform properly, so unless you’re already an SEO superstar, then you might want to consider picking a monthly SEO package.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
In stark contrast to SEO, with PPC campaigns, you can expect to see results overnight. However, that comes at a cost (pun not intended). PPC campaigns are expensive to set up and their results don’t last very long.
So, Which Method Should You Opt For?
Well, why not opt for both? Instead of having to choose between the lesser evil according to what you can afford, why not simply implement both strategies properly in a way that they build toward each other’s advantages as well as negate each’s disadvantages?
Bonus: Making Them Work Together
One excellent way to make SEO and PPC work together is to use your PPC campaign as a testbed for keywords. This way, you’re able to gauge the effectiveness of a certain keyword before making long-term SEO changes to your website. After all, why would you opt to make significant changes only to find that they weren’t the right ones to make?
Another way to integrate PPC into your SEO campaign is to use PPC to help direct traffic to your website, whether that destination is your product catalogue or a specific product page. This is a great way to help convince prospective buyers who were previously on your site to give your product a second thought. Leads will often hold off a purchase in order to compare your product with that of another brand. Draw them back in with a quick ad.
This also has the same effect when your ads show up on social media platforms.
And, of course, by using both strategies simultaneously, you’re also getting double the data, which means that you have more input that you can use to make a well-informed decision later on.
The error of a false dichotomy is something that we should look out for during situations like this. You aren’t always confined to two choices, and you should always consider the possibility that there could be a grey area that you can put
