Consideration of what to choose – SEO or Google Ads, is a dilemma that primarily affects those who stand at the beginning of their e-commerce journey. It is a good sign that you are making such a consideration at all! Because it’s a sign that you’re aware that without investing in gaining search engine traffic, there’s no chance of good sales results and online business success. I explain the basic differences between SEO and Ads. Read on to choose what’s right for your business.

What is the difference between SEO and Google Ads?

To highlight the difference between the above I will start with what SEO and Google Ads have in common. Both activities are about promoting a website on Google search. Entrepreneurs are reaching out to showcase their websites and online stores to attract as many customers as possible, who, after all, are crowdsourcing all kinds of products and services right on the world’s most popular search engine.

For both forms of advertising, there is an important element in common – a good website, rich in valuable content and useful to customers. Googling has always been about showing search engine users results that are useful to them and realistically address their needs. Therefore, in both SEO and Google Ads, to be successful you need a website that Google will want to show to search engine users, i.e. your potential customers.

Finally, about the differences to help decide – SEO or Google Ads:

• Positioning refers to activities, specifically on- and off-page work to achieve high positions in organic SEO results. It’s about adapting a website to Google’s requirements in such a way that the search engine robots index it in good positions, where search engine users are most likely to click.

• Google Ads is a paid form of search advertising, whereby you pay Google for every click on your ad that a search engine user makes. By paying a “per-click” budget to Google, you gain a presence in the search results in a highly prominent position for customers as soon as you set up your campaign.

• In Google Ads campaigns you have visibility right away, in SEO you have to wait for it, sometimes months or in the most competitive industries even years.

• With Google Ads, you pay for each click on your ad’s link – in the most competitive industries, that’s as much as a few tens of zlotys for each time a potential customer visits your website. In SEO, you incur the cost of investment in the website, its optimization, which is usually spread over a long time working on the site.

• Positioning is most often concerned with working out visibility for a limited number of selected key phrases (although this approach is being abandoned in favor of broad positioning, for as many phrases as possible related to the industry and content of the website). An Ads Campaign, on the other hand, can be set up in such a way that the ad is visible on a great many terms, although of course this involves the need to invest very large budgets in clicks.

• Positioning implies achieving high positions and maintaining them for a long time, that is, gaining consistent visibility for specific key phrases. In Google Ads, an ad is visible when there is a budget allocated for it in Google. It can be managed flexibly – turning it on and off depending on the season or capacity availability at the time.

If you want a more in-depth bite into the above issues reach for my comprehensive SEO guide and detailed GoogleAds tutorial .

What to choose – SEO or Google Ads?

It depends. From the specifics of the business, the goals set to be achieved, the budget allocated for acquiring new customers from the search engine. The fastest way to advertise effectively is Google Ads, sensational for typically seasonal businesses, and with more options than search engine advertising alone (e.g. remarketing, banner campaigns in Google’s partner network, video ads on YouTube). However, SEO produces more permanent results, provides unlimited visibility to potential customers, and companies with good positions in organic results inspire trust and create an image of industry leadership.

Therefore, what to choose? Positioning or Ads? The ideal solution is to combine these two marketing activities.It is possible to do this in such a way that you do not ruin the company’s marketing budget and at the same time achieve the maximum benefit from good online visibility of the company.

Summary

I hope I have made it easier for you to decide which form of advertising to invest in. However, if you need a deeper analysis that relates directly to your industry and specifics of your business – get back to me, I’ll be happy to support you in your business decisions and advise what actions will be most profitable for your business. I encourage you to contact me!