Google PPC vs. Organic: Which is Right for Your Business?
Walk through your local grocery store’s produce section and one thing is clear – organic sells. In the last decade or so, the term organic has come to stand for products that are free of hormones, additives or preservatives that have in the past, made our food look better, grow bigger, or last longer.
image by Secret Tenerife
In short, organic is natural.
So why the move away from seemingly beneficial, man-made science?
The answer is perception. There is a perception that organic is necessarily better for you because it lacks unnatural influences.
I caught a Hubspot webinar this week that touched on the pros of organic. Of course, we’re talking about search at this point, not apples and oranges.
The subject of the webinar was managing a move away from Google PPC (pay per click) campaigns in favor of an organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. Organic, in the case of SEO, refers to the results that are listed on the left hand side of the search results pages (SRP) as opposed to those PPC results on the right.
The basic gist of the webinar was that organic results are, simply put, better than PPC results. To be fair, I imagine Hubspot would claim the timeframe makes a difference here – organic results requiring in almost all cases a longer term to show results.
But I think the idea of one type of traffic as better than the other is an oversimplification. And here’s why.
There is a perception that organic results are free. Once again, as with food, perception colors the organic discussion.
Organic search is anything but free. In fact, I would argue that organic results are often more expensive, at least in the short term, than are PPC results.
Organic results require Google to recognize your site, and more accurately your site content, as extremely relevant to your desired search terms (or keywords). What has to happen for this to occur? A lot of things.
First, you’re going to need relevant, targeted and keyword-rich content. Then you’re going to need highly ranked sites to link to yours. Next, you need to make sure you are putting out new content, still as relevant as the existing content, very frequently. And don’t forget about your on-page optimization.
So is it hopeless? Should you quit your organic efforts before you start? Not at all. These are important pieces to your overall SEO strategy. But recognize that organic is not free. And while it uses the term organic, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily better than PPC campaigns at driving prospective customers to your site.
Instead, let’s look at PPC and organic SEO on a continuum. Some business objectives favor organic results, some favor PPC. But almost all can benefit from the right mix of the two. In other words, no need to cancel your Google account.
But what do we know about the differences between the two tactics?
Well, we know that for your organic rankings to pay off, you’re going to need to make a commitment, over time, to a substantial amount of work. For most businesses, that means dedicating an internal resource to managing your web efforts. And depending on the size of your company and your online goals, this can be a full-time job.
Not sounding so inexpensive, dare I say “organic,” any more.
PPC campaigns on the other hand, are less time intensive, but have a measurable price tag attached. That price tag, while ranging in relative cost from inexpensive to expensive depending on your industry, is very manageable. You control, to a great degree, how much you spend. And, as a result, you control how much traffic Google sends to your site. The trade-off is the time and effort of an internal resource for an added expense.
So on one hand we have organic results taking a long-term, dedicated effort by an internal person or persons. On the other, we have a fast and eminently manageable expense that drives traffic to your site right now. The key to a successful strategy is leveraging both in varying degrees.
And as such, I would argue that both should play an ongoing role in most companies’ online marketing efforts.
While both organic and PPC can be effective, know what you’re in for if you choose to focus exclusively on the former. There’s no free lunch after all… not even if it’s organic.
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