G ads vs SEO
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[00:00:00] Hi everyone. I'm Pip from Seymour Digital Media. You're listening to KnowHow Marketing Lab podcast. This podcast brings together different experts in marketing from our Facebook groups, cyber punk geeks, marketing mixer. Each week we get on here and we talk [00:00:20] about something search marketing like Google ads or seo, Social media marketing, from Facebook to TikTok or website marketing. If you're a marketer or aspiring marketer, a business owner or entrepreneur, this podcast is for you. We're gonna share the best seo, search, social, and website strategies. We [00:00:40] share tips and hacks, Google ad strategies, what's going on in the current market.
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Okay, so today we're gonna be talking about Google Ads versus seo. Which one should you learn first? And so this is one that we kinda get a [00:01:00] lot, especially with students who are trying to figure out cuz we offer teaching people both.
So we thought we'd run down what what are the things to think about when we're trying to decide these things. I would say, They're both hard to learn. Yeah. So if you gotta invest your time, I think that the, it's, you gotta figure out [00:01:20] where you are. And so to me, that's where it comes in when you trying to look at your time versus how much money you have.
Cuz I think that'll really help with deciding it. Also if you're a marketer, like where do you wanna be in marketing first? Is it like, are we a business owner or a marketer making the decision? That's gonna be a big one. Yes, time and money is [00:01:40] probably essential, but if I'm a marketer, I have to decide what type am I, am I interested in ads or am I interested in seo? Yeah. So I yeah, definitely time and money and it like as a, also as a part of interest. Are you willing to spend that time and money in those things cuz you think that you find them interesting? [00:02:00] Cuz you are gonna need to have some sort of intrinsic a value that you find in it that you want to keep pushing? Cuz there's gonna be a lot of days where it sucks and you wanna give up and throw in the towel. But if I'm a business owner, if I wanna show up right away I do Google ads first. I guess this is more about learning it. So as a business owner I might not have the time to learn it.
[00:02:20] Yeah. But I'd probably go and set up a Google Ads campaign thinking I could, cuz I'm a small business owner and I need to do it all myself. And I'm probably smart enough to do it all myself. Yeah, exactly. And then you get led down the Primroses path to a smart campaign, which will provide you with probably a failure.
Yes. , zero results and a lot of money spent. Sorry, we're [00:02:40] talking about learning it and let's be in the position of being a marketer. Time or money? Yeah. So it's definitely, yeah the time or the money. If you've got more money than time, then ads are gonna be a quick way to get a fast turnaround, fast result.
If you're gonna, if we're learning them. If you have money, [00:03:00] buy a good course. Yeah. That's, if you have time, spend your time on YouTube, right? Yeah. And I think. Start off maybe learning both because maybe you'll get pulled one way to the other. They both help each other. Yeah. They are separate and distinct algorithms just to, Yeah.
So they're not the same, but [00:03:20] you can learn different tactics from each one that will help you. With the other. Yeah, exactly. Cuz you can also test out things that your ad copy can later on help your SEO with your meta description writing and everything. And you get to test it more frequently with the ads because you're just showing up for lots of different results.
And so that way you can, they do [00:03:40] feed each other and are helpful to each other. They also, that I would say, The SEO is ultimately your long term where you should be focusing your efforts in the long run, because, so is that where you're gonna focus your efforts first on learning first? We do generally teach SEO and then Google ads.
Yes. And then, yeah, [00:04:00] so we generally teach them in tandem. So you're doing both at the same time? Yeah, you could. It's a, it's search. So search marketing, if you're interested in search marketing. I don't know. I started out with Google ads and then chose to learn SEO.
Yeah. that's true. And yeah, I'd say that it's definitely one [00:04:20] you will find a lot of overlap between them and a lot of some marketers would disagree. The somewhat disagree. Yeah. But I find that there's, they're more similar than they are dissimilar. SEO doesn't work on an auction. It does to some extent cuz it is you gotta, But you're not paying cash dollar bills. No. You're paying in time. Yeah. It, unless you're [00:04:40] paying an agency and then you're paying in time.
Yeah. and yeah, that's definitely one to keep in mind. Also, one other thing is going off of the, SEO is gonna be long term viable because inherently, like you just said, you're not paying for the clicks, whereas with the ads, you're, you are paying for the clicks and the [00:05:00] cost will go up over time.
It's just a a fact. Yeah. Well, I mean it about learning it. , I think it's about what interests you first. Yeah, the kind of circling back to where we started with this, but then some people would if they're gonna, when they're comparing what they're gonna learn, they're gonna either pick social or search.
Isn't that what we did? So then [00:05:20] does it get more granular? We have not stopped learning both. Yeah. And I did learn Google ads first, but then I learned seo and then Yeah. So we switched. Yeah. We had, we were definitely in the category of, got pulled into doing both and the only reason why I focus on what [00:05:40] the long term goal is as well is because you need to know where you're gonna end up and what are the consequences that if you spend all this time and effort learning one path and then you find out, Oh, this is incredibly expensive and I should have focused on seo, that like before you spend all this effort learning. Yeah I you're not necessarily gonna spend your own dollars unless you're taking a [00:06:00] course, right?
No, but you do wanna test it. So you need to be spending it on your clients your clients' money. Yeah. And then would they know that you're learning it at the same. Probably not. But also the flip side of it is very few people are like going I have learned everything about SEO [00:06:20] and Google ads.
Either one of those, no one's saying I've mastered it. That was one of the best lines I heard from a Google Ads rep. The I've worked here three years and I'm still learning something new every day and yeah, I'm still. I'm not the best for sure in that I could do way better. Maybe those people that just focus on Google ads are the best because that's all [00:06:40] they're focused on all the time where we are focused on SEO and Google Ads. Yeah, but maybe they don't know what I know though.
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I think that also it takes a bit of humility to like realize that, oh, this is a thing that like is a full-time job. It's not, a flippy that you're just gonna join [00:07:20] into. And then in six months I'm gonna be like the best ever at it. You, I think that's the big thing with us teaching that people don't realize they're learning two full careers.
Yeah. That people have been doing this. SEO's been around since before Google and Google Ads was like 2004, 2005, right? I started working at a Google Ads company in [00:07:40] 2010. Yeah, exactly. So and so that's 12 years later. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, So it's very different now. Very different. It's very different, but it's like a lot of the principles still remain the same.
Yeah. I we're gonna do another podcast about, the fundamentals of Google Ads. Yeah. And yeah a couple [00:08:00] components that are, that still stay the same. Yeah. So however, but they are both ever changing. If you're a marketer, you know that it, you have to be paying attention to a platform.
So you have to be interested in the content. Yeah. And if you're doing Google ads and then you hate going into Google [00:08:20] ads every day, or you get anxiety every day, you, that might happen for the first year or two. But then it gets easier. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So I guess, yeah, just putting like a final thought on this cuz we're, we've covered all what we were gonna cover with the notes.
So I guess the, We had notes. Yeah, [00:08:40] we had notes. Is that ultimately it's something you've gotta pick it where you're interested in it and spending some time on YouTube to get a feel for what people are learning, how they teach it. Do you like what it is that you're getting out of, those education because you're gonna be spending a lot of time learning from a lot of people online. Yeah. And if you're really interested, like in YouTube, it's [00:09:00] gonna be a stop, Follow the directions. Yeah. And there's a couple really good players out there that are great for learning Google Ads, which are surfside, ppc.
We love them. Yeah. And I like the, the PPC experts. That Jason Rothman and Oh, the paid search podcast, name dropping. Yeah. Yeah. , but [00:09:20] they're good resources. If you wanna listen to more in depth about Google ads, for seo, there's a lot. We'll get into that another day. Yeah. There's throw a rock and you can hit a really good rusty brick.
Yeah. I will say though, right now, 2022. Yep. September, if you're [00:09:40] looking for a Google Ads person they're hard to find good ones. Yes. Good ones are hard to find. Yeah. And also, the other issue that you're gonna run into is like learning it is you have to also recognize that there's no real certification to this.
Yeah, you can pass your Google. That says nothing. I did a test once, remember when I logged into a website and they were like, [00:10:00] become a Google Ads expert with us and I failed. Yeah. Yeah. That was like an exam. And it was a weirdly mathematical that it was like it didn't really make a lot of sense to me.
Yes. It made a lot of sense to someone and I didn't get to work there, but that's when I went, didn't burn the boats and didn't have our own agency. That's fair. That's fair. [00:10:20] So I think, yeah. In conclusion, final thoughts? It's gonna be that, yeah, you follow what you like and if you hate it, do the other thing.
You might hate it sometimes. And, we gotta go. All right. Bye for now. Bye.[00:10:40]
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