When it comes to making a decision between SEO and Google Ads in Australia, small businesses are typically guided by four considerations: the urgency for leads, what is affordable, the state of the market and if one is after short-term enquiries or something with more staying power. With Google Ads you have instant visibility; Search Engine Optimisation is how you put organic traffic and brand authority in place over time.
The question for an Australian small business is not so much “SEO or Google Ads?” in perpetuity but which one to put first and see if it yields profitable enquiries. I am Frederick Ashbury and my experience in practical planning has shown me that a marketing channel can be all the rage on paper yet be rough as guts if your offer, landing page or tracking is off. For context, see this Australian SMB SEO investment guide.
A Comparison Of SEO And Google Ads
They are two ways of being found on Google, but they do not work alike. One is about buying placement via pay-per-click, the other earns its spot in the organic results.
Your customer journey will dictate the better option. An accountant needs to put trust in front of business owners who will vet a number of providers before getting in touch; a plumber with a burst pipe has no such luxury.
| Factor | SEO | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | A matter of consistency, site quality and competition; expect it to be gradual. | Once you have put up the funds and the campaign is running, visibility follows. |
| Cost model | You put money into technical work, content, strategy and building authority. | The cost of clicks and any campaign or landing-page management. |
| Traffic source | From organic search. | Paid placements. |
| Longevity | A good page will keep drawing in traffic. | When the spending ceases, so does the traffic. |
| Best strength | Compounding visibility, trust and growth for the long haul. | To get immediate reach and test keywords in a controlled way. |
Take the above table as a guide. In practice, conversion rates and cost per click are not the same in Perth or Sydney as they are in a regional town, nor across different industries.
Australian Visibility Through SEO
To rank well for useful searches, SEO is about putting in the work on a website and its signals so Google has reason to trust it. For the small business that is having a website that is technically sound, locally of relevance and helpful.
You have to start with intent. There is a world of difference between the person looking for an emergency electrician in Adelaide and one doing research on a commercial refrigeration maintenance checklist. If you treat them in the same manner the website will be as flat as a pancake.
Trust Is A Prerequisite
An effective SEO strategy will show service areas and experience, put to rest any doubts and lay out what you do. Local businesses should have a thorough Google Business Profile with proper reviews, photos, categories and contact information so a customer knows he is in the right place. It may also call for location pages and uniform details in the directories you are listed in.
Do not make the mistake of thinking ranking equals revenue. Your phone number could be hard to come by or a visitor may be put down on a non-descript page and you will have organic traffic to show for nothing.
It Will Take Some Time
You cannot just turn on a tap with SEO. In a capital city there will be a need for some sustained effort in content and technicalities to get strong rankings. A regional operation might not have to contend with as much for local terms but the lead pool is smaller.
Then there is seasonality. A roofer will have more pertinent searches in the wake of bad weather, an accommodation business in the Adelaide Hills will find demand pick up at weekends and for events. Let your SEO mirror the way customers behave, do not put out filler on a Tuesday because the calendar tells you to.
Generating Leads With Google Ads
With Google Ads you are putting paid ads before those searching for your chosen terms. After setting your budget, ad message and targeting you go head to head in an auction and the cost per click is subject to what the competition is doing.
What is appealing is the level of control. You can focus on certain suburbs, put more behind an offer and test it without having to wait on an organic ranking, or simply put a stop to underperforming keywords.
Speed and Control
There is a place for Google Ads in the portfolio of a new business wanting to generate enquiries while it puts in the time to build organic authority on its site. An older, more established concern may use it to put a seasonal service in front of people, book in appointments or put a message to the test with customers.
But one does not get that speed without paying for it. Every click is charged for, even if the visitor is no more than a window shopper who will go and look at three competitors and some video on how to do it with a butter knife. So you have to track conversions. Calls, forms, bookings, purchases and any leads worth having should be accounted for, not clicks alone.
Put a lid on waste before you scale
Start a small campaign with services that are closely related, sensible geo-targeting and your negative keywords in order. If your territory is northern Brisbane, there is no point in burning through budget showing ads all over Queensland until a tyre has been put on the driveway.
Landing pages are important too. There is no need to put up friction by directing all your clicks to the home page; a page of its own will better suit the ad, set out the offer and put the next step in plain view.
As for cost, there is no one figure for a small business in Australia. It is a matter of where you are, what industry you are in, the competition, the way the account is put together and your conversion rate. Five hundred dollars a month will see you run a local campaign of a certain size, but it is hardly enough for a building or legal term in Sydney where the going is competitive.
Return and Speed
Put cash flow and marketing value side by side and the Google Ads versus SEO debate is easier to make out. With Google Ads you put down a media budget right away; SEO is an investment in work whose value will come in over time.
Neither can promise an ROI. The question is whether the customer value and the cost of the lead allow for sufficient margin.
Do the break-even maths
An Australian tradie might average $800 in gross profit on a job done. Close one in four of the qualified leads and each one is worth $200 before you have factored in marketing. A campaign at $60 a lead looks good, at $240 it calls for a better service or some rethinking.
Take this as an example rather than a benchmark. Use your own close rate, the quality of the lead and actual sales data. A lead that is cheap because he does not answer his phone is only wearing a smaller hat.
With SEO you have to weigh the cost of content and technical management against the organic leads and sales you get. In the early months an ROI comparison with Google Ads is hard to do since paid traffic is a function of what you are spending, and an SEO asset will keep drawing in visitors.
Look at the whole journey
Make your definitions of measurement the same for both. Put down the figures for spend, revenue, booked consultations, jobs completed and so on. Do not claim the upper hand on a channel simply for a better click-through rate when the cost per acquisition tells a different story.
The basics laid out in Google’s guidance for the Australian Government are worth heeding: tie your activity to what the business is trying to achieve. For a small operation that means knowing if you want brand awareness, online sales or quote requests before you pick a metric from the dashboard.
When to give Ads precedence
If you require visibility in a hurry and demand is there, Google Ads is the logical course. This holds true for urgent services, a new location or a promotion with a shelf life, and for a business with the capacity to put in an appointment and the value to back it up. You will also learn which terms and messages bring in real prospects, something to inform your SEO down the track.
- Go with Google Ads to get leads in a timely fashion provided you have an offer to put forward and can measure a profitable conversion.
- Opt for SEO when you are in a position to be patient and your customers do their homework before they call. It is the wiser long-term play for growth.
Ads are not the answer if your margins are not there, the process is protracted and you have no way of tracking a conversion. To put $500 into clicks and have no idea if a customer resulted from them is not a strategy, merely a form of small-scale mystery tour.
Making SEO the better option
For an Australian small business that wants a lasting way to be found and is prepared to put in the work on its website, an investment in SEO is justified. For professional or healthcare services, education and accommodation where trust is won by research, it is indispensable.
There is also the matter of lessening one’s reliance on paid search through SEO. A well made page that has put in the work to rank for good terms will go on to bring in organic visitors at no cost per visit. One cannot say the traffic is free given the expense of the effort, but as you put together some solid assets the economics are better.
The 80/20 Principle
In SEO the 80/20 rule holds true: a few pages or topics will be responsible for the bulk of any useful results. Get to know which services put the best customers in your door and put your efforts into the pages for those. There is no point in churning out an article on zippers or aardvarks when you could be making improvements where they count.
Have a look at the language of your customers in sales records and enquiries. Do they want to know about pricing, guarantees, turnaround or service areas? Put that in the content. You will find practical detail has more value than a lot of polished waffle.
A Careful Combination of Channels
Is there a case for running Google Ads alongside SEO? As a rule yes, if the budget is there to do it properly and each has its part to play. An ad will meet demand in the moment; SEO is for trust and visibility over time.
They can be mutually informative. The data from paid search tells you what is converting, the organic side may point up questions or locations to target down the track. A sensible way to go is to have Google Ads cover the priority suburbs and high-intent terms while SEO does its work on the service pages and Google Business Profile to underpin the customer journey. Then review monthly. Do not let a quiet week prompt some dramatic move, Australian demand is seasonal and a rainy weekend is no reason to alter your marketing.
Circumstances Dictate Strategy
Your industry, location and how much you have to spend will determine what is best. In a capital city both forms of visibility can come at a price due to competition; a regional business in Australia might see a clearer opening with local SEO and some well aimed advertising.
Take account of response times, profit, repeat business and the like. If leads are going to come in during the day and you are not in a position to answer them, do not put money into ads to generate them.
Business Situation Should Be Your Guide
Put a day aside to make some headway with your marketing and attend to the conversion basics: is the phone number any good, is the service area obvious, have you checked the Google Business Profile and put tracking in place? It is good for the organic and the paid visitor alike.
A new local operation might run a tight Google Ads test to put some data on the table while the SEO is being put in order. An older business with good margins and some quality pages would be better served by SEO for long-term growth. For the tradie in Australia it is often a question of location and speed of response; a professional service puts more store by credibility.
Know The Risks
You will encounter the odd irrelevant click or weak landing page, not to mention unverified reviews and the problem of lead attribution. Be wary of claims and stay within your advertising and privacy obligations. The reality is Google Ads will get you traffic in a hurry but will not put right a bad offer. And while SEO builds authority it will not manufacture a desire for a service that is not wanted. Both require a dependable business behind them.
For The Owner
Google Ads tends to be the quicker route to a lead. For brand authority and something more lasting, SEO is generally the sounder investment. With the budget one can have a bit of both for a more resilient system.
But begin with the customer. Pick a location, an audience, a profitable service and a single conversion action. Use the Australian SMB SEO investment guide to think things over in terms of patience and capacity before you part with the marketing budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Small business owners in Australia have a way of asking these when they are weighing up SEO against PPC. I will give you the short and practical answers, there is no call for another oblique explanation when the invoices are on the desk.
What exactly is the 80/20 rule in SEO?
You will find most of your leads or traffic comes from a small part of your activity. Make a priority of the pages and terms that are linked to valuable customers. It is a way of prioritising rather than a hard and fast figure.
Can you do enough with $500 on Google Ads?
If you are after a local test and the service area is not large and the customer is worth something, then yes. You will not be able to hold your own in Sydney or Melbourne on expensive terms for that kind of money. Set a period for the test and judge it on the sales and qualified leads.
Do small businesses get their money’s worth from Google Ads?
Only if they have an offer to back it up and can handle the leads. Where the margins are thin or the targeting too broad and the landing page leaves the customer wondering why he should act, they are not so much use.
And SEO?
Worthwhile if the business can put in the consistent effort and the customer is on Google to do his research. It is a longer game so look at the revenue and enquiries, not just the rankings.
Local business, which is preferable?
They are not the same thing. Local SEO will put you in front of people organically via the Google Business Profile, Google Ads can do it in a flash for certain searches. It is a matter of what you can measure and what your budget and urgency allow.
