SEO or PPC: Which is Better for Your Brand

SEO and PPC are two significant areas of the digital marketing umbrella. Both of them are responsible for generating traffic to your website. In straightforward words, SEO helps generate organic traffic, and PPC helps generate paid traffic.

Today, we will examine which area is better for your brand and how it works.

Let’s start with SEO – Search Engine Optimization.

SEO

It stands for “search engine optimization.” It is a method of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to increase its visibility for relevant searches. The more visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract promising and existing customers to your business.

How it works: SEO requires content, on-page optimization, link building, and off-page optimization. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing use crawlers to find pages on the net. They go from site to site, collect information about those pages, and gather them in an index.

Then, algorithms examine pages in the index, considering many ranking factors or signals, to determine the order in which pages should appear in the search results for a given query. For example, keyword research and content quality are essential factors of content optimization, crawlability, and mobile-friendliness, which are essential for site architecture factors.

SEO targets unpaid traffic (called “organic” or “natural” results) instead of paid traffic or direct traffic. Organic traffic may originate from various searches, including news, academic, image, video, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

important tips to make SEO a success

One of the most important ranking factors in search engine optimization is the provision of many internal links. These links build your page’s authority, create a good site architecture, and encourage people to stay on your site longer.
Another important factor in your ranking is backlink diversity (links to your site from other sites) and authority. The more domains that link back to your pages and content, the more you signal to Google that your pages are the best results to reveal to the user.
Remember, content is king. However, it is only paramount when it aligns with what people are searching for. So, search intent is the most vital page-level ranking factor.
Keywords themselves are essential, but behind those keywords, you require a foundation built on understanding your target people. What is your audience searching for?
Page speed also determines a Google ranking factor, so ensure that your website is performing well and is not slow.

SEO is pretty much clear now.

Read SEO books to gain more knowledge.

PPC

PPC stands for “Pay-per-click.” It is a model of internet advertising used to drive website traffic, in which advertisers pay a fee to the publisher whenever someone clicks on their Ad (Hence ‘pay-per-click). A publisher is often a search engine like Google Ads or Bing or a social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

PPC is the simplest way of buying visits to your site instead of attempting to “earn” those visits naturally. If you run almost any search on Google, you’ll see ads displayed at the top of the search result page.

PPC is an online advertising strategy in which you pay only when people click on your ad. It’s often considered the “go-to” method for online advertisers because they must pay only when their ad is clicked, not just for displaying it.

You will notice an “Ad” tag at the top few results when you search on Google. When you run ads on social media, you will see them appearing in the normal feed and stories with a sponsored tag.

That is a PPC Ad.

How It Works: There are several components to a PPC campaign:

The Campaign – At the highest of the hierarchy is the campaign itself. For instance, you might have an advertising campaign that’s based on “Coffee Tables.”

The Ad Group – An ad group is a group of ads associated with a campaign. For example, you might have ad groups like Round tables, Oval Tables, Long tables, etc.

Keywords—Your keywords must be related to your ad group. Google or any advertiser will use keyword relevance to determine ad placement.

Ad Text—Your ad must include appealing text that lures people to click on it. It is usually best to incorporate the aid of an expert copywriter when creating ad text.

Landing Page—The landing page is where people “land” when they click on your ad. It should be enticing, well-written, and have clear CTAs.
Auctioning (Google Ads) – People bid keywords in an open auction on Ad networks. Bidding for keywords may be a bit more complicated than most think. Adhering to Google’s advertising guidelines is vital, as violations can lead to a Google Ads suspension, impacting your campaign’s visibility. Issues like suspicious payment activity or policy non-compliance often lack detailed feedback from Google, making resolution challenging. To address such problems and potentially recover your account, explore expert guides that provide actionable steps to resume your advertising efforts smoothly.
Budget—(Social Media Ads)—When setting up a social media PPC campaign, you can define a lifetime or daily budget, depending on your budget.

Essential tips to run a successful PPC Campaign

Choose low-competition Keywords that are unlikely to be chosen by others.
Once your campaign begins, monitor it closely, track your metrics, and update your campaign accordingly. You can monitor all your results using tools like Google Analytics.
Target local keywords specific to your location (e.g., Biryani in Delhi).
Since you only have a short space to convey your message, every word must count. Tap into emotions, use a compelling call to action, and ensure your ad copy addresses the customer pain points you seek to solve.
Always check what your competition is doing in their campaigns. Don’t just copy their campaigns; add more value and information to your campaigns.

Conclusion

SEO and PPC could benefit your brand, but it depends on your business objectives. Suppose you have a short-term goal and are looking for quick business leads.

In that case, I’d recommend going with PPC campaigns. If you have a long-term perspective, SEO can play a vital role since it takes a consistent effort to see organic traffic coming to your website.

Shahid Shahmiri

Shahid Shahmiri is a digital marketer who helps online businesses grow with smart marketing tactics to improve sales and leads. He is passionate and driven to grow businesses online and is responsible for analyzing marketing, SEO, growth and managing promotional and media channels.

SEO or PPC: Which is Better for Your Brand