SEO and Google Ads: Which is a sustainable choice for businesses?

In this article, Viet SEO and you compare seo and google adwords. These are the two main methods of Search Engine Marketing (Marketing through Google search engines) and also the two most effective channels when you do a Digital Marketing campaign.

Let's analyze the difference between seo and google adwords so you can answer yourself which platform to choose for your business.

Distinguish SEO and Google adwords

Google is the most popular search engine in the world and in Vietnam. Most of us “Google” when any need arises. Businesses that want to reach users must appear on the first page of search results, the higher the position, the better.

The basic difference of Google Ads Search and SEO is the display location and the time and cost of investment. Specifically:

With Google Ads Search: Your results will appear in the first positions immediately. However, you will have to pay for each user's click on the search results. Search results from Google ads: These are search results that are bolded/highlighted in the first 3-4 positions or the last 2-3 positions of the search page and have the word "ad" on the side. edge.

With SEO: You will need to spend a lot of time and effort to build reputable and useful websites and content for users to "get to the TOP". However, you will not have to pay Google, every click on SEO results is free. Organic search results (also known as SEO results): Are search results that are displayed "naturally" in the middle of advertising results.

Comparison between SEO and Google Ads?

* SEO

1. Free Access
2. You need to spend a long time (months or longer) to be in the TOP position. The more competitive the keyword, the more difficult it is to push TOP.
3. Once the TOP is reached, the traffic to the website is even, and lasts forever if it is still ON TOP
4. Need to develop slowly, focus on a key group of keywords, then develop gradually
5. SEO clicks are more valuable, accounting for ~65%, unlimited clicks, the prestige of seo results is higher than the results of ads
6. More difficult to measure effectively

* Google Ads

1. Paid Access
2. You will have TOP TOP immediately after turning on your campaign in few minutes.
3. Out of money in ad account, traffic stops until more money is added
4. Can type in many keywords, many topics at the same time in one campaign
5. Lower clicks (~ 35%), easy to be played by opponents (virtual clicks, using click-hacking tools, ...) leading to rapid cost loss without getting anything back
6. Easily measure performance in the advertiser

A. Google Ads

Advantages of Google ads

1. Get the effect quickly

As mentioned above, just create a campaign and fund your Google ad account, you will be prioritized to appear in front of thousands of potential customers, and if you do it well, you will have immediate conversions and revenue. ie.

In addition, Google is currently applying Machine Learning technology to support advertisers. So in the process of monitoring and controlling account reports, you will gradually understand how to optimize costs, increase conversion efficiency to get more potential customers.

2. Build Brand Awareness

With Google ads, you only pay per click. So even if users don't click on your ad, they still see and remember your brand (for free!).

3. Remarketing (remarketing) to people who have visited the website.

Another great thing about Google Ads Search (and the Google advertising system in general) is that you can remarket to someone who has already visited your website before.

Eg: A user goes to your website to see a men's suit, but at this moment he is only for reference and has no intention of buying. 1 week later he had a real need to buy and… went to search on Google again. With remarketing ads (Remarketing Search), you can show ads with personalized content to this person, for example:

“Don't miss the suit you liked before”

→ Your chances of selling will be higher.

Learn more about Google Remarketing.

4. Measure advertising performance easily

Google has developed a very detailed ad control, measurement and optimization system. The prerequisite is that you need to install the right “conversions” on your website. You will know clearly whether each click through your ad is profitable or not, how much revenue it brings…and which keywords/ads are the most effective.

Disadvantages of Google Ads

1. Complex and highly specialized requirements

You can get started with setting up a Google Ads ad campaign relatively easily, and get some good results with just a little basic knowledge. However, in the long run, to compete and improve efficiency in a sustainable way – you need very deep expertise.

That's because the number of ads displayed on Google Search is limited, while today the number of competitors is very much in most industries.

The reporting, measurement and optimization system of Google Ads is very detailed, so it is also very complicated. You have to understand and combine dozens or even hundreds of different metrics to optimize ad performance.

Unless you specialize in e-commerce business, Viet SEO recommends that you consider looking for Google advertising experts to build and optimize an advertising system for your business. This costs less than tinkering with your own and a lot of money wasted on wrong testing.

2. The level of competition is very high

As analyzed above, the Google Ads advertising market is extremely competitive in most industries. Any company large or small, when it comes to online marketing, will jump into Google Ads and Facebook Ads first.

The role and importance of Google is increasing in reaching and increasing potential customers. So companies have and will spend a lot of money to dominate keywords, good positions. And to win, you need to have a reasonable strategy, adequate resources and even time to optimize. If you are not careful, you will spend a lot of money and still lose the competition.

Sounds like a gamble, right?

3. In the long term, in general, the cost for Google Ads is very large

You will have to spend money continuously to maintain your position on Google. As soon as you stop advertising (or your card runs out of money ^^), ads will not appear and competitors will take all your customers. Unlike SEO results that won't go away once you stop spending money.

4. Restrictions come from Google's policy

Some industries are being restricted or banned by Google from advertising such as: Alcohol, beer, tobacco, 18+ products, 3rd party services (repair, refill ink…)

Details at: https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6008942?hl=en

If you work in these industries, your only chance to reach customers on Google is SEO.

B. SEO

Advantages of SEO

1. (Almost) Free

Unlike Google, when your results appear to users and they click, you will not lose anything. This is why in most websites in the world, they take SEO very seriously because it helps them get hundreds of thousands – even millions of free monthly traffic.

With no-cost-per-click (CPC), in the long-term (from 6 to 9 months or more), SEO is much more cost-effective than Google Ads. The only cost to pay is to hire an SEO agency to improve the ranking of your website, and the maintenance fee is negligible.

2. Reach more potential customers

If you run Google Ads Search ads, to ensure ROAS (revenue on advertising costs) you will only focus on the keyword group that generates the most conversions, representing 2-5% of customers in need. biggest. And 95-98% of potential customers (but have no immediate need to buy) will be left behind. If you advertise to this whole group, the advertising costs will be too great and you will not get any profit in the end.

With SEO it is different – because you do not have to pay CPC, you will greatly expand your ability to reach potential customers.

With the actual project of Viet SEO, customers using SEO services are only half the cost of Google Ads services, but the SEO traffic is clearly superior.

From actual projects implemented by Viet SEO, it shows that in the long term, SEO costs will be more economical and the ability to reach customers is also more than Google Ads.

3. Traffic from SEO has better conversions.

Before coming to this section, you should refer to Bright Edge's latest report on the influence and importance of Organic Search on a business's Marketing campaigns.

Users accessing a website via Google often have a clearer need and are therefore easier to convert than other channels.

Especially when users access the website through organic search results (SEO), they have more trust and credibility of the brand than the advertising results. So the conversion rate from SEO is higher than from Google Ads Search.

Important update: Now besides search ads, Google now offers shopping ads (Google Shopping) right on the search results page and has a better conversion rate than regular SEO results thanks to the location it appears. with pictures/prices included. But Google Shopping is limited to industries with physical products and comes with a few other strict policies.

4. Investing in SEO brings more sustainable results

With Google Ads, it's easy to go up, so it's easy to get down. When there are many competitors competing on a similar set of products/services, advertising costs will increase immediately – and at some point, it will exceed your profits. Because Google Ads is easy to get started, and produces results quickly – your competitors will grow larger and larger. As soon as you stop spending money on advertising, you will disappear from the eyes of customers

On the other hand, with SEO, it's hard to get up, so it's hard to get down. The first is the cost and investment barrier for content. To SEO to TOP many keywords, you need to have a website that is both technically standard and optimized for users. Besides, you need to have a lot of content and TIME long enough for Google to evaluate your website's credibility with users. Because of the above barriers, there will be less competition in SEO than in Ads.

SEO results are also more sustainable. Even if you do nothing, your website will still keep ranking for 3-6 months. Subsequent maintenance costs are also very low.

In short, investing in SEO means that your traffic and brand always grow.

Disadvantages of SEO

This is also the reason many businesses "afraid to do SEO" methodically. Let's find out together.

1. It takes a long time to get good rankings

Except for a few SEO tips to help your website get to the TOP quickly (but falling to the TOP is also fast) – doing SEO methodically in general takes a lot of time and effort. Viet SEO's experience when implementing SEO projects is usually from 6 to 12 months to achieve the best results.

Compared to Google Ads, which is easy to do, easy to get effective right away, there is a big difference!

2. It takes longer to get revenue from SEO

During SEO, the revenue effect is almost zero. Things only start to improve when the website ranks well in many keywords. For this reason, a lot of businesses don't want to invest in SEO.

In case of wondering about SEO effectiveness, Viet SEO often advises businesses to advertise on Google first to verify.

Or you can use both methods in parallel.

3. Google's Algorithm

The huge benefits of SEO make SEOers look for ways to get to the TOP in the shortest time – leading to no longer quality Google search results. To solve this problem, Google constantly updates its algorithms to remove search results that are not useful to users.

If you violate these algorithms, Google will drop your rankings if it's light - if it's heavy, you'll be removed from the search results forever. And you are left with only water to start over.

Many units and individuals doing SEO often apply these tricks, so that they can offer businesses with super cheap prices and "heavenly" commitments. Maybe after a short time on TOP 1 your website will never appear on Google again.

To avoid the above situation from happening, either you have to become an expert, or you should choose reputable agencies and comply with Google's policies to accompany you. If you are in doubt, try testing them with these questions:

• What projects have you done SEO, with customers?
• Let us see the results achieved, does this result last? Factual proof?
• What is your SEO plan? What is the SEO roadmap?
• What method is used to bring the website to the TOP?  (For those who use SEO tricks, they often do not have a clear plan – and use prohibited methods such as Backlinking, copying or re-frying content on other websites…)

Should I choose between SEO and Google Ads?

The success of a marketing campaign is the flexibility between tools to reach customers. Same goes for SEO and Google Ads. You must know how to combine them. Through comparative analysis of seo and google adword above, Viet SEO gives you a few tips of Viet SEO in choosing:

1. If you have never run Google Ads or SEO and wonder about the effectiveness, try Google Ads first.
2. If you have done 1 of the 2 but it doesn't work, you can try the other one.
3. If you have done one of the two works, you should still do the other. SEO vs Google Ads do not conflict with each other but support each other to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.
4. If you are a small business with a limited budget and need immediate results, choose Google Ads
5. If you are a stable business, need to take advantage of competitors and expand revenue in the medium and long term, choose SEO.
6. If you are unable to plan on your own, find it too difficult to do SEO and run Google Ads by yourself, use the intensive Google Ads service or the overall SEO service of Viet SEO.

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