SEO or Google Ads: which should you do first?

Two ways onto the same page

When someone searches for what you do, there are two ways to appear. You can pay for an ad at the top through Google Ads, or earn a spot in the organic results through SEO. Both can work brilliantly. The question most businesses ask us is which one to start with.

This guide explains how each works, what they cost, when to start with one or the other, and how to run them together so each one makes the other cheaper.

How Google Ads works

You choose the searches you want to appear for, write ads and set a budget. You pay each time someone clicks. Done well, ads can bring enquiries within days.

• Fast: you can be live this week
• Precise: target specific searches, locations, times and devices
• Easy to measure: you can see the cost of every enquiry
• But: the moment you stop paying, the traffic stops

How SEO works

SEO means improving your website and online presence so Google ranks you higher in the free results. It takes longer to build, but the results compound.

• Slower: usually three to six months before you see real movement
• Lasting: rankings keep bringing visitors without paying per click
• Trusted: many people skip the ads and click the first organic result
• But: it needs patience and consistent work

Our guide to organic SEO explains the three parts of SEO in more detail.

What each one costs

Google Ads

You pay for two things: the clicks themselves, and someone to manage the campaign. Click prices vary enormously by industry and location. In competitive fields like legal, finance and trades, a single click can cost well over $10, while in quieter niches it can be a dollar or two. Many small businesses spend somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 a month on clicks, plus management fees. Ours start from $900 a month, as shown on our digital marketing page.

The number that matters isn’t cost per click, it’s cost per enquiry. If a $15 click converts one time in ten, each enquiry costs $150. Whether that’s good depends entirely on what a new customer is worth to you.

SEO

Ongoing SEO for a small business in Australia commonly runs from around $1,500 to $3,500 a month, depending on competition and how much content is involved. A one-off audit is another way to start. Our SEO service lists our own starting prices.

The cost per enquiry from SEO usually starts high, because you’re paying before results arrive, then drops steadily as rankings build. That’s why it suits businesses that can think a year ahead.

So, should you do Google Ads or SEO first?

It depends on where your business is right now.

Start with Google Ads if

• You need enquiries quickly, for example you’ve just launched or have a quiet quarter to fill
• You want to test which services or messages people respond to
• You’re in a market where the organic results are dominated by big players and directories
• You have a clear offer and a landing page ready to convert

Start with SEO if

• You can wait a few months for results
• Your budget is tight and you want something that keeps working
• You serve a local area and haven’t optimised your Google Business Profile yet
• Your website is new or rebuilt and needs a strong foundation anyway

If you serve a local area, start with the free wins in our local SEO checklist whichever way you go.

The answer for most businesses: both, in the right order

For most of our clients, the best approach is to fix the foundations first: a fast website, clear service pages and a complete Google Business Profile. That’s the base for SEO, and it also makes your ads cheaper, because Google rewards relevant landing pages with lower costs per click.

Then run a modest, tightly targeted ad campaign to bring in work while SEO builds. As your organic rankings grow, you can reduce ad spend on the searches you now rank for and keep paying only where it makes sense.

How they help each other

• Ads show you which search terms actually turn into enquiries, which tells your SEO where to focus
• Good landing pages built for SEO lift your ad quality scores and lower your click costs
• Appearing in both the ads and the organic results for the same search builds trust and takes up more of the page
• Ads can retarget people who found you organically but didn’t enquire

What about Meta ads?

Facebook and Instagram ads work differently. People on social media aren’t searching for you, so Meta is better for creating demand than capturing it: launching something new, building awareness in a region, or retargeting people who visited your site. For businesses that rely on visual appeal, like hospitality, events, fashion and lifestyle, it can work very well. For a plumber with a burst pipe customer, Google is the better bet.

Landing pages make or break your ads

Sending paid clicks to your homepage is the most common mistake we see. A good landing page matches the exact search, repeats the promise from the ad, answers the obvious questions and has one clear next step. Our guide to website copy that converts covers how to write one.

Measuring what matters

Whichever you choose, set up conversion tracking before you spend a dollar. Track form submissions, calls from your website and calls from ads, and bookings if you take them online. Then judge both channels by the same measure: cost per enquiry and, ideally, cost per customer.

A few honest warnings

• Ads with no landing page strategy waste money fast.
• SEO with no content plan stalls. Rankings come from useful pages, not just technical tweaks.
• Anyone promising page one in a month, or guaranteed rankings, is telling you what you want to hear.
• Be wary of ad agencies that won’t give you access to your own Google Ads account. It should always be in your name.

How to decide in five minutes

Ask yourself two questions. How soon do you need enquiries? And what’s your monthly budget? If the answer is "now" and you have budget, start with ads and build SEO alongside. If you can wait and budget is tight, start with SEO and your Google Business Profile. Still unsure? Our article on whether a small business needs SEO has a quick self-check.