Home - Digital Marketing - SEO vs. SEM vs. PPC vs. Google Ads: Difference Explained
We are in the middle of 2024, and meanwhile, we have seen a lot of digital transitions. Be it the dynamic algorithms, the latest market trends, new tools settling up in the workspace, and whatnot. But still, there were a few things that can’t be kept away from the marketer’s mind, like SEO, search engine marketing, Pay-per-clicks, and Google Ads.
However, each one of these techniques has its definition and relevance, but still, a lot of confusion among them has been witnessed. While few of the audience mix up their idea of SEM with SEO. The others keep figuring out the difference between the other two i.e. PPC and Google Ads.
So, let’s put a full stop to this never-ending confusion and dive into the discussion about these four techniques and know how they will benefit us in our marketing journey.
No doubt, SEO is the most used term in digital marketing. Search engine optimization is a digital marketing technique that aims to bring our content to the top of the search organically. Hence, when we optimize our website both on-page and off-page to increase its visibility and gain organic search traffic, is known as SEO.
Obviously, SEO is not a sort of magic, but a series of comprehensive strategies applied to the content. This can be easily understood through Mozlow’s hierarchy of SEO needs. Let’s find out what it is:
Through this pyramid, we can easily understand that SEO is a process to bring out the best results through our content. The process includes incorporating keywords, generating a great user experience, using CTR-driven titles and descriptions, and finally wrapping up with snippet markups.
SEO, if applied wisely, can feature our content to SERPs, i.e. search engine result pages, and can improve the competitiveness of our web page.
In short, SEO is a master key that can bring life to our content by increasing its reach and engagement rates.
Now that we are familiar with the meaning of SEO, let’s dive in together to learn about its benefits.
According to recent stats, SEO brings 1,000%+ more traffic than organic social media. Now, this statement is an indicator of how beneficial it would be if we started applying SEO to our marketing strategies.
Bringing out our web page at the SERP organically is one of the best benefits search engine optimization brings. Around 63000 Google searches are performed in a single second, and if we have focused on keywords, then we can get a great competitive advantage by ranking on top.
The more we are visible without investing in advertisements, the more people will trust us. This is because the audience is more attracted to quality content rather than anything else. If a web page has paid well to get visible but still does not hold any valuable content, then it will take no time to lose all the efforts.
Hence, SEO whenever applied to quality content, never disappoints.
When we opt for search engine optimization, it also deducts our investment, as all our focus is on organic search results rather than getting paid attention.
Implementing an SEO strategy is no less than watching the sown seed grow into a well-built tree. It does demand initial cost but once it’s put into the plan then it does not demand any ongoing or additional costs. It keeps the strategies in the loop and gives consistent and organic traffic to the website, so you don’t have to pay for ads.
Also, unlike paid searches, SEO never expires and ensures to benefit you till it’s relevant and updated.
For so long a question has been stuck in a debate: are SEO and SEM two different approaches, or SEO is a part of SEM?
On June 2023, Patrick Stox, an SEO professional conducted a poll on X to know about people’s approach towards the same, and here are the results.
After years of confusion, the accepted definition of SEM is currently an approach that focuses on both paid and organic search results. Hence, SEO as a mode of organic results and PPC as a paid mode of marketing, both fall under SEM.
As mentioned, organic marketing is handled by SEO, whereas for paid marketing you might have seen such results on top that were distinguished by the sponsored tags. This makes it easy to recognize. Both these techniques combine and form SEM.
However, if we talk about costs it depends on the approach we use. If we choose PPC then it includes costs but has greater potential to be clicked by a larger audience. Whereas if we choose for SEO then it might take time to show results but it is less costly.
An example of paid advertising is given below.
Source: Chandler Nguyen
To enjoy the desired results from search engine marketing, it is crucial to design effective campaigns and select the approach wisely. Your chosen approach must be well-aligned to your goal.
For better results, it is also advisable to opt for search engine marketing companies like W3era. With their technical knowledge and industry-specific strategies, SEM can work to its full potential.
SEM helps in increasing brand awareness and lets their message reach the target audience faster. Generally, brands struggle to get their web page on SERPs due to ineffective processes. SEM gives these brands both options, i.e. SEO and PPC.
SEM eliminates the obstacles and scales the brand’s visibility to the top. Sometimes, brands also opt for SEM to aware their audience about the offers or discounts.
SEO – Cost-effective, organic results, take time to rank, SEO efforts never expire
PPC – Comparatively High cost, drive results instantly, you will get results until you run PPC ad campaigns
Generally, search engine optimization takes 5-7 months to get our brand visible on the SERPs, but through search engine marketing, we can save a lot of time. As it is just a ‘pay and be benefitted’ model.
After applying SEM, we can measure the performance of our digital efforts. Many tools like Semrush and Google Ads Editor allow us to measure keyword effectiveness, total clicks, impressions, etc. so that we don’t have to follow the marketing process blindly. Through performance measurement, we can find out the mistakes we can work on and top-performing factors.
So, now that you have already read the term ‘PPC’, one thing is clear: it falls under search engine marketing. Let’s explore further to understand what it means.
The pay-per-click ad campaign is a paid model of advertising that allows advertisers to bid for specific keywords they wish their ads to appear for in search engine results. When users search using those keywords, the ads appear prominently among the results. Advertisers are charged a fee each time a user clicks on their ad.
PPC campaigns are crafted to target specific demographics and interests, with advertisers setting maximum bids for targeted keywords. Platforms on which ads are going to be published, analyze algorithms to determine which ads appear and their order based on factors like bid amount, relevance, and quality. PPC offers various benefits such as traffic generation, targeted marketing, measurable results, cost-effectiveness, and better branding.
PPC advertisements can be published in the form of search ads, display ads, or video ads,
Search ads, a form of PPC, are search-specific. Google will show relevant advertisements that will align with the searched keyword. For example: if you search for ‘shoes for man’, then search ads for shoes will appear.
You might have seen advertisements on search engines that reflect the brand’s product through a series of images. They can be positioned anywhere in the search engine or web pages.
You might have skipped dozens of ads from video-based platforms like YouTube. These ads are a part of PPC.
Moreover, unlike other marketing techniques, PPC benefits can be leveraged through many platforms like Google Ads, Meta ads, Instagram ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn ads, etc.
Source: Localiq
PPC marketing ensures that the visitor who has searched the relevant keyword gets PPC ads with convenient ad extensions. Shop Now, ‘Join Now’, or ‘Buy Now’ are some examples of short and direct ad extensions used by marketers to get visitors in the loop.
Marketers do not have to wait for long to publish their ads that have been put on hold. This is because many times marketers are restricted to publishing more than 1 ad at a time. But through PPC ad campaigns, now they can publish more than 1 advertisement by consciously bifurcating the keywords.
PPC advertising has been seen as creative lately. It doesn’t matter how promising your ad is until and unless it includes a solid ad copy to attract customers.
Here is one such example:
Source- Digivate
Snickers, during their popular ad campaign ‘You’re not you when you are hungry’, bought a magnetic campaigning idea where they misspelled words, triggering the idea of hunger.
It resulted in 558,589 impressions in just two days, which stunned the market.
You do not have to confuse PPC and Google ads, as both are different marketing assets. But the fact can’t be ignored that they are dependent on each other.
PPC is a form of advertising to increase brand exposure and visibility, whereas Google Ads is an advertising platform powered by Google to place those PPC advertisements. The platform brings a solution for PPC to place ads at the top of Google SERP. To avail of this stunning opportunity, businesses have to bid on keywords to get a chance to get the brand visible on SERP.
A few years back, marketers found it tough to run ad campaigns in Google due to the dynamic algorithms and parameters. Google then bought a tool named Google Ads, to detangle this confusion and simplify the optimization process.
Google Ads ensures to pop up the relevant advertisements according to the searched keywords. Whenever someone clicks on these PPC ads, the advertiser has to pay accordingly. Here, Google plays the role of advertising hosts.
The massive lead generation resulting from Google Ads has caught the attention of marketers. As a result, the majority of advertisers find Google Ads as the main source of lead generation. Eventually giving the best revenue to Google’s desk.
Last year reportedly, Google made 237.86 billion U.S. dollars in revenue through these advertisements.
Now that we have understood the meaning of these popular marketing techniques, like PPC, SEO, search engine marketing, and Google Ads. It is safe to say, that all these techniques have the same goal i.e. to drive better and qualified traffic by ranking on SERPs.
However, the process differs. Search engine optimization aims for organic reach that falls under search engine marketing. SEM focuses on both organic and paid search engine ranks. Another method that comes in, is pay-per-clicks which lets you enjoy better branding by focusing on driving direct responses such as clicks and conversions. One of the best-trusted platforms for PPC is Google Ads.
This is how all these 4 strategies can let you enjoy qualified leads and better engagement through their respective plans. Not to forget, that keyword optimization and content, drive the show, hence it needs to be done wisely.
And to get this process done carefully and professionally, we can be your wingmen.
By joining hands with W3era, you can amplify your marketing journey by getting better search results and increasing the return on investment.
Related Resources –
Daily Search Marketing tidbits for savvy pros.
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