Paid vs Organic Search Who Wins?

When it comes to digital marketing, two ‘Searches’ rule the arena. Paid and organic search both dominate the first page of Google, but two strategies enter, one leaves...

Paid Search vs Organic Search – Who Wins?

Paid Search

Paid search is an ad stream that gets almost immediate traction. Using a platform like Google AdWords you create a campaign to put your business in front of eyes. You build your ads, build campaigns, fund it and away you go! Just like that you start appearing in front of searchers typing in your keyword terms. When done correctly, your ads are delivered to your target customers who are actively looking for your services.As part of a comprehensive digital advertising campaign, paid search directs controlled-cost traffic to custom-built web pages designed to convert searchers into paying customers. Our campaigns are designed to maximize every dollar of your investment by increasing customer engagement, lifetime customer value, and brand loyalty.

Why Use PPC?

• See instant results
• Track and optimize to increase ROI
• Pay ONLY for targeted visitors
• Get on to the first page, even if your website is lacking.
• Data-driven

Challenges of PPC

• Cost is high in competitive industries (you’re bidding against them after all)
• Requires consistent management to achieve the best results
• Data-driven (it’s a blessing and a curse)

Paid search works so long as you’re funding it. It’s meant to be turned on and off as you need to generate business. But as soon as you turn it off, your traffic drops to 0, it’s a bit of a short term play…

Organic Search

If paid search is a sprint, organic search is a marathon. Organic search is when a potential customer types in their keyword or search into search engines and they come across your website in the results. Note, these are not in the sponsored post or ad areas at the top or along the sides,  but in the results delivered by Google themselves. How do you get your business to show up for organic search? Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.As Google has grown more sophisticated, naturally popping up on the first page has become increasingly difficult. Lucky for you, SEO has grown more complex to succeed. Attaining and holding top placements requires a robust strategy built upon technical optimization, content creation, and high-quality link acquisition. With these elements in place, your company gets long term, low-cost, sustainable traffic for years into the future.

Why SEO?

• Increase traffic to your site from targeted keywords
• Secure Google placements ahead of your competitors
• Grow your web-based revenue
• You want a low-cost, long-term solution

Customers trust organic placements more than paid placements, meaning you will typically see higher conversion rates for organic traffic as opposed to paid.Both strategies get your business in front of searches on Google. If you’re using a paid search strategy they’ll show up as ads along the top of the search engine results page or along the right. Organic is what secures you those first page placements.Organic is also incredibly effective at introducing your business to a wider range of potential consumers. You don’t have to convert every click into a sale, you can simply attract searchers at any step in their journey (and your funnel) to create a more sustained audience. And a sustained audience means sustained revenue!Sustained results are huge for your business. An example: You have a top 3 position for a term that has high search volume, let’s say 5,000+ a month. That could mean 60,000 new visitors each year from that term alone! Best of all, you don't have to keep paying to show up for that term unless your rankings change!In these turbulent times, rely on the value of SEO power when others aren’t. Paid search is great, but right now folks aren’t necessarily shopping. Channel those funds into your existing organic search efforts and you are setting yourself up for success down the line. So who wins in the battle of paid vs organic? Well, so long as you’re leveraging them right – you. Use paid search to drive business right now while building your organic search campaign. In a year you can relax from paid search, your website is doing the selling for you! Need help getting your digital advertising efforts off the ground? Give Helix House a call, we know how (and when) to use each strategy and how to synergize them to create a massive effect.