We recently started working with a company that asked us to start by optimizing their Google Adwords campaign. This made sense since almost all of their sales were coming from Adwords. However we recommended that we work on SEO as well. We saw a great opportunity for them.

Bottom line is that their Google Adwords sales increased, but more surprisingly to them, their SEO sales increased even more. After working with them for just 3 months, SEO sales are 37% more than their Adwords sales.

Our experience shows that companies typically under spend on SEO. A recent Forrester Research study shows that in 2009, PPC spend was more than 5 times the SEO spend. This same study shows almost no change in the relationship for the next 5 years.

PPC spend is 5x more than SEO spend in 2009. Source: Forrester Research’s Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009-2014

Why do people spend more on PPC than SEO?

• PPC is more predictable than SEO
• SEO is riskier
• PPC is easier to do than SEO
• You get results faster with PPC

The truth is that both PPC and SEO have their place but make sure you are putting enough resources into your SEO campaign.