Are you trying to decide which digital marketing strategy to use for your business in 2023? You’re not alone. There are several elements to consider while optimizing your digital marketing approach. The dilemma of whether or not to use pay-per-click advertising in place of organic search engine optimization is a common one.

To make the best decision, it’s important to understand the differences between SEO and PPC. Also, knowing your budget and learning how your target market is searching for your services online will help you determine whether to utilize sponsored search, organic search, or a hybrid of the two.

It’s important to realize that they both lead to the same place: more online exposure and sales for your business.

In this article, we’ll use SEO vs PPC statistics to compare and contrast the two strategies to help you decide which one is better for your business in 2023. Digital marketing experts at Outreach Monks opine that knowing these statistics can help you make an informed decision about your digital marketing strategy, so you can get the most out of your efforts and maximize your ROI.

Differences Between SEO (Organic) And PPC (Paid Search)

Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are two of the most popular digital marketing strategies. While they’re often used together, there are several differences between them. Let’s find out what are the major differences between SEO vs PPC:

1. SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on organic search results, while PPC is a short-term approach to get immediate visibility in search engine results.

Image Source: wordstream

2. SEO requires more strategic planning and greater effort to see results, while PPC can be implemented quickly and generate traffic right away.

3. While SEO’s return on investment is better, the effects are slow and uncertain, while PPC advertising yields results quickly and predictably, but ROI is low (500-1,000%).

What Is SEO?

Google is continually innovating how search engine results are presented to users.

More than ever before, search engines favor websites that have fresh, original material.

To achieve your ultimate aim of generating traffic to your brand’s website, organic search engine optimization is the culmination of several on-page and off-page activities.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to the methods used to improve a website’s or an article’s visibility in search engine results.

SEO focuses on “organic” ranking, which means that you don’t have to pay to be there, in contrast to paid advertising. To simplify, SEO is the process of enhancing a website or piece of content such that it appears higher (#1) in relevant search engine results.

SEO assesses how search engines function, the computer-programmed algorithms that control search engine behavior, what people seek, the actual search terms or keywords input into search engines, and which search engines are picked by their intended audience. That’s why many businesses rely on white hat link-building services, blogger outreach, or guest posts to boost their SEO.

SEO is done because when a website ranks higher on the search engine results page (SERP), it will receive more visits from the search engine (SERP). These visitors have the potential to become consumers.

You can track your website’s ranking with SERP tracking tools.

What Is PPC?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a popular online promotion tactic. Here, an advertiser has to pay a fee every time a person clicks on the advert. Simply put, this method allows you to purchase qualified traffic for the website.

When pay-per-click advertising performs as intended, the cost per click becomes nominal as the benefit far outweighs the investment. For instance, if you spend $3 on a click and it could initiate a $200 sale, you’ve made a nice profit.

PPC ads can be of many formats, including infographics, articles, videos, and hybrids of these three. They can pop up anywhere online, including search results, social networking sites, webpages, and more.

Image Source: Semrush

By using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you may contact your target demographic at the precise moment they are looking for a company like yours. At the same time, you can collect useful data that will allow you to optimize the channel for maximum return.

10 SEO Vs PPC Statistics

1. Organic search drives 53% of website traffic, while paid search drives only 27%.  (Yoast)

This is because companies using SEO as a source of awareness to their clients have more star ranking on Trustpilot and WordPress than companies that use paid search.

More importantly, most internet users have installed ad blockers, which prevent them from seeing advertisements.

In most cases, the “regular” search results may be more trustworthy and helpful to the user.

2. The average small to medium-sized business invests 7x more in PPC than they do in SEO. (Agency Analytics)

Most business owners believe that SEO takes too long to produce tangible results. While it’s true that SEO takes time to produce results, it also produces results that last much longer than PPC ads.

With PPC, you have to spend money continually on ads, which can be costly if you aren’t doing it correctly.

With SEO, you have to continually create great content, which is time-consuming, but the results last much longer.

3. Paid search visits are 35% more likely to convert than organic searches. (Agency Analytics)

Paid search traffic converts better than other types of traffic because the people who click on the ads are more likely to be ready to buy.

Website visitors who found you through sponsored search are more likely to be ready to buy because they have already demonstrated interest in your brand.

They will be more predisposed to be interested in what you have to offer as a result.

4. 70% of surveyed respondents say that SEO is better than PPC, and 30% disagree, arguing that PPC is better at generating sales than SEO. (Data Box)

Image Source: Databox

One respondent’s answer gives the real scoop about the situation. On-page optimization takes time. Keeping your site on the first page after employing SEO is usually not too tough.

If you use PPC to get to the front page of Google and then stop, you disappear.

Paid search advertising leaks money like a leaky tap, but SEO flows like a river. Thus, the SEO vs PPC debate can go a long way.

5. Approximately 39% of worldwide eCommerce traffic comes from search – with 35% of traffic being organic and only 4% of it through paid search ads. (Endpoint)

As a more efficient and less expensive client acquisition strategy, organic eCommerce traffic accounts for 35% of the global total.

Advertisements that appear in search engines sponsored links sections can be costly to set up and maintain. However, efforts to improve a site’s organic search ranks don’t cost anything and can be optimized with search engine optimization techniques.

You can optimize your product pages for SEO without having to pay for ads.

Moreover, individuals tend to favor organic search results over paid adverts since they are seen as more trustworthy — the more backlinks you get, the more trusted your content is.

As a result, rather than investing in pricey advertising campaigns, many businesses opt to focus on growing their organic presence. And that’s exactly where the SEO vs PPC comparison takes another route for traffic mapping.

6. PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors. (Unbounce)

Because they’re in the market for what you’re selling and happened upon your ad during their search, we are aware that most consumers who find your site through organic search are not prepared to make a purchase right away.

Pay-per-click advertising is where your attention should be directed if you want to boost your conversion rate and bottom line.

Using pay-per-click advertising, you can reach people who are more likely to convert after seeing your ad because they are already considering making a purchase.

Both the ad and the landing page must entice the reader to click through to your site and make the visitor feel confident in making a purchase.

7. 49% of digital marketers say Organic search brings in the highest ROI, while 19% say it’s paid search. (Passive Secrets)

Image Source: searchenginejournal

Compared to other forms of digital marketing, such as paid search, organic search focuses on recruiting long-term customers through SEO approaches. The goal of these approaches is to help boost website visibility in search engine results pages.

More visibility can result in the highest return on investment (ROI).

In contrast to sponsored search, businesses don’t have to shell out money for each click or impression made with organic search.

More qualified prospects looking for a specific answer or solution are more likely to convert from organic search leads than paid search leads.

8. 80% of people ignore Google-sponsored ads. (Search Engine People)

A massive 80% of people who use Google never look at the ads that are displayed to them. It appears that consumers nowadays are savvy to the tactics of sponsored and paid promotion, ushering in a new era in which genuineness in marketing reigns supreme.

Even if you were to shell out the cash for a sponsored ad, it would likely be ignored by the target audience.

9. 89% of paid traffic does not get replaced by organic when the ads are paused. (Eastend Yovth)

It’s not that these advertisements aren’t converting anymore; it’s that you haven’t put a hold on the natural search phrases.

You will be losing a substantial amount of daily traffic if you halt these ads but not the organic search terms.

To prevent this from happening, an ad group can be set up with a rule to suspend after conversions from organic search phrases.

10. One-third of people (33%) click on a paid search ad when it directly answers their search query. (Lunio.Ai)

Paid search ads are usually in the form of a headline, URL, or a combination of both and are an effective way of increasing your company’s search engine rankings.

Paid search ads can be used to target any keyword and generate traffic to your site. The more precise the keyword targeting and the more relevant the ad copy is to the searcher, the more click-throughs you can expect.

For example, if you were to search for “sports car,” a car manufacturer’s paid ad might directly answer this query by including a line that reads: “Visit our website to see our sports cars.” This directly addresses the user’s query and prompts the person to click on the ad.

SEO Vs PPC: Which Is The Best? Final Take

These SEO vs PPC statistics prove that both are important digital marketing strategies. They put your website or content at the front for your target audience to see.

Choosing the best one between SEO vs PPC depends entirely on your needs. You can use PPC ads if you need to promote a new sale or reach a large audience quickly. The results happen fast but not in the long term.

However, you can use SEO if you want to build more traffic to your website in the long term and keep ranking on the top page of search engines. The growth from SEO is very slow and may take a while to become visible.

You can actually have the best of both strategies through paid search (SEM). But as we mentioned earlier, it all depends on your needs.

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