Search Engine Marketing and SEM
SEO and PPC are a form of marketing known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing). Both generate business from people performing searches, typically looking for those who need to buy a product or service.
The Google PPC Perspective
Google is the world’s largest online traffic and lead generator with its Google Ads (PPC) platform generating over $250 billion in revenue per annum – much more than Facebook (Instagram and Snapchat), LinkedIn, and Twitter combined.
PPC Pros and cons
PPC Services are often seen as a faster, more reliable, and controllable way of earning traffic and sales from a search engine than from organic traffic. SEO requires a different skill set where the position is controlled by Google’s algorithm and competes with millions of other websites. It’s not easy to control and many businesses struggle with SEO.
PPC however, has a lot more control – as long as the customer has the right budget, quality score, and conversion engine.
Main Differences between PPC and SEO
| Concept, Attribute or | SEO | PPC |
| Time to launch | Weeks and months | Minutes to hours |
| Turnaround Time | Hours to weeks | Seconds to minutes |
| Multi-term ranking | Difficult to accidental | A simple change in matching |
| Time to number 1 | Days, months, and years | Minutes to hours |
| Measurable CPA | Yes | Yes |
| Scalable CPA per $ | No – little or no correlation | Yes
|
| A/B testing | No | Yes |
| Ease of switching domain | Difficult | Easy |
| Price of traffic | From Free | From $1 |
| Qualifications (from Google) | No | Yes |
| Full view of user keywords | No (limited) | Yes |
| Keyword to visit tracking | No | Yes |
| Can scale up/down | No | Yes |
| Ease of switching keywords | Difficult | Very Easy |
See Also: What is SEO and how does it work?
