Adwords or SEO?
by admin on December 9, 2008
in Construction Marketing
Many contractors are considering spending money on online marketing these days.
The main benefit? To get found online, get more leads, beat this recession and grow your business.
Once your website has reached a certain level of quality, the next question is usually whether you should focus on Adwords Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
I’ve been helping folks make decisions on this topic quite often these days. Here’s a very interesting little tidbit of information from SEOMoz:
The Disconnect in PPC vs. SEO spending
There’s a big disconnect in the way marketing dollars are allocated to search engine focused campaigns. Let me highlight:
Not surprisingly, search advertising should continue to be the largest category, growing from $9.1 billion in 2007 to $20.9 billion in 2013.
- Source: C|Net News, June 30, 2008OK. So companies in the US spent $10 billion last year on paid search ads, and even more this year. How about SEO?
SEO: $1.3 billion (11%)
- Source: SEMPO data via Massimo Burgio, SMX Madrid 2008Conclusions: SEO drives 75%+ of all search traffic, yet garners less than 15% of marketing budgets for SEM campaigns. PPC receives less than 25% of all search traffic, yet earns 80%+ of SEM campaign budgets.
What does this mean to you, as a contractor trying to market his business?
If you’re going to spend money on promoting your website, you should:
- Use Adwords PPC as a garnish, not the main course.
- Spend the bulk of your time, money, and energy working to dominate the top of the organic (relevant) search listings so you can capture most of the traffic in your market.
Good luck in your campaign to get found online and grow your business!
I belong to another marketing forum. The owner of the site is a published author of a best seller adwords book. He claims the organic search isn’t as impactive as adwords (when done effectively). So now I’m confused. I understand how both can be effective, but where do I turn from here?
Pat, you bring up a really good point.
As a general rule, Adwords can be implemented right now on the spot. In addition, if you bid high enough you can ensure that you will be in the top spot for paid search. So, in that way, you have control.
As far as SEO for organic search, results tend to take more time. They are also less predictable than PPC. However, as you’ve seen in the search data, there can be an enormous payoff.
The fact is that, for most local markets, Adwords often can’t generate enough clicks to bring your business the amount of new clients you desire. And that’s what matters most, right?
Overall, if you can draw enough new business through PPC, then stick with it. If you’re setting your sights a little higher and want to dominate your local market, then you might need to go the SEO route, since you’re talking about 2/3rds of the clicks (or more).
Thank you for your comment, and good luck!
-Seth