Are you looking for Google search marketing strategies but not sure to go with Google Ads or SEO Marketing?
If you are not sure what is Google Ads, you may check out how Google Ads work here.
SEO marketing is known as a search engine optimization process to fine-tune your website and promote it to the public to show your website on the first page of Google search result.
It involves 2 significant processes, on-page optimization and off-page optimization and often takes months to see the result.
Once your site ranking in the top position, your website will receive free organic traffics from Google. Unlike Google Ads, every click or visit to your website will incur a cost.
Here is the quick comparison
Type | Google Ads | SEO Marketing |
|---|---|---|
Cost | Charge Per Clicks | Free |
Position | On Top Position | Below Google Ads |
Guarantee on Page 1 | Yes | Not 100% Guarantee |
Time to Get Result | Within Days (Once your ads get approved) | Usually Take Months |
Long Term ROI | Medium | Better |
Content Quality | Medium | High |
Keyword Targeting | For specific keywords & location depends on your setting | Broader Keywords |
Benefits of using Google Ads
- Instant Result – Once your ads campaign approved, you will get the result within days.
- Higher position compares to organic result from SEO.
- Able to target specific keywords and people within a particular location.
- The result won’t impact by Google algorithm update. For SEO, the ranking result may change if the optimization doesn’t like by the new Google algorithm.
- You can scale up the traffics to other locations.
Benefits of using SEO Marketing
- Usually, it takes 3-6 months to see the result.
- Free traffic unless appointing an SEO company
- Many users like the organic result and avoid visit website from Google Ads.
- Cheaper in the long term providing the proper SEO optimization applied.
- Show you are the authority in your niche. Users trust you more because Google ranks your website on top position naturally.
Ok. It seems like both has its pros and cons.
How to select the right one for my business?
3 Simple Steps to Choose Your Search Marketing Strategies
#1 – Do you have budget constraints?
If no, do both Google Ads and SEO marketing for your business.
This is the best way to dominate the search traffics. SEO marketing also able to build up your authority in your niche.
If yes, move on the next step.
#2 – How much is the cost per clicks (CPC) for your target keywords in Google Ads? And what is the average monthly search volume?
If the average CPC is less than RM 5 and the total monthly searches are less than 1000, Google Ads is a good option.
This is because the expenses of the ads will not be high assuming you get 25% of the 1000 searches at RM 3. It may cost you around RM 750 per month. A good SEO campaign usually cost more than RM1,000 per month in Malaysia.
But if the average CPC or the monthly searchers is high, SEO might be a good option.
For example, the CPC is RM 10, and there are 5,000 monthly searches. If your SEO campaign able to bring in 20% of the visitors, it will cost RM 10,000 in Google Ads to get the same number of visitors.
#3 - Find out the estimate CPC and monthly search volume
Go to https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/, enter your keywords and the right target location.
Now let’s review some of the examples.
Example 1, “plumber KL”:
- For a start, we recommend going for Google Ads.
- But for the long term, SEO marketing is recommended for better ROI.
Example 2, “accounting software Malaysia”
- CPC is very expensive. Google Ads will not be a good option in this case.
- We recommend spending RM3-4k per month for a premium SEO company to rank these competitive keywords.
Example 3, “Tailor KL”:
- CPC and the monthly search volume is low, strongly recommend to use Google Ads.
Example 4, “Dentist PJ”:
- CPC is average high, but the monthly search volume is low, recommend using Google Ads.
Example 5, “aircon service KL”:
- For a start, we recommend going for Google Ads.
- But for the long term, SEO marketing is recommended for better ROI.
Conclusion
As of now, you should able to find out which search marketing strategy best suit for your business.
From the example, we also notice for most local businesses; Google Ads usually is a good fit due to its lower CPC and monthly search volume.
But for long term ROI, SEO marketing is a good idea too.