September 8, 2014

ROI: The AdWords or SEO debate

September 8, 2014

ROI: The AdWords or SEO debate

ROI: The AdWords or SEO debate

A question we are often asked by clients is “What will get me a bigger return on investment, AdWords or search engine optimisation?”When looking at the two services beneficial to weigh out the pros and cons and look at the different factors that will influence your choice such as your business goals, how much you are willing to spend and how quickly you want to see results. By answering these questions you will come to the more beneficial service for you particular goals.SEO- Search Engine OptimisationThe aim of search engine optimisation - (SEO) is to achieve the highest possible organic ranking (unpaid) for your website, in Google, when someone searches for a product or service related to your business.This is achieved by various optimisation techniques such as content development, on-page code improvements, link building, website structure and more. These factors all make your website and its content more relevant to search engines as well as improving the user’s experience.SEO is a great way to assist with attaining a high rank on Google organic search results at a relatively low cost. It has been proven that organic search results have a higher credibility over AdWords with 75% of Google users click on organic search results compared to 25% for AdWords. You should consider investing in SEO if you have a company that sells higher priced items or services, as it provides long terms results that don’t end instantly if you decide not to continue to update and optimise your website.Unlike AdWords, organic search is very one dimensional with most of their advertisements structured as plain text. Without a marketing expert it is easy to fall behind with optimisation strategies as it is very time consuming and it takes a lot longer to see any successful results making seasonal or event changes near impossible.AdWords AdWords is Google's platform for paid advertising. These advertisements are positioned around organic search result pages and other associated websites. AdWords works on a pay per click system where you bid on and pay for distinct keywords and a cost is only incurred every time someone clicks on your advertisement. It is a great resource to use when you want to guarantee traffic driven to your website.Google AdWords offers a great range of additional features to its standard text adverts including but not limited to:

  • Banner remarketing
  • Dynamic remarketing
  • Product listing ads
  • Site links
  • Click to call extensions

A beneficial aspect of AdWords, is that you can have your campaign up and running in less than 24 hours and starting on a relatively small budget, which is perfect for smaller organisations. It is easy to continue to modify your AdWords campaigns making it possible to track, experiment and optimise your various campaigns depending on the market and your products or services.There are a lot of benefits to using AdWords to promote your business or products and services however there are some factors that need to be considered. It helps to have an expert look after your account especially when choosing your keywords. You have to remember that you will be competing for the best positions when that search term is used. This can have a crucial effect on your budget as the keywords that are more suitable for your company could have high competition and therefore cost a lot more per click. Essentially Adwords can give you quicker results but you might have to pay a higher amount to compete for commercially valuable keywords.Best of Both WorldsSEO and AdWords are powerful online marketing tools that should be used together to guarantee the best coverage on search result pages. Although they are both very different tools, they aim for the same goal and that is to help with visitor numbers, leads and sales.If you would like to see further success and results with your online marketing, then contact the Bang Online Team today.Original image sourced here.