SEO vs. PPC: Which Is Better?

Atiba de Souza: PPC versus SEO. What's better? Yeah, people ask that question all the time and it's kind of like, that's all they ask. Right. And you say what's better? PPC or SEO? Which one should I go with? Yeah. So let's dive into that today on Traffic Keys Media. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. I am your host, Atiba. And that's our topic today.

PPC or Pay Per Click. Paid advertising, paid digital advertising. So we're talking about Google, Facebook, any other type of property like that, where you can pay to access their audience and put your message in front of their audience. That's PPC or Pay Per Click, paid advertising, versus SEO—Search Engine Optimization, where you create content, you understand your audience, you create content, and then you allow the search engines like Google to rank your content and when it ranks on page one, you get traffic because of people who are searching for that content, and then they click on you and they come and they learn about you. So there are two totally different strategies. One is paid and one is organic. Now, truthfully, the organic cost money too, but you're not paying someone else to promote your content.

So that's why one is called organic and then one is called paid. And so I get this question quite often, which one is better? And unfortunately, guys, it's a really bad question. And it's a really bad question because the thing that it says is you don't totally understand marketing. Okay. And you don't understand marketing specifically for your brand because the answer to the question, PPC paid advertising or SEO, which one is better?

The answer to question is yes. Yes. He said, "Well, dude, that's not an answer to a question, Atiba, how do you answer that question with a yes?" Because you need both. You absolutely need both. Now, there's a time and a place for each. And that my friends is the key. Understanding the time and the place for paid advertising versus organic advertising is the key.

If your business is brand new and you are short on cash, guess what? Paid advertising is not for you, master organic. If your business has been around for a while, you produced some organic content and that content is starting to rank well, and you wanna throw some gasoline on the fire, you wanna juice things up, then guess what? You have content that works, paid will help you throw gasoline on the fire. That's a great time for paid. Let's say, you are in a market where everyone else is doing paid. Yeah. Don't think you're gonna fight fire with fire in that case, right? You can't fight paid with organic in that case. In that case, you're gonna have to do some paid.

You're probably gonna have to do some organic too, but you're definitely going to have to do some paid. So it really depends on tons of different factors as to when you should use each. My rule of thumb though is this, if you don't know, don't pay for it upfront, do the organic, create content, create organic content, post that organic content whether it's video, whether it's written, whatever it is, and then let Google rank it.

Now, depending on how long your website's been around, it may take Google a month or six months before that content starts to rank. Okay. But once that content starts to rank and you get to see where it's ranking, you'll understand which content is also performing the best, which one Google thinks is the best.

And guess what? That's then the one that you can turn around and build paid campaigns around. That's my suggestion if you're just starting out. Okay. That's my suggestion. If you've been at this for a while and you're doing well with your rankings, you've got content that's ranking on page one, then go ahead.

Maybe it's time to do some paid right now as well. Okay. But it's never time not to do organic. That's my opinion. Now, I say that and I'm an organic guy. There are lots of— I debate with some of the best minds in paid advertising and online, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or Google. Almost on a weekly basis and we go back and forth because they think paid is the best and I think organic. And so, yeah, both are right, but they each have their uses. Now, let's also say you're in a time sensitive situation, it's the holidays and you need your ads. You need your content in front of people and you need it in front of people quickly. Then you don't have time for organic unless you had started it months and months before.

At that moment, you've gotta do paid and that's okay. And so it's understanding guys, the application of when to do paid and when to do organic. That really is the answer to that question. Paid or organic, which one is better. You've got to understand the application and what's needed in your business right now.

Do you have time? Do you have money? Okay. If you're out of time and you're out money, organic. If you have time and you have money, organic. If you're out of time and you have money, paid. That's the matrix. That's what you do. And I'm not talking about that in the new matrix movie, that was quite lackluster after 18 years of the matrix, by the way.

But let's not get into that. But yeah. That's the matrix of figuring out when you do paid or organic based on your time and your money, based on your time and your money. Okay. So hope that was helpful. If you've got any questions as always feel free to drop 'em down below, always here. Always glad to answer your questions and share any of my knowledge that I have.

Talk to you later. Bye bye.