Google Ads vs Organic SEO Traffic

It’s an age-old question. Which is better: Google Ads or organic SEO traffic?

What are the benefits of each, and should you be using both as a way to maximise your return on investment? No matter how big your business is, you could benefit from investing in either Google Ads or organic SEO traffic, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some key differences between the two.

At BeKonstructive Marketing, we provide Brisbane SEO, copywriting, and content marketing services to clients all around Australia, New Zealand, and beyond. We have some thoughts on Google Ads and organic SEO traffic, and we’d like to share them with you. Let’s take a look at the benefits at each type of marketing, and how they have impacted some of our real-world clients.

The Benefits of Using Google Ads

Google Ads, also known as Google AdWords, is a popular online advertising platform offered by Google. It allows businesses to create and manage ads that appear on Google search results pages, YouTube, and various partner websites. Let’s take a look at some of the main benefits of choosing to run a Google Ads campaign.

Quick Results

Unlike some other forms of advertising, Google Ads can deliver immediate results. Once an ad campaign is set up and approved, it can start driving traffic to a website or generating leads and sales almost instantly. If your business needs quick and immediate results, then Google Ads is a strong option to choose.

Wide Reach

Google is the most popular search engine globally, with billions of searches conducted every day. By using Google Ads, businesses can reach a vast audience and target specific keywords and locations relevant to their products or services.

Targeted Advertising

Google Ads provides extensive targeting options, allowing businesses to reach their desired audience based on factors like keywords, demographics, interests, and device types. This helps improve ad relevance and increases the chances of reaching potential customers.

Cost Control

Google Ads offers flexible budgeting options, enabling businesses to set daily or monthly spending limits. Advertisers can also specify the maximum amount they are willing to pay for each click (Cost Per Click, or CPC), ensuring better control over their advertising costs.

Measurable Results

Google Ads provides detailed performance metrics and reporting tools, allowing businesses to track ad performance, clicks, conversions, and return on investment (ROI). This data helps optimise campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

The Benefits of Organic SEO Traffic

Organic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) traffic refers to the visitors who come to your website through unpaid, natural search engine results. There are several benefits of investing in organic SEO traffic for your business, and here are some of our favourites.

Long-Term ROI

Compared to paid advertising, where traffic stops once the budget runs out, organic SEO traffic has a longer-lasting impact. By consistently optimising your website and creating high-quality content, you can maintain and improve your organic search rankings, leading to sustained traffic and potential conversions.

Cost-Effective

Organic SEO traffic is free and does not require paying for clicks or impressions. While optimising your website and content for search engines may require time and effort, the long-term benefits can be highly cost-effective compared to paid advertising campaigns.

Sustainable Results

Organic SEO traffic is not dependent on ongoing ad campaigns or budget allocations. Once your website ranks well in search engine results for relevant keywords, you can continue to receive consistent traffic over time, even if you reduce your SEO investment to simply maintain the campaign.

Increased Credibility and Trust

Websites that appear at the top of organic search results are generally seen as more credible and trustworthy by users. When your website ranks highly, it signals to potential visitors that search engines consider your content valuable and relevant to their queries, increasing the likelihood of attracting quality traffic.

Targeted Traffic

Organic SEO traffic is often highly targeted since it is based on users actively searching for specific keywords or topics related to your business. When your website appears in relevant search results, you are more likely to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in your products, services, or content, increasing the chances of conversion.

Google Ads vs Organic SEO Traffic in Practice

It’s all well and good for us to list off a series of benefits for both Google Ads and organic SEO traffic, but how do these two competing advertising strategies work in practice? In short: while Google Ads will net you some quick and easy results, organic SEO traffic will produce a much higher ROI, if you give it the time and patience to gradually build momentum over time.

Another way to look at it is that you will reach the ceiling of a Google Ads campaign much quicker, but the ceiling of organic SEO traffic will always be endlessly higher. Google Ads campaigns will always flatline after a certain point, even if they do benefit businesses looking for quick conversions. The results for organic SEO traffic will take longer to gain a foothold, but once they do, they compound with the more you are willing to invest in the campaign. With better ROI and stronger conversion rates, organic SEO traffic is a path that businesses of all sizes should strongly consider exploring.

Organic vs Paid Search Traffic Case Study

BeKonstructive Marketing provides Brisbane SEO services to a range of clients of all shapes and sizes. We have a large-scale client who invests in multiple forms of marketing, including both Google Ads (Paid Search), and organic SEO traffic (Organic Search). They have also invested in social, display, and direct marketing, and this following graphic shows a snapshot how well each campaign performs for them.

While their organic search campaign didn’t result in the highest number of visitors, it did generate the greatest number of goals completions (or, conversions). In total, 1.07% of organic search visitors completed a goal, which is definitively higher than all other forms of marketing. Organic searches also had the highest average session duration, coming in at 2 minutes and 52 seconds—nearly a full minute longer than second best. This is largely due organic search results being perceived as more trustworthy.

None of this is to say that this client’s other marketing campaigns have been failing—quite the opposite, in fact. This client has found success through all of their marketing streams, but their organic SEO traffic has resulted in their greatest ROI thanks to their continual investment in this campaign.

Contact BeKonstructive Marketing

For an SEO agency in Brisbane that understands the value of an organic SEO campaign, get in touch with the team at BeKonstructive Marketing. For more information on how our team can help, contact us today.