Pay Per Click (PPC) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Which One Should You Use? (Part I)

On April 23rd, 2020 / By Hamzah Khadim

Establishing a strong online presence and driving website traffic to your online sites requires using various marketing strategies and methods. Two of the most popular and widely accepted strategies are PPC and SEO. You might be wondering which one deserves the most attention and marketing dollars. Before answering this question, we will cover the pros and cons of both PPC and SEO in this two part blog series. In Part I, we will look at PPC and in Part II we will look at SEO. Ready to get started?

Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC marketing, also called paid search marketing, is where you post an ad on a website and pay that website a predetermined amount of money for each person that clicks on the ad and is routed to your website or another predetermined and relevant landing page. Oftentimes this amounts to only a few cents per clicks, but this can quickly become a significant amount of money when a large number of people are clicking on it.

Advantages of PPC

1. Search Engine Updates Do Not Affect PPC – You do not have to worry about having to re-do your ads anytime search engines does an update to ranking algorithms and other organic search result placement guidelines.

2. Top Placed Rankings – You can have your ads displayed above the organic search results on the major search engines and achieve top rankings immediately.

3. Flexibility to Post Ads on Multiple Sites – Aside from the major search engines, there are other sites where you can place your ads, such as social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, YouTube, etc.).

4. Options for Targeting Different Audiences – There are options you can enable to target specific geographical locations, age groups, and more, allowing you to tailor your ads to your specific targets.

5. Full Control Over Ad Copy – You determine what audience you want to target, the long tail and standard keywords you want to incorporate, what website landing page the person is redirected to and more. If you do not like how an ad is performing, you can modify it or delete it.

6. Potential for Dual Exposure – If you are using PPC and SEO effectively, you could find both your ad and website displayed in the organic search results.

Disadvantages of PPC

1. PPC Requires Testing Prior to Launching Ads – Developing effective PPC ads requires testing different keywords, ad placement locations, and other such factors prior to a full scale launch to ensure the ads will truly be effective in reaching your goals.

2. PPC Requires Ongoing Testing – Even after ads are launched, they need to be constantly tested to ensure they are working correctly and do not require further adjustments.

3. PPC Needs Ongoing Optimization – Ads need to be constantly monitored to ensure they continue to perform correctly and are delivering results. In cases when ads are underperforming or not living up to your expectations, they need to be re-optimized accordingly, otherwise you are simply wasting marketing money.

4. PPC Can Be Expensive – PPC can be costly if it is not done correctly. If your ads are not set up and optimized properly, you could easily burn through your entire PPC budget with very few results. PPC is one of those things most companies turn to an outside PPC marketing company, like us here at Logik Digital, to ensure their ads are effective and deliver a positive ROI.

As you can see, PPC can be an effective way to increase exposure for your business and produce almost instant results, when done correctly. However, it does require having enough resources in your marketing budget to dominate the top paid search results.

To learn more about PPC marketing, please feel free to contact Logik Digital at 1-866-307-0086 today! Remember to check out Part II of this two part blog series to learn about the pros and cons of SEO!