Nowadays, the number of online marketing techniques and channels is more and more vast, including affiliated marketing, influencer marketing, and promoting brands on social media, as well as SEO optimization and PPC campaigns.
Regarding the latter two activities, they are probably the most disputed among specialists since there is a myth saying that “Google hates SEO optimization” because it wants to promote its own paid advertisements service, Google Ads. In reality, however, things are not so radical. Ovidiu Joita, founder & CEO iAgency.ro clarifies.
“Google and SEO optimization are in a love/hate relationship. On one hand, Google doesn’t want you to do SEO optimization, it wants you to pay for appearing within the paid results (marked as Ads, before the organic results). After all, Google is a business, and a large part of its revenues come from selling advertising space.
On the other hand, in order not to lose its extremely numerous audience, that browses the search engine every day, Google wants you to do SEO optimization because this guarantees relevant results for the users. If they are pleased with what they find among the first results, they will come back and they won’t switch for Yahoo or Bing”, Ovidiu Joita explained.
Both SEO optimization and Google Ads campaigns aim for the same thing, after all – online entrepreneurial success and increasing the conversion rate and revenues of an online shop, for example.
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Furthermore, the two types of activities can be carried out at the same time, this being even recommended. The major difference between the two is that, while SEO optimization generates organic traffic, PPC campaigns focus on direct traffic. This being said, find out more about the pros and cons of this “competition”.
SEO optimization pros
– a lower budget, compared to Google Ads campaigns;
– the obtained results disappear slowly if you stop the activity;
– exact targeting, following the keywords searched by users;
– being present organically on the first page in Google increases users’ trust and brand awareness;
– increasing sales, over time;
SEO optimization cons
– it’s a long-term strategy;
– permanent investment of time and money;
– first visible results in 6-12 months;
– the need to correlate SEO optimization with other online marketing channels;
Google Ads pros
– a flexible budget, without minimum or maximum limits, which can be set per days;
– in-depth targeting, on various criteria (demographic, geographic, keywords, interests, and subjects of interest, etc);
– rapidly generating brand awareness (the site will be displayed immediately on the first SERP);
– increasing revenues in a short period, with the right budget;
Google Ads cons
– results disappear immediately, once the ads are stopped;
– advanced know-how, to ensure correct and efficient targeting;
– users can develop “Ad blindness”, thus ignoring ads;
– it’s possible to invest more and more every month, to keep yourself visible, depending on the competitiveness of the respective industry.
Also Read: How much does SEO cost in the UK?
