When making this decision it’s important to consider that both PPC advertising and SEO have their merits. At the same time, they also have dissimilar levels of commitment (both in time and money) and use entirely different methods for determining their success. We’ll look into those differences here in an effort to help in the decision-making process.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Advertising online is an easy and quick way to drive traffic to a website. If executed correctly, traffic will arrive on highly targeted keywords and improve sales conversion rates. As long as the advertising bills are paid, website traffic should stay at its elevated level. However, stop paying and they’ll cut traffic just as fast as it started.

So what does this mean for a company? It means that pay per click advertising is a great way to instantly generate new traffic. As long as the campaign is active, the traffic will flow. This model makes cost per click (CPC) a perfect way to determine the return on investment (ROI) because of its distinct start/stop times and set number of marketing dollars spent.

Unlike pay per click advertising, these lines are not so clear with a search engine optimization campaign.

Search Engine Optimization

In most cases, it’s accurate to say that an SEO marketing campaign with a high quality search engine optimization company will result in a lower CPC than a pay per click advertising campaign. Here’s why:

Unlike pay per click advertising, search engine optimization is a lasting investment into the quality and success of a company’s website. There is no clear end to when an SEO campaign stops being effective. A 12-month campaign with an SEO professional that is halted due to budget issues will continue to exhibit improved results well after the work has entirely stopped. Depending on the industry, the competition, and the quality of the SEO, improved results could last for weeks or even potentially years. Because of the indefinite end to its results, cost per click is not an adequate way to determine the return on investment of an SEO campaign.

If the results are so long-lasting, why isn’t everyone going with SEO? Largely because there is a minimum required commitment to search engine optimization. A campaign can take weeks or months to start showing improved results and even more importantly will require patience, diligence and time to build into a highly successful campaign. If either time or money are limited, it’s likely that a pay per click advertising campaign is going to be the best short-term choice.

So Which is Right For My Company?

After reading this article, it should hopefully be clear that there are some core differences between how pay per click advertising and search engine optimization work and how their results should be quantified. Pay per click advertising campaigns have a hard start and end date, immediately drive targeted traffic, and have a simple formula to determine their ROI. Meanwhile, an SEO campaign may take longer to put into place at a higher initial cost, but the results will long outlast those of PPC advertising.

Want more information or need help? Blue Ember Design can build a quality Search Engine Optimization or PPC Advertising campaign for your company.

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