Google Ads versus SEO in 2025. Which Delivers The Best Return on Investment? (and why you are probably getting it wrong).
Most businesses that we speak to are always looking to generate more traffic, leads and enquiries, and every business wants the best results possible for their budget.
But in 2025 the same question that we have heard for years pops up time and time again.
Which channel should I invest in? Is it Google Ads or SEO?
The truth is most businesses are either missing one or completely ignoring the power of using both of these channels together.
This brief blog will break down the benefits and performance of both Google Ads and SEO and share our thoughts on how to maximise both to deliver the best results for your digital marketing.
Google Ads has evolved, and with the recent Google changes and Google’s AI implementation, if done right can be more efficient than ever, helping to drive better traffic and more leads.
Nothing can beat the speed of Google Ads, launching a campaign today and generating traffic within a day and leads within a few days.
Google’s AI bidding uses machine learning tools to optimise in real-time, helping to make campaigns more efficient than ever before, including better ad formats including the benefits of visual shopping ads, Google Performance Max, plus of course the search ads that we’ve come to trust over the years.
However, Google ads can be expensive and poorly optimised campaigns can waste your budget extremely quickly. Remember with Google Ads you are essentially just renting the space in the search results and as soon as you stop paying your traffic stops.
SEO on the other hand in 2025 is more than just about keywords. It’s about building your experience, authority and trust in your particular business sector. Known as Google EEAT.
Unlike Google Ads, organic rankings don’t vanish or drop overnight but SEO takes time and you’re building over the medium to long-term and algorithm updates from the search engines can be brutal and again completely change the game.
Most businesses get it wrong because they have an overreliance on one channel in as much as they are either running only Google ads and ignoring organic, or they focus on SEO and miss the quick win from Google Ads.
Both PPC and SEO are valuable channels to explore and depending on your business needs we generally recommend a combination of both.
Some businesses we see spend fortunes on Google Ads but equally don’t have a proper SEO strategy in place so it’s literally like pouring water into a bucket of holes. They remain tied to Google Ads for the foreseeable future so it always makes sense to use some of your marketing budget for SEO strategy, allowing you to scale up without having to continually increase the budget for ads.
Here at Altitude Internet, we believe the best return on investment from your marketing budget comes from a synergy of using the speed and data generated from Google Ads helping to generate the best returns from landing pages and also helping gather keyword intelligence (which can then be utilised to cross your SEO channel), but also using SEO for your long-term growth, helping to build your brand, authority and driving consistent “free” traffic from organic. Having a paid ad and an organic/natural link in the search engine results pages gives you an unfair advantage over competitors and provides double the chance of getting the lead.
Well-optimised blogs and on-site content can support your SEO strategy, and we believe that a shared strategy equals shared success. We build joined-up campaigns that blend the benefits of both paid and organic into your overall marketing strategy.
In 2025 it’s no longer which one should I use, PPC or SEO. It’s about utilising the benefits of both to help your business grow.
You can book your free strategy call with one of our digital marketing experts, here at Altitude Internet where we will review your current SEO and PPC efforts and show you how to improve your marketing typically in less than 30 days
In one recent case study, we’ve shown how the benefits of a ‘joined up’ approach of using SEO & PPC can help your business flourish. We started working with a leading provider of Mystery Shopping services and consumer insight back in 2015 / 2016. After reviewing their results and plans, we recommended that they invest in both channels which allowed them to generate ‘instant’ traction from PPC whilst investing in the medium to long term with search engine optimisation. This strategy paid off and within just a few short months they were able to see the benefits and results of this strategy.
Since then they have scaled their ad spend significantly, and working in conjunction with us for their SEO, they’ve been able to generate significant levels of leads and win some amazing clients helping their business to thrive.
You can learn more about utilising SEO just here and you can also find out more about PPC as a channel just here
Still have questions? Call our team today for a chat on 01279 215 561 or Dublin (1) 531 4774.
