Showdown

Paid Ads vs. Organic SEO: Which Should Your Business Prioritize?

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Key Takeaways:

  • Evaluating a growth strategy requires examining its repeatability, scalability, and uniqueness.
  • While paid ads are repeatable, they often lack scalability and uniqueness.
  • For intricate B2B products, paid ads can be a costly strategy with diminishing returns.
  • Organic results, such as those from SEO, consistently outperform paid ads in clicks, trust, conversion rates, sustainability, and traffic volume.
  • While paid ads can offer quick wins, a diversified growth strategy, emphasizing organic methods, is recommended.

Reflecting on the Hidden Costs of Paid Advertising

There’s been a long-standing debate about whether paid ads truly benefit businesses or if they simply siphon funds without substantial returns. From my experience and the insight of industry experts, the truth may be a bit unsettling for those who’ve heavily invested in paid ads. Here’s a deeper look at this.

The Three Pillars of Growth: Are Paid Ads Measuring Up?

When considering a growth strategy, it’s crucial to evaluate its:

  1. Repeatability: Can it consistently produce the same results?
  2. Scalability: Does its effectiveness increase while consuming fewer resources over time?
  3. Uniqueness: Is it easily replicable by competitors?


Now, let’s examine paid ads through this lens:

  • Repeatability: Paid ads shine here. The outcomes are fairly consistent.

  • Scalability: Here lies the problem. Doubling results often requires doubling the budget. Unlike strategies that become more efficient over time, ads maintain a static cost-to-benefit ratio.

  • Uniqueness: Paid ad strategies are easily copied. A competitor with a larger budget can quickly overshadow your campaign.

The Hidden Cost of Paid Ads

Paid ads, especially in the B2B sector, may not be as effective as we’re led to believe. For intricate products involving numerous decision-makers, the cost of securing a single client through paid ads can be astronomical. Moreover, a competitor with a deeper pocket can easily outbid you, making the strategy even less appealing.


On the other hand, organic strategies like SEO, while demanding initial efforts, offer long-term rewards without continuous hefty investments.

Staggering Stats Most Agencies Won’t Reveal

Diving into some lesser-known statistics about paid ads:

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Click Preference: According to Search Engine Land, the first organic result garners an average of 31.7% clicks. In contrast, the leading paid ad only secures 18.4%.

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Trust Factor: Organic results tend to be more trusted than paid ones. Trust is paramount, especially in B2B transactions, where buyers seek credible information sources.

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Conversion Rates: A Marketing Sherpa study revealed that organic traffic has a 16% conversion rate, vastly outperforming paid traffic’s meager 1.7%.

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Sustainability: Investments in organic SEO produce sustainable results. Once you’ve achieved a top rank, it remains relatively stable, unlike ads that disappear the moment you stop funding them.

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Traffic Volume: SEMrush indicates that organic traffic contributes to 53.3% of all website traffic, dwarfing the 15.07% from paid sources.

The Bottom Line

Investing in paid ads can provide short-term gains, but if it’s your sole growth strategy, it might be time to rethink. Durable, scalable, and hard-to-copy strategies should be at the forefront of your growth plan.