It’s no secret here that we LOVE SEO. Search Engine Optimization is the foundation of most of what we do here and it is still the most cost effective and the most effective way to draw the best traffic to your site. But millions use PPC/Adwords/SEM/Facebook so it obviously makes sense too.
When is the best time to use PPC/Paid ads?
[NOTE: Facebook/Social Media Ads can be a great way to generate leads, if managed properly – if you have any interest in Lead Generation, more website traffic, SEO, or paid ads, please contact us for a free strategy session so we can help you determine the Best way to go for your business].
Here are a few examples of when Paid Ads might be best:
SEASONAL BUSINESS: Let’s say you have a business that does 90% of your revenue in a 2 to 3 month window. This could be a retail shop that focuses on Christmas, a fishing charter boat in Maine, or a heating equipment company in Key West Florida. They need business but not in their off season so it may make sense to focus more on PPC.
SEASONAL OWNER: We have dealt with owners that like to have the ability to “turn it off” when they need to do so, in order to avoid getting too much traffic where they provide lower levels of customer service. Or maybe the owner wants to take a month off to go overseas. For whatever reason, PPC is always something that you can stop on a dime anytime you choose.
NEW BUSINESS: New businesses need new business, of course, and they need it right away. If you need business THIS MONTH, then SEO is probably not your best option. PPC is super FAST – turn it on today and you can get traffic today. SEO is slow, but will last and last.
LIMITS: We literally lost a client because they could not handle the flood of new business. They called and said we cannot keep up with the phone calls and inquiries, please pause our program until we can get this figured out. PPC works great for those that do not want to grow beyond their current means and want to control the flow of prospects.
CONTROL: You can control how many clients and visitors you get with ease using PPC. That is a very attractive feature for many people who want to manage their time by limiting their prospects on a weekly or monthly basis.
Any one of these, or dozens more, are great reasons to use PPC as a way to generate traffic and clients for your business. Ultimately, the BEST approach is usually a combination of the two as it provides all of the features above along WITH the unlimited traffic that comes with your Organic ranking.
If you would like for us to review your PPC budget/spend and see if SEO might make sense, please reach out to us today.
