Organic (SEO) or Paid (PPC) to reach your Ideal Clients
Marketing is a tricky beast, what do you choose to do first, where do you spend your money, what is going to work? Marketing also covers a whole range of areas but let’s just focus on these two and your website for now.
Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed – Organic results are not guaranteed, paid results are not guaranteed. You can, however, make an educated choice for your business and this blog aims to help you with just that.
You want to determine where you are going to get the best return for your dollar both in the short term and in the long term.
At My Sassy Business, we offer you Organic SEO as we believe that this is the best way of getting found. Our clients are getting found not only in the short term, but they are getting long term results.
It is essential to remember that you will pay a lot more for your traffic if you choose Paid PPC than you will with Organic SEO. Organic SEO takes longer but lasts longer whereas Paid PPC is instant but also instantly gone.
If you look at the audience statistics below you will see that 200 million people are using ad blockers – This harms Paid PPC as your ideal clients may be using an ad blocker.
Organic SEO Statistics for 2017
- 93% of online experiences start with search engines
- 70% of clicked search results are organic
- 14.6% of all SEO leads close (as opposed to 1.7% of outbound leads)
- The average word count for first-page organic search results is 1,285
- Google fields more than 1 trillion searches per year
- 89% of marketers say SEO is successful
- Only 33% of small- and medium-sized businesses have optimised sites
- 61% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from mobile-optimised sites
- 71% of B2B customers start their research with search engines
- 43% of consumers research products while in a store
- 50% of search engine users visit a store within a day of a local search
- 40% of marketers say algorithm changes are the biggest challenges to SEO
- 38% of marketers say budget constraints are the biggest challenges to SEO
- B2B customers are 57% of the way to buying before they perform an action on your site
Paid PPC Statistics for 2017
- Roughly 80% of all companies focus on Google AdWords for PPC
- 46% of people can’t identify ads in search engine results pages
- 41% of all clicks go to the top three paid ads in search results
- 65% of all high-intent searches result in an ad click
- PPC visitors are 50% more likely to buy than organic visitors
- Search ads increase brand awareness by as much as 80%
- 52% of PPC clicks come from mobile
- 32% of companies use PPC to sell products directly to consumers
- In 2014, Google’s ad CTR increased by 20%
- On average, businesses earn $3 for every $1.60 spent on AdWords
Audience Statistics for 2017
- 200 million people use ad blockers
- People spend an average of 37 seconds on an article
- 96% of consumers think the ad industry doesn’t act with integrity
- 73% of Millennials say it’s their responsibility to help loved ones make smart purchases
- Teens are 7x more interested in and attached to YouTube stars than traditional celebrities
- The average Internet user spends 28% of their time on social media
- 189 million Facebook users (18%) only use it on mobile
- 84% of social media users follow brands
- 63% of all Internet users regularly watch YouTube
- 89% of Millennials trust friend or family recommendations more than brand claims
- 44% of Millennials are willing to promote products through social media for rewards
Hopefully, you are still reading 🙂
Organic (SEO) vs Paid (PPC – Adwords)
This graph perfectly illustrates how Paid and Organic work. It shows that over time you are more likely to receive a sustainable high level of traffic from Organic SEO. It is this traffic flow that grows and lasts for years to come and ultimately increases your return on investment.
Organic SEO – While Organic SEO starts off slowly it does increase over time. It is vital to remember that with constant Google algorithm changes Organic SEO is not a set and forget strategy. You should continue this strategy even when the traffic increase is very obvious to your business. This way any changes to the Google algorithm should not affect your business. Organic SEO does require ongoing maintenance to stay up to date with the latest trends.
Paid PPC – Yes the Paid PPC strategy will give you an instant surge in traffic and ultimately leads. It can be beneficial when you are a new business but also incredibly costly for a new business. Until you get your ads running well the cost is much higher than you may expect and you need to have deep pockets. Below we have a list of the top 20 most expensive keywords and it is important to realise that costs are only going up.
By far the biggest issue with Paid PPC is your traffic stops when your ads stop
Average Paid PPC cost (once established) by industry
These figures are all averages and if you are just getting started with Paid search the chances are your cost per click will be much higher and your return on investment much lower.
- Legal Industry $5.88 per click
- Employment Services $4.20 per click
- Finance & Insurance $3.72 per click
- Home Goods $3.19 per click
Top 20 most expensive keywords in Australian Google Adwords Advertising – According to Word Stream
It is important that you remember the below figures are an average of what is paid so naturally some are paying more and some are paying less. Doing a quick search in Adwords you may see some up over $100 per click.
- Lawyer $46.25 average cost per click
- Workers Comp $23.14 average cost per click
- Insurance $22.62 average cost per click
- Health and Fitness $20.81 average cost per click
- Child Charities $20.44 average cost per click
- Business Software $20.36 average cost per click
- Internet $20.15 average cost per click
- Business Services $19.74 average cost per click
- Finance $19.74 average cost per click
- Degree $18.38 average cost per click
- Medical Health $17.79 average cost per click
- Car Finance $17.36 average cost per click
- Education $17.11 average cost per click
- Loans $16.71 average cost per click
- Mortgages $16.43 average cost per click
- Pension $16.40 average cost per click
- Rubbish Removal $15.64 average cost per click
- Solar Panels $15.43 average cost per click
- Financial Trading $15.07 average cost per click
- ISO9001 Consulting $15.05 average cost per click
- Payment System $14.70 average cost per click
- Leaking Shower Service $14.53 average cost per click
- Roller Shutters $14.25 average cost per click
- Speed bump $13.94 average cost per click
- Transportation $13.80 average cost per click
Conclusion
Both Paid PPC and Organic SEO have their benefits and their issues and ultimately you need to choose which one is going to work best for your business. There is no one size fits all approach and you shouldn’t be putting all your eggs in one basket either.
For the vast majority of my clients, I see the following as a best-case scenario area to target.
- Great mobile responsive website
- Organic SEO of that website
- Local networking opportunities
- Online networking opportunities
- Regular continuity of posts across social media sites relevant to their brands
- Listings in as many free directories as possible
- Paid advertising on social media and/or PPC Adwords if affordable.
If you need any help getting your marketing strategy together, implementing areas of that strategy, Organic SEO, Social Media and more, please be in touch. Kelly @ My Sassy Business
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