SEO vs PPC
SEO vs PPC: Which Should You Spend On First?
Over 200,000 UK firms spent more than £10 billion on Google search ads in 2024, according to the Competition and Markets Authority, while others put the same money into ranking without ads. Both can work. This guide compares the two on cost, speed and returns, corrects the statistics that circulate about each, and gives you five questions to decide which to fund first.
SEO vs PPC: the short answer
SEO earns unpaid positions in Google’s organic results and takes months to build, but keeps working after the spending stops. PPC (pay-per-click) buys ad positions within a day, charges for every click and stops when the budget stops. Fund PPC first when you need enquiries quickly. Fund SEO first when you can wait.
| SEO | PPC | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Work on your website, content and links | Each click on your ad, plus any management fee |
| Time to first results | Usually 6 to 12 months; local SEO often 3 to 6 | Hours to days, once Google approves the ad |
| When you stop paying | Rankings fade slowly | Traffic stops at once |
| Where you appear | Organic results, the map pack and AI answers | "Sponsored results" above and below the organic results |
| Targeting | Whoever searches for the topics your pages rank for | Chosen keywords, locations, devices and times |
| Biggest risk | Paying for months before results show | Paying for clicks that never become customers |
Most businesses end up using both. The rest of this guide explains how to decide where to start and how to run the two together.
What is the difference between SEO and PPC?
The difference between SEO and PPC is how you get onto the results page. With search engine optimisation, you improve your website so Google chooses to rank it, and you pay nothing for each visit. With pay-per-click advertising, you pay Google, or another ad platform, every time someone clicks your ad. Both target the same searches. Together they are often called search engine marketing (SEM), although some people use SEM to mean paid search only.
The two systems are kept apart. Google states that "advertising with Google won’t have any effect on your site’s presence in our search results", so buying ads does not lift your organic rankings, and ranking well does not reduce your ad costs.
How SEO works
SEO wins visits by making pages that Google’s ranking systems judge the most helpful answer to a search. The work falls into three parts: technical SEO so Google can crawl and index the site, content that answers what people search for, and links and mentions from other sites that show the business is trusted. For a local business, the Google Business Profile and reviews decide whether you appear in the map pack. Our guide to what SEO is covers each part in more depth.
How PPC works
PPC on Google runs through Google Ads, which holds an auction every time someone searches. The highest bid does not automatically win. Google ranks ads by Ad Rank, which combines your bid with the quality of your ad and landing page, minimum thresholds, the competition in that auction, the searcher’s context and the expected effect of extras such as phone numbers and sitelinks. Google says higher-quality ads can often lead to lower costs per click, and you usually pay less than your maximum bid.
You may also see Quality Score, a rating from 1 to 10 for each keyword, based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google describes it as a diagnostic tool and says it isn’t an input in the ad auction. Google is not the only option: Microsoft Advertising runs ads on Bing, and social platforms such as Meta and LinkedIn also charge per click.
How do SEO and PPC compare on cost, speed and results?
They differ most on when the money is spent and when the results arrive. PPC costs you per visit and delivers at once. SEO costs you upfront and delivers later, at a falling cost per visit.
How much does each cost in the UK?
There is no reliable UK average cost per click (CPC). Whito’s UK PPC research, updated in September 2026, says nobody publishes a robust UK-wide figure. The best benchmark is American: WordStream by LocaliQ’s 2026 data on 13,474 US campaigns puts the average at $5.42 (about £4.00), ranging from $1.63 in arts and entertainment to $9.87 in legal services. Your own costs depend on your keywords and area, so check the top-of-page bid estimates in Google Ads’ Keyword Planner for your real search terms.
On top of the clicks, UK agencies publish PPC management fees of roughly £300 to £800 a month for small accounts, or 10 to 20% of ad spend. SEO is usually sold as a monthly retainer, and most UK small and medium-sized businesses pay £500 to £2,000 a month for it. Our guide to how much SEO costs in the UK breaks those figures down.
How quickly does each one work?
PPC is faster by months. Google says most ads are reviewed within one working day, and an approved ad can start taking clicks straight away. SEO usually takes 6 to 12 months to show clear results, and local SEO often 3 to 6, according to Whito’s UK research. New sites and competitive markets take longer. That gap is the main reason businesses that need enquiries this quarter start with ads.
Who clicks on ads and who clicks on organic results?
Since October 2025, Google groups text ads under a single "Sponsored results" label, with a button that lets searchers hide them after scrolling past. Some searchers skip ads on principle, while others click the first useful result whatever its label, so the split varies by search. Ads have their best chance on commercial searches, where an ad can match exactly what the person wants to buy.
Organic results face their own squeeze from AI Overviews. In Pew Research Center’s 2025 study of US browsing data, people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits that showed an AI summary, against 15% of visits that did not. Ahrefs measured a click-through rate about 34.5% lower for the top organic result when an AI Overview was present. Ahrefs also found that almost all searches showing an AI Overview are informational, so searches to hire or buy are less affected.
What happens when you stop paying?
PPC traffic stops the moment the budget runs out or the campaign is paused. SEO traffic fades more slowly, because pages keep their rankings until competitors overtake them or the content goes out of date. That is why SEO is usually described as an asset and PPC as rent. Rankings still need upkeep, and our content refresh framework explains how to keep pages current.
What does £1,500 a month buy in SEO or PPC?
At £1,500 a month, PPC buys around 275 clicks and perhaps 22 leads this month, while SEO buys roughly 10 to 25 hours of work that pays off over the following year. The table sets the two side by side.
| Monthly budget of £1,500 | PPC | SEO |
|---|---|---|
| Where the money goes | About £400 management, about £1,100 on clicks | Roughly 10 to 25 hours of specialist work |
| What it buys this month | About 275 clicks at a £4 average CPC | Fixes, new or improved pages, outreach for links |
| Leads this month | About 22 at an 8% conversion rate | Usually few or none in the first months |
| What remains if you stop | Nothing | The pages, fixes and links you paid for |
The PPC column uses US benchmark averages for click cost and conversion rate, so treat it as an illustration and replace the numbers with your own. The SEO hours divide the budget by typical UK rates of £60 to £150 an hour.
Is SEO better than paid ads?
Neither is better in general. SEO is better value over a long period, and PPC is better when speed, control or testing matter more than cost per visit. Which one is better for you depends on how soon you need customers, how much each customer is worth, and whether you can sustain spending for a year.
PPC usually wins for a new business with no rankings, a launch or seasonal offer, a high-value service where one customer pays for many clicks, or a test of whether a keyword turns into sales. SEO usually wins when click prices in your sector are high, when buyers research for weeks before contacting anyone, when you serve a local area and can win the map pack, and when you can wait six months or more for a return.
Which should you spend on first? A five-question framework
Answer these five questions in order. The first answer that points one way usually settles where your first pound should go.
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Can your website turn visitors into enquiries? | Go to question 2 | Fix the website first. Both channels waste money sending visitors to a page that does not convert |
| 2. Do people search for what you sell? | Go to question 3 | Neither may suit you. Search channels only capture existing demand |
| 3. Do you need new enquiries within three months? | Start with PPC, and begin SEO when cash allows | Go to question 4 |
| 4. Is the going CPC below what a click is worth to you? | PPC can pay its way. Consider running both | Lean on SEO, as each click costs more than it earns |
| 5. Can you fund SEO steadily for at least 12 months? | Start with SEO | Start with a small PPC test and revisit SEO later |
For question 4, work out your break-even cost per click: multiply the profit from a new customer by the share of visitors who become customers. If a new customer is worth £400 in profit and 5 in every 100 visitors become customers, each visitor is worth £20, so any click costing more than £20 loses money. Use the share who become customers, not the share who fill in a form. Our SEO ROI calculator runs the same sums for organic traffic.
SEO vs PPC for small businesses
For a small business, the deciding factor is usually cash flow. A local trade or practice with a budget of £500 to £1,000 a month cannot buy many clicks in a competitive sector once a management fee is taken out, and cannot buy much SEO either. In that position, the cheapest strong move is often local SEO first: a complete Google Business Profile, consistent listings and steady reviews cost time more than money, and our local SEO checklist sets out the steps.
Run a small PPC campaign alongside only if the break-even sum works for your sector, or when you need work in quiet months. Whito points out that on a small budget the management fee can rival the ad spend itself, so a £500 fee to manage £500 of clicks sends only half the money to Google’s auction.
How do you use SEO and PPC together?
SEO and PPC work best together when each one’s data improves the other. The four methods below are where combining them pays off most.
Use PPC search terms to choose SEO pages
The search terms report in Google Ads shows the exact phrases people typed before they clicked and whether they became enquiries. Phrases that convert well are the ones worth building pages to rank for organically, because you already know they bring customers.
Test titles and offers with ads first
An ad can test a headline or an offer in days. If one version wins a clearly higher click-through rate, use what you learn in your page titles and meta descriptions, which take weeks to test through organic results.
Cut ad spend only where testing shows it is safe
Ranking first organically does not make ads pointless. Google’s own research, a 2012 analysis of 390 studies in which advertisers paused their ads, found that when an advertiser ranked first organically, 50% of ad clicks were incremental, meaning organic results did not make up for them. That rose to 82% when the advertiser ranked second to fourth, and 96% when it ranked lower. The research is old and was published by the company that sells the ads, so test it yourself: pause one keyword for a few weeks and watch total enquiries, not just clicks.
Measure both channels in one place
Set up Google Analytics 4 with the same key events, such as calls and form enquiries, for both channels. Comparing them by cost per customer, rather than by clicks, stops either one taking credit for sales the other started.
How should you split a budget between SEO and PPC?
There is no correct ratio. The 60/40 and 70/30 splits quoted online are opinions, not research. A sensible starting point is to fund the channel the framework above points to, then move money between them as the results come in.
A common pattern is to start PPC-heavy while organic rankings are weak, then shift budget towards SEO as pages start ranking for the terms you were paying for. Review the split every quarter, using cost per customer from each channel. A business that cannot yet measure cost per customer should fix its tracking before it changes the split.
Which SEO and PPC statistics should you ignore?
Many statistics in SEO vs PPC articles cannot be traced to a current study, and some are simply wrong. These are the ones you are most likely to meet.
| Claim you will see | What the evidence says |
|---|---|
| "The highest bidder gets the top ad" | Ad Rank combines your bid with ad and landing page quality, thresholds and context. Better ads can pay less per click |
| "Running Google Ads boosts your rankings" | Google says advertising won’t have any effect on your site’s presence in its search results |
| "Businesses make £2 for every £1 spent on Google Ads" | Whito’s UK research says no current study supports this figure |
| "SEO returns 748%" | The figure comes from one firm’s model of well-executed B2B campaigns, which even the sites quoting it say is not an average result |
| "94% of searchers skip ads" | We could not trace it to a published study. The related eye-tracking research dates from around 2011 and measured sidebar ads Google no longer shows |
| "Quality Score sets your ad position" | Google says Quality Score is a diagnostic tool and isn’t an input in the auction |
The figures that hold up are your own. Track cost per customer for each channel and you will not need anyone’s average.
Where to start
Answer the five questions with your own numbers: what a customer is worth, what your website converts and what the going CPC is for your main search terms. If the answer is SEO, or both, our SEO services and pricing pages set out what we do and what it costs.
We are an SEO agency, so weigh our view accordingly. We have tried to say plainly where paid search is the better choice. If you want a second opinion on the split, talk to us or request a free SEO audit, which shows how much organic demand you are missing.
01Is PPC marketing worth it?+
PPC is worth it when the cost of a click is below what that click is worth to you. Work out your break-even cost per click from your profit per customer and your website’s conversion rate, then compare it with the bid estimates for your keywords. If clicks cost more than they earn, better ads or a better landing page may close the gap.
02Does paying for Google Ads improve my SEO?+
No. Google says advertising with Google won’t have any effect on your site’s presence in its search results. Ads can help indirectly, by showing which keywords convert and by making more people aware of your brand, but they do not change your organic rankings.
03What is the difference between SEO and PPC keywords?+
The search phrases are often the same. The difference is how you reach them. In PPC you choose keywords in Google Ads, set how closely searches must match them and pay per click, so you can target a phrase the day you choose it. In SEO, a page has to earn its ranking for a phrase, which takes longer but costs nothing per visit.
04Is Google Ads SEM or SEO?+
Google Ads is SEM, not SEO. It is a paid search platform, which makes it part of search engine marketing. SEO covers only unpaid results. Some people use SEM to mean paid search alone, and others use it for SEO and PPC together, so check which meaning is intended.
05Is PPC only Google Ads?+
No. PPC covers any advertising charged per click, including Microsoft Advertising on Bing, Meta on Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn and Amazon. In LOCALiQ’s 2026 survey of more than 500 UK businesses, 33% put most of their paid budget into Meta, against 25% into Google Ads.
06Can I run Google Ads myself?+
Yes. Anyone can open a Google Ads account and run campaigns. The main risks for beginners are broad keyword matching that buys irrelevant clicks, and not tracking which clicks become customers. If you run ads yourself, review the search terms report every week and judge results by cost per enquiry.
07How do I know if my Google Ads are working?+
Divide last month’s ad spend plus any management fee by the number of customers that paid search produced. That is your cost per customer. If it is below the profit from a customer, the ads are working. If you cannot calculate it, set up conversion tracking before you spend more.
08Is SEO cheaper than PPC?+
Over time, usually yes, but not at the start. PPC charges for every visit, while SEO has costs upfront and then a falling cost per visit as rankings build. For the first six months, SEO often costs more per enquiry than PPC, because the work is done before the visits arrive.
09Can SEO make money?+
Yes, when the visits it brings turn into customers. SEO makes money when your pages rank for searches with buying intent and the website converts those visitors. Rankings for searches nobody buys from bring traffic but little revenue, so choose keywords by intent, not volume.
10Is SEO dead now that AI answers searches?+
No. Google says the best practices for SEO remain relevant to its AI features, because they are built on its core ranking systems. AI Overviews do take clicks from some informational searches, so SEO now also means being the source those answers cite. Our guide to [AI SEO](/blog/ai-seo/) explains how.
11Are there ads in Google’s AI Overviews in the UK?+
Not as of October 2026. Google’s help page lists 12 countries where ads can appear inside AI Overviews, including the United States, Canada and Australia, and the UK is not one of them. UK ads can still appear above and below an AI Overview.
12Should I stop my ads once I rank first organically?+
Not without testing. Google’s 2012 research found that half of ad clicks were still incremental when the advertiser ranked first organically. Pause the ad for one keyword for a few weeks and compare total enquiries before and after, rather than switching everything off at once.
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