PPC vs SEO is really a question about time. Do you need customers this month, or can you invest in traffic that gets cheaper every year? Here’s how the two compare on speed, cost and staying power, with the real numbers we charge so you can do the maths yourself.
What PPC and SEO actually are
PPC (pay-per-click) is paid search advertising. You bid to appear at the top of Google’s results for chosen searches, and you pay each time someone clicks. Google Ads is the main platform. The moment your budget stops, so do the visitors.
SEO (search engine optimisation) is earning those positions instead of renting them. You improve your website, content and local presence so Google ranks you in the unpaid results. Clicks cost nothing, but the positions take months to earn.
Same customers, same search results page. One is a tap you turn on and off, the other is a well you dig.
Speed: PPC wins, and it’s not close
A properly set up Google Ads campaign can show your business at the top of the results within days, and enquiries can follow in the first week if your website does its job. That immediacy is the whole point of paying.
SEO cannot match that on a young website, and anyone who promises otherwise is a red flag. Realistically you’re looking at three to six months before meaningful movement, longer in competitive industries. We set that expectation with every client because it’s the truth, and our month-by-month SEO timeline shows what actually happens when.
So if your diary is empty and the bills are due, PPC is the honest recommendation. Speed is what you’re buying.
Cost over time: SEO wins, eventually
Picture the two as lines on a graph. PPC is a flat line: every enquiry costs roughly the same in month 24 as it did in month one, because you pay for every single click, forever. Stop paying and the line drops to zero overnight.
SEO starts as a worse deal. In month two you’re paying and seeing little. But the line bends. Pages you paid to create once keep pulling in visitors month after month at no extra cost, so your cost per enquiry falls as the work compounds. A ranking you earned this year keeps working next year while you’re paying for something else.
In plain numbers, using our own pricing as the worked example: our SEO plans run from £49 to £299 a month, and our Google Ads management runs from £89 to £299 a month per channel, with ad spend always separate on top. So a £149 SEO plan costs £149 all-in, while £149 of PPC management still needs an ad budget behind it. PPC’s true monthly cost is always management plus spend. Full breakdowns are in our guides to what SEO costs in the UK and Google Ads costs, and you can see what each plan costs side by side.
The comparison at a glance
| PPC | SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| First results | Days | Three to six months, usually |
| Cost per enquiry over time | Flat, you pay per click forever | Falls as rankings compound |
| What happens if you stop | Traffic stops immediately | Rankings fade slowly, not instantly |
| Budget needed | Management fee plus ad spend (separate) | Monthly fee only |
| Best for | Urgent demand, testing offers, quick wins | Long-term, lower-cost enquiries |
Why the real answer is usually both
Here’s the strategy we recommend most, and yes, we sell both, so judge the logic on its merits. Start PPC for immediate enquiries. Start SEO at the same time so the meter is running on the slow stuff. As your rankings arrive, organic traffic starts replacing paid clicks for your core searches, and you either trim the ad budget or point it at new services.
A concrete version: a landscaper spends month one on ads and gets jobs straight away. By month six, his location pages rank locally and half his enquiries arrive free. His ad budget now chases patio work, the higher-margin service he wants more of. Neither channel alone gets him there as well.
The trap to avoid is treating PPC as temporary and SEO as optional. Businesses that only ever buy clicks are still paying full price for every customer in year five.
Frequently asked questions
Is SEO really free traffic?
The clicks are free, the rankings aren’t. You pay in either money (an SEO service) or serious time (doing it yourself) to earn positions. The difference from PPC is that the cost is front-loaded: once a page ranks, it keeps bringing visitors without a per-click charge attached.
Should a brand-new business start with PPC or SEO?
Usually PPC first, because a new website has no authority and SEO will take months regardless. Ads bring in customers and revenue while the foundations are laid. If cash allows, start a modest SEO plan in parallel, because every month you delay pushes the compounding benefit further away.
Does running Google Ads improve your SEO rankings?
No. Google has been consistent that paying for ads does not influence organic rankings, and we’ve never seen evidence otherwise. Ads can help SEO indirectly, though: the search-term data shows which keywords actually convert, which tells you exactly what your SEO content should target.
Can I stop SEO once I rank?
You can pause, and rankings won’t vanish overnight the way paid traffic does. But competitors keep publishing and Google keeps updating, so positions drift without upkeep. Think of it like a garden rather than a building: maintenance is lighter than the initial work, but abandoning it shows within months.
What does PPC actually cost in total?
Two parts, always: a management fee (ours runs £89 to £299 a month per channel) and your ad spend, which goes directly to Google. Ad spend is separate and never included in a management fee. A sensible local starting point is a few hundred pounds a month of spend, scaled by results.
Want this done for you? See our paid media services, or compare every service and price in one place.
