SEO vs Google Ads: Pros and Cons for IT Companies

Whether you are a startup or an established IT company, it is no question that the use of digital marketing strategies plays a huge role in your online success. With the number of ways to market your business online, choosing the right strategy for your company and yielding satisfying results is crucial. 

Considering that, you probably wonder what digital marketing strategy will produce the best results for your IT company.

Among the most popular strategies companies use are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google Ads. Both these strategies are well-known for providing companies with higher conversion rates, generating leads, and improving sales. 

Throughout this blog post, we'll explore the pros and cons of SEO and Google Ads and how to maximize each strategy to scale your business effectively. This will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of each strategy and determine which one is best for your business. 

What is SEO?

SEO remains one of the most effective digital marketing strategies because of its proven effectiveness. It is a powerful marketing tactic that can open opportunities to achieve growth despite the crowded online space.

According to a recent report, SEO can drive 1,000% more organic traffic than social media. Additionally, more than half of website traffic comes from organic search.

Generally, SEO is an organic marketing strategy that focuses on optimizing websites to improve their visibility, online presence, and ranking in search engine results pages (SERP).

It is one of the foundations for successful digital marketing. Keep in mind that the online experience starts with the user's search intent, and without SEO, it will be impossible for your company's website to rank. 

So if you are running an IT company, you will have to target your audience based on their search queries related to your services. 

Pros

• Help improve your improve online presence and credibility

• Advantage to keep up with the existing competition in the market

• Lower marketing cost 

• Establish a strong linking profile

• Easily track campaign performance

Cons

• It requires a lot of time and effort to see significant results

• Risk of getting a minimum return on investment 

• SEO trends consistently change

• Chance of getting penalized on rankings

• Due to high competition, satisfactory results are not guaranteed

What is Google Ads?

Now, if you are a venturing IT company, you have probably thought of the pay-per-click model. And one of the most popular and well-known PPC models used by marketers today is Google Ads.

Google ads is a platform to drive traffic and enhance your customer acquisition. It allows you to input keywords to help you reach your target market. Through this online strategy, you will be able to promote your IT services based on the search intent of your target audience. 

It is a perfect platform to use due to the diverse number of online users using Google's search engine. Through this paid advertising platform, you can accurately target your audiences, generate quality leads and increase visibility depending on your budget. 

Pros 

• Immediate campaign results

• Increase in website traffic and leads

• May yield a positive return on investment

• Opportunity to be on top of the SERP

• Gather more data to understand your target audience 

Cons

• Running ads can cost a lot of money

• Established businesses can have a more competitive budget

• It is not sustainable in the long run

• Leads and traffic do not guarantee sales and profit

• Campaign advertisement requires constant optimization

Tips on choosing which digital marketing strategy to use

Found a digital marketing strategy to use for your next campaign? You may want to step back a little. 

We know that the advantages of SEO and Google ads sound promising for your IT company to grow. However, choosing a marketing strategy is about more than just the advantages. You will also have to consider other factors to maximize its benefits.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when choosing a digital marketing strategy to employ:

• Establish your audience persona to better know and target their needed IT services

• Identify the goals and objectives that your IT company wants to achieve. This will allow you to align a better marketing strategy suitable to obtain the goals you have set.

• Reassess and audit your previous marketing campaign to determine which works or not. 

• Consider your marketing budget. If you have enough budget, then go for a high-cost digital marketing strategy like Google Ads. But if you have a limited budget, you should start with a low-cost strategy like SEO. 

Conclusion

Choosing a digital marketing strategy is about more than just the potential results for your business. It is also about testing and assessing its possible outcomes for your company. Specific strategies will only work if applied properly based on what your company strives to achieve.

Remember that you can use more than one strategy at a time. Feel free to utilize both strategies to maximize further growth.