Offline Local Business: SEO vs. PPC?

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What is better for getting new clients for offline local business? I have relied on SEO for the last 3 years and for 2 of them had the number 1 spot for all of my keywords. This worked well. Recently got a penalty and now sit at 5-7 and am at the point at wondering if I should just throw in the towel with SEO and go strictly PPC. All of the updates are making everything so unstable.

Would PPC(adwords) get the same amount of clients as say top 3 organic search? Anyone have any insight or experience themsleves in this situation? Should I break the bank and do both?
#offline marketing #business #local #offline #ppc #seo
  • I would suggest doing both. With using PPC, make sure you have a great landing page and sales funnel. PPC can get expensive if your not converting ads.




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  • I'm in the exact situation as you. For the last 18 months it was pure and pure SEO but I'm not comfortable anymore with the Google updates. Don't pack in the SEO, just transition more to online marketing and offer all. This is where your client management skills come into play. Assign a budget to PPC and get guarantee clicks. All depends how much the CPC is and what you were currently getting in visits via organics. But offer both to cover your ass.
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  • The important thing is to ensure that you fully understand what your target market does and how to reach them. Both SEO and PPC are useless if your website doesn't draw people, so the key thing is to think about how you can help, who you need to reach and what you would say to them. I find LinkedIn extremely effective and a lot cheaper than both PPC and SEO.
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  • What makes you think you've got a penalty?
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  • Use exact match keywords that can provide you relevant visitor.
  • I'm in the actual scenario as you. For the last 18 several weeks it was genuine SEO but I'm not relaxed any longer with the Search engines up-dates.
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    • Switch to YouTube videos, then rank them on the first page of Google!
  • It's difficult. While budgets may be "large" your commission will be small, as the going rate of 10-15% for management is good if you are handling volume, i.e. hundreds of clients, but if you are managing dozens you'll need the SEO budget as it provides higher margins so you can get results and earn a living.

    PPC is more scalable, but it's a different animal. You need larger volumes and larger budget clients to make it work for your company. SEO requires constant innovation, software, or a team behind you but can yield higher returns.
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    • Actually I was moving most of my business in 2013 from SEO to PPC, and specifically licensing PPC campaigns. I'll tell you that the money is much greater with licensing than what I got with SEO.

      Basically what we did was take a niche, let's call it fencing companies. They have fairly high average ticket prices $5k+. We built an entire marketing funnel in that niche. We proved the model with over $400k in ad spend. We built a top to bottom case study about how our initial client went from 4 leads a week to 3 a day. How the funnel also increased their closing ratio from 36% to 51%, and the average ticket price actually increased by 22%.

      Now I'm not charging 15% management fees. I'm not selling SEO. I'm selling a license to print money. I'm selling them the rights to use something that WILL work, is proven to work, and will produce results in about 24 hours. Instead of charging $500-1,000-2,000 a month for SEO, or 15-20% for PPC management. I'm instead charging $10k down, $5k a month or a percentage of gross plus ad spend(roughly 2 clients as downpayment, and 1 a month recurring seems to be a good rule of thumb(know your marketplace)). Plus the work is a lot easier. I don't have to worry about Google cracking down on me. I can replicate the funnel in about 3 hours of work which I outsource for around $15.

      PPC campaigns that work are highly leverageable. You just have to approach it the right way and probably most importantly to the RIGHT customers(a pizza guy isn't going to be your target market). I control the entire campaign. The PPC campaign, the website/landing page, any educational materials along the way, etc. The main benefit is you do the hard work once, and then get paid over and over again. You can't really do that with SEO, or at least I never found out how to do that.
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  • Absolutely love the information provided in this post.
    @MRomeo09 thank you for your generosity in sharing what has worked for you - many will find your advice invaluable.

    Absolutely forget about acronyms. Just forget about them. Only you understand them, none of your potential and current clients should, and if they do, then stay away from using those acronyms with them, because they probably only think they do.

    Talk to them about what their bank manager will understand - Leads, sales, systems...profits, and you will gain their attention.
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  • Amazing thread - it doesn't surprise me though, and there are some people going down the PPC route or a hybrid SEO and PPC campaign. Just one question though, which may seem a bit silly - do you use certain templates when you want to create a website for a niche or use any kind of tool? While its the keywords and actual content which matters, feel like the whole look of the website still needs to be important to keep the conversion rate up.
  • Just wanted to put my two cents in and say that this is a business that should require what your clients are in need of the most. SEO or PPC? It is a tough choice because you should know what you believe is the best for their business specifically. Are they perfect for SEO? Or does this business specifically need PPC? What would benefit them more? It is true that certain business owners really do not need PPC or one of the other....they just need that one form of marketing for them and wait for it to work for them.

    I would say that I have had clients who needed both from me, and as long as they can pay for both, it should be find.
  • Glad this thread got bumped ... MRomeo ... this is some amazing info, cheers.
  • Well this thread suddenly changes from a simple question to some serious information being shared. Will take a another good undistracted read later
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    Offline Local Business: SEO vs. PPC?

    What is better for getting new clients for offline local business? I have relied on SEO for the last 3 years and for 2 of them had the number 1 spot for all of my keywords. This worked well. Recently got a penalty and now sit at 5-7 and am at the point at wondering if I should just throw in the towel with SEO and go strictly PPC. All of the updates are making everything so unstable. Would PPC(adwords) get the same amount of clients as say top 3 organic search? Anyone have any insight or experience themsleves in this situation? Should I break the bank and do both?