Facebook Ads vs SEO: Which Is Better For Small Businesses?
The right solution depends on the specific factors of the business doing the marketing. A local business is likely to find SEO highly effective while an E-commerce brand will probably get more value from Facebook Ads. Often, a combination of both online marketing strategies provides the best solution.
I’ve been a digital marketer for over three years now, using tactics like SEO and Facebook Ads to make money online. I use SEO to generate and sell leads to local business owners. I’ve used Facebook Ads to generate $48K for the client in one month from dropshipping. I compare these two popular digital marketing channels in this article so you can decide which is optimal for your situation.
Facebook Ads vs SEO: Cost
Facebook Ads cost hundreds of dollars a month on average while SEO costs thousands of dollars a month on average.
Facebook ads cost approximately $0.70 per click, according to Shopify. Data from leading digital marketing agency WebFX finds that advertisers spend $100 - $500/month on average for Facebook Ads. Facebook Ad costs can vary substantially. The cost depends on factors like competition, geographic location, and the budget and bidding parameters set up.
One entrepreneur on Reddit mentions starting with a Facebook Ads budget of just $13/day. They have since scaled their business to $250 - $380/day during high season. They note that it took them about a year of fine tuning their campaigns to generate consistent profits from Facebook Ads.
SEO costs $2,917 per month on average, according to an Ahrefs poll of 439 SEO service providers. Although SEO costs range from $250 to $10,000 per month, the majority 63% of businesses spend between $500 and $5,000. Local SEO is most affordable, costing $1,557 per month on average.
One local SEO service provider on Reddit notes that their minimum monthly retainer starts at $900/month. They typically charge $1,400, with prices varying depending on the client's niche.
Facebook Ads vs SEO: Urgency
Facebook Ads work immediately while SEO takes 3 months to over a year.
Once a Facebook Ad is set live, it starts getting displayed in front of relevant Facebook users. These users can click on it and take action on the offer. However, it’s important to note that Facebook Ads aren’t likely to generate optimal results right away. That’s because the Meta Pixel (previously Facebook Pixel) needs time to collect data and adjust the campaign targeting. The Meta Pixel is a piece of code that goes onto your website and allows you to collect user data for marketing.
According to Facebook Ads service Save My Leads, a Facebook Ads campaign has 3 distinct phases.
- Learning phase - The initial phase of a Facebook Ad campaign lasts 1 - 3 days. In this first phase, the Facebook algorithm is learning from the data collected with the Meta Pixel and optimizing ad delivery.
- Optimization phase - Lasts 1 - 2 weeks. Here advertisers have access to better data to make adjustments to the Facebook campaign.
- Stabilization phase - At around 3+ weeks, the Facebook Ads are fully optimized and should generate consistent marketing results.
SEO results typically take 3 - 6 months for local campaigns and 6 - 12+ for national and international campaigns. SEO requires more time because of Google’s complicated search algorithm. Google’s search algorithm needs to analyze a website’s performance over a period of time before it feels comfortable giving it visibility in the Google search engine. Google prefers to rank websites that see a consistent increase in backlinks and quality content published.
Facebook Ads vs SEO: Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Facebook Ads have an average CTR of 0.90% while SEO can achieve a CTR of 27.6%.
Facebook Ads have an average CTR of just 0.90%, according to a survey of businesses running FB Ads by Wordstream.
Organic Google results have a much higher click through rate. A study of over 4 million search results by Backlinko found that the first organic result on Google has an average CTR of 27.6%. The 10th and organic result on Google has the lowest CTR on the first page. It still demonstrates a CTR of 2.4%, which is higher than the average Facebook Ad CTR.
Is SEO better than Facebook Ads for small businesses?
SEO is better than Facebook Ads for small businesses. However, this is mostly true for local businesses. That’s because local SEO is much cheaper and faster than national or international SEO campaigns. Local SEO can provide small businesses with a long-term marketing channel that generates a solid ROI.
Facebook Ads are typically more effective for Ecommerce businesses than SEO. That’s because Ecommerce businesses don’t have a local identifier that lessens the competition in search engine rankings. As such, paying for effective SEO has a high cost for most Ecommerce businesses. Small Ecommerce businesses on a tight budget are usually better off paying for PPC ads like Facebook Ads rather than investing into SEO.
Overall, PPC (Facebook or Google ads) and SEO working together is a good solution because it allows a business to experience immediate results with PPC ads. At the same time, it creates a more efficient marketing channel long-term with SEO. When doing this for local businesses, I prefer to use Google Ads over Facebook Ads because the purchase intent is higher for Google searches as users are looking to buy when they search with Google.
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