Paid search is often referred to as SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and describes the process of gaining exposure with search engines by bidding for particular keywords.

Basically, advertisers purchase ads by bidding for keywords. Among search engine specialists and marketers this discipline is called “Paid Search”. Other terms used, but describing the same thing, include: Paid search ads, paid search advertising, or PPC (pay-per-click).

Most advertisers use Google to place ads (Google AdWords) since Google is the most popular search engines and it makes therefore most sense spending your money there. However, Bing and other search engines offer similar services as well.

In addition, ads now can also be bought on Facebook or Twitter. Given the growing influence of Social Media, buying ads with Social Media platforms may be a good idea. In general, when launching a PPC campaign a cost-to-benefit analysis should be conducted before any money is spent.

Pros and Cons

So the key question is: What is better - paid advertising or SEO?

There are at least four significant arguments to be made for paid ads.

First, “Scaling Up” is easy and quick. If you, for example, launch an Adwords campaign with google, the results are immediate and you get traffic to your site right away. Second, you can target the region you prefer and decided to focus on. That helps when targeting a certain city, region or country. The money goes right where you want it to go. Third, advertisers can limit the ads to certain periods within a day. If you run a business that generates most revenue during the day, you should not spend advertising money at night. This way you make sure someone can pick up the phone, when you advertise the service. On the other hand, an online shop can advertise 24/7. This time selection is called Dayparting. Finally, the beauty of a paid campaign is that you can direct it to a really sexy landing page and don´t have to worry about the SEO of that page. In other words, the page can be full with graphics and attractive slogans, which would not necessarily put on a page that is meant to rank high with Google (which has typically a lot of words). This will increase your conversion rate.

SEO

While the traffic from paid ads stops from the moment you end your campaign, the effect of SEO last for a long time – if SEO is done the right way. The main benefit of SEO, of course, is that it is free. Yes, you do have to spend time and possible your SEO guy for his time, but in comparison to paid ads, SEO is much cheaper. The main benefit is also that people are much more likely to buy your product through an organic listing that a paid ad.