In this article, we will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two tools above, and more importantly, give advice on which platform to choose for your business.
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Search advertising (Google Ads Search) and SEO are the two main methods of Search Engine Marketing (Marketing through Google search engine) and are also the two most effective channels when you implement a Digital Marketing campaign. But is SEO or Google Ads the best choice for businesses?
Both platforms have similarities but also have their own differences. Therefore, to be able to decide which method is best for your company, you need to carefully consider the current state of your business at that time, of course with this, You must find common ground between your goals, your marketing strategy and the benefits of the two methods above.
In this article, we will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two tools above, and more importantly, give advice on which platform to choose for your business.
Overview of Google Ads Search and SEO
Google is the most popular search engine in the world and in Vietnam. Most of us are "Google" when the need arises. Businesses that want to reach users must appear on the first page of search results, the higher the position, the better. Two types of results appear:
1. Search results come about from Google advertisements: Search results come about are strong / highlighted at the begin with 3 - 4 positions or the final 2-3 positions of the look page and have the word "advertisement " next.
2. Natural search results (also known as SEO results): The search results are displayed "naturally" in the middle of the advertising results.
The fundamental difference between Google Ads Search (search ads) and SEO - besides display position - is time and investment cost.
1. With Google Ads Search: Your results will appear in first positions immediately. Be that as it may, you may not have to pay Google, each click on SEO results is free.
2. With SEO: You will need to spend a lot of time and effort to build a website and content that is reputable and useful for users to "be on the TOP". However, you will not have to pay Google, every click on SEO results is free.
Above are the most basic differences, next we will analyze in depth the pros and cons of Google Ads Search and SEO.
Google Ads Search
Advantages of Google Ads Search
1. Gives quick results
As mentioned above, just create a campaign and recharge your Google advertising account, you will be given priority to appear in front of thousands of potential customers, and if you do it well you will have instant conversions and revenue. ie.
Besides, Google is right now applying Machine Learning technology to support service for advertisers. So in the process of tracking and controlling account reporting, you will gradually understand how to optimize costs, increase conversion efficiency to get more leads.
2. Build brand awareness
With Google advertising, you pay per click only. So even if users don't click on your ad, they will still see and remember your brand (for free!).
3. Remarketing for people who visited your website.
Another great thing about Google Ads Search (and the Google advertising system in general) is that you can remarketing again to someone who previously visited your website.
For example:
A user visits your website to see a men's suit, but at this time he is just for reference and has no intention of buying. 1 week later, he had real buying demand and… went back to search on Google. With Remarketing Search, you can display ads with personalized content to this person such as:
"Don't miss the suit you liked before."
→ Your chances of selling will be higher.
4. Easy advertising performance measurement
Google has developed a highly detailed ad control, measurement and optimization system. A prerequisite is that you need to install the correct "converters" on the website. You will know whether each click through your ad is profitable or not, how much revenue is generated ... and which keywords / ad models are most effective.
Disadvantages of Google Ads Search
1. Complex and require high expertise
It is relatively easy to start setting up your Google Ads ad campaign and get some good results with just a little bit of basic knowledge. In the long run, however, to compete and sustainably improve efficiency - you need very deep expertise.
That's because the number of ads displayed on Google Search is limited, while currently, the number of competitors is very large in most industries.
The reporting, measurement, and optimization system of Google Ads is very detailed, so it's also very complicated. You must understand and combine dozens, even hundreds of different metrics to optimize advertising effectiveness.
Unless you specialize in the e-commerce business, we recommend looking for Google advertising specialists to build and optimize your advertising system for your business. This costs less than tinkering with your own hands and wasted more money on false testing.
2. Very high level of competition
As analyzed over, the Google Advertisements market show amazingly competitive in most businesses. Any company, big and small, has the intention of marketing online will jump into Google Ads and Facebook Ads first.
Google's role and importance are growing in reaching and increasing potential customers. So companies have been and will spend a lot of money to dominate keywords, good positions. And to win, you need to have a reasonable strategy, adequate resources, and time to optimize. If you are not careful, you will spend tons of money and still fail in the competition.
3. In the long term, in general, the cost for Google Ads is huge
You will have to spend money advertising continuously to maintain your position on Google. As soon as you stop advertising (or your card runs out of money ^^), the ad won't appear and your competitor will take all of your customers. Not at all like SEO results will not go absent after you halt investing cash.
4. Restrictions come from Google policy
Some industries are restricted or banned from advertising by Google, such as Alcohol, beer, cigarettes, 18+ products, 3rd party services (repair, ink spill ...)
If you work in these industries, your only chance to reach customers on Google is SEO.
SEO
Advantages of SEO
1. (Almost) free
Unlike Google, when your results appear to users and they click on, you won't lose any money. This is the reason that in most websites in the world, they are very serious about SEO because it helps them to have hundreds of thousands - even millions of free traffic every month.
With no-cost-per-click (CPC), in the long term (from 6 - 9 months or more), SEO is much more cost-effective than Google Ads. The only cost to pay is to hire an Agency to perform SEO to improve your website's ranking, and the maintenance fee is negligible.
2. Reach more potential customers
If you run Google Ads Search ads, to ensure ROAS (revenue on ad cost) you will only focus on the group of keywords that generate the most conversions, representing 2 - 5% of customers with demand. biggest. The remaining 95 - 98% of potential customers (but do not have the need to buy immediately) will be left. If you advertise to this group, the cost of advertising will be too great and you will not get any profit in the end.
SEO is different - because you don't have to pay CPC, you will greatly expand the reach of potential customers.
3. Traffic from SEO has better conversions.
Before coming to this section, you should consult Bright Edge's latest report on the influence and importance of Organic Search on a business's marketing campaigns.
Users accessing the website through Google often have a clearer need and therefore are easier to convert than other channels.
Especially, users who access the website through natural search results (SEO), the more trust and credibility of the brand than the advertising results. So the conversion rate from SEO is higher than that of Google Ads Search.
Important update: Now, besides search ads, Google provides shopping ads (Google Shopping) right on the search results page and has a better conversion rate than normal SEO results thanks to the position that appears. and includes a photo/sales price. But Google Shopping is limited to industries with physical products and with a few other strict policies.
4. Investing in SEO brings about a more sustainable effect
With Google Ads, it's easy to get up so it's easy to get down. When there are multiple competitors competing on a similar group of products/services, the advertising costs will increase immediately - and at a point, it will surpass the profits you get. Because Google Ads is so easy to get started with and produces quick results - the number of your competitors will only increase. As soon as you stop spending money on advertising, you disappear from the eyes of your customers
In the opposite direction, with SEO you are difficult to get up, so it is difficult to get down. The first is the cost and investment barrier for content. For SEO to top with many keywords, you need to have a website that is both technical and optimal for users. Besides, you need a lot of content and a long enough TIME for Google to evaluate your website's credibility with users. Because of the above barriers, the competition in SEO will be less than in Ads.
SEO results are also more sustainable. Indeed in case you are doing nothing, your site will keep positioning (ranking)for 3 - 6 months. Maintenance costs are also very low after that.
In short, investing in SEO means that your traffic and brand are growing.
Disadvantages of SEO
This is also the reason why many businesses are "afraid to do SEO" methodically. Let's find out.
1. It takes a long time to get good rankings
Except for a few SEO tricks to help the website get to TOP quickly (but also fail to fail fast) - doing SEO, in general, takes a lot of time and effort. Experience of our when implementing SEO projects usually from 6 - 12 months to achieve the best results.
Compared with the easy-to-do Google Ads, it is very effective and effective right away!
2. It takes a long time to get revenue from SEO
During SEO time, the revenue effect is almost zero. It only starts to get better when the website ranks well for many keywords. For this reason, a lot of businesses do not want to invest in SEO.
In the case of wondering about SEO effectiveness, we often advises businesses to advertise Google first to verify.
Or you can use both methods in parallel.
3. Google algorithm
Huge benefits from SEO make SEOs find ways to get to the TOP in the shortest time - leading to quality search results on Google. To solve this problem, Google constantly updates its algorithms that remove the search results that are not useful to users.
If you violate these algorithms, Google will drop your rankings lightly - badly, you will be excluded from search results forever. And you only have water to start over.
Many organizations and individuals doing SEO often apply these tricks, so they can offer businesses with super cheap prices and "heavenly" commitments. Maybe after being on the TOP for a short time, your website will never appear on Google again.
To avoid this situation from happening, either you have to become an expert, or you should choose reputable agencies and comply with Google policy to accompany. If you are in doubt, try to test them with the following questions:
- Which SEO projects have you been with, who are the customers?
- Let us see the results achieved, will this result persist? Real evidence?
- What is your SEO plan? SEO roadmap like? Which method is used to put the website on TOP? (For those who use tricks for SEO, they often don't have a clear plan - and use forbidden methods like Backlinking, copying or re-frying content on other websites ...)
Compare Google Ads and SEO: Which form should I choose?
The answer to the title of this post is: There is no better format. In the event that you've got the resources, you should to do both. Left, let's base on different situations to make a decision. A few tips of our in choosing:
1. If you have never run Google Ads or SEO and are concerned about the effectiveness, try Google Ads first.
2. If you did 1 of 2 but it didn't work, you can try the other one.
3. If you did 1 of 2 effectively, you should still do the rest. SEO vs Google Ads does not conflict with each other, but together to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.
4. If you are a small business with a limited budget and need to be effective right away, choose Google Ads
5. If you are a business with stable operations, need to gain an advantage over competitors and expand revenue in the medium to long term, choose SEO.
If you are unable to plan by yourself, feel that it is too difficult to do your own SEO and run Google Ads, please use the in-depth Google Ads service or the most effective SEO service.
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