Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I was managing Facebook Ads for a B2C e-commerce client with over 1,000 products. The ROAS looked decent on paper—2.5x with a €50 average order value. Most marketers would call that acceptable performance.
But here's what the dashboards didn't show: the fundamental mismatch between their product catalog complexity and Facebook's quick-decision advertising environment. While successful Facebook campaigns thrive on 1-3 flagship products, my client's strength was their variety. Customers needed time to browse, compare, and discover.
This experience taught me that the Facebook Ads vs SEO debate isn't about which channel is "better"—it's about product-channel fit. Most businesses choose based on what they've heard works, not what actually works for their specific situation.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why product-channel fit matters more than ROAS
The hidden costs of Facebook Ads that dashboards don't track
When SEO becomes your most profitable channel (even with "slower" results)
My framework for choosing between paid and organic strategies
Real metrics from client pivots that transformed their businesses
Ready to stop throwing money at the wrong channel? Let's dive into what the industry won't tell you about this choice.
Marketing Reality
What every business owner believes about ads vs SEO
Walk into any marketing conference, and you'll hear the same tired debate. On one side, you have the "paid ads champions" preaching speed and control. On the other, the "SEO purists" talking about long-term value and "free" traffic.
Here's what the paid ads crowd typically says:
"Facebook Ads give you immediate results and precise targeting"
"You can test and iterate quickly with paid campaigns"
"Paid ads are predictable and scalable"
"You have full control over your traffic"
The SEO evangelists counter with:
"SEO provides sustainable, long-term growth"
"Organic traffic is 'free' once you rank"
"SEO builds brand authority and trust"
"Organic traffic converts better than paid"
Both sides have merit, but they're missing the crucial point: your product and business model determine which channel will actually work, not industry benchmarks or case studies from companies nothing like yours.
The conventional wisdom treats this as a binary choice—you're either a "paid ads business" or an "SEO business." This thinking leads to wasted budgets, missed opportunities, and the wrong channel getting blamed for poor results.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I first started working with that e-commerce client, I followed the playbook every Facebook Ads expert recommends. The store had great products, decent margins, and over 1,000 SKUs across multiple categories. On paper, it looked like a perfect fit for social commerce.
Here's what I tried first: Dynamic product ads, lookalike audiences based on their best customers, retargeting campaigns for cart abandoners, and interest-based targeting for cold traffic. The setup was textbook perfect.
The results? Frustrating. We'd get clicks and traffic, but the conversion rates were mediocre. Customers would land on product pages, browse around, then leave. The few who converted were buying low-margin items, not the premium products that made the business profitable.
I spent weeks optimizing ad creative, testing different audiences, and adjusting bidding strategies. Every Facebook Ads "guru" would have said we needed better creative or more precise targeting. But I started noticing something in the analytics that changed everything.
The customers who did convert weren't making quick decisions. They were visiting multiple times, comparing products, reading reviews, and often researching alternatives before purchasing. Facebook's quick-decision environment was fundamentally incompatible with how their customers actually bought.
Meanwhile, I noticed their organic traffic—what little they had—was converting at nearly double the rate. These visitors were spending more time on site, viewing more pages, and buying higher-value items. They weren't impulse buyers; they were informed buyers who had time to appreciate the product variety.
That's when I realized we were forcing a square peg into a round hole. The problem wasn't our Facebook Ads execution—it was using Facebook Ads at all for this type of business model.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
The turning point came when I proposed something that made my client nervous: pause all Facebook Ads spend for three months and redirect that budget into a comprehensive SEO overhaul.
"But we'll lose all our traffic!" they protested. I explained that we weren't losing traffic—we were losing expensive, low-converting visitors who weren't actually growing their business.
Phase 1: The SEO Foundation (Month 1)
First, I conducted a complete site audit. The technical issues were fixable but significant: slow loading times, poor mobile experience, and a structure that made it hard for both users and search engines to find products. We rebuilt the site architecture around how people actually search for their products, not how the company organized their inventory.
Phase 2: Content That Matches Search Intent (Month 2)
Instead of creating "viral" content for social media, we focused on content that answered real customer questions. We built comprehensive buying guides, comparison pages, and detailed product categories that helped visitors understand their options. Each page was designed for discovery, not quick conversion.
Phase 3: Long-Tail Keyword Strategy (Month 3)
We targeted hundreds of specific, low-competition keywords that their variety of products could rank for. Instead of competing for broad terms like "electronics," we went after "wireless noise-cancelling headphones under €200" and similar specific searches where their extensive catalog became an advantage, not a liability.
The magic happened around month 4. Organic traffic started bringing customers who were ready to buy, not just browse. These weren't people scrolling through Facebook who got distracted by an ad—they were people actively searching for solutions to specific problems.
More importantly, the economics completely changed. Our cost per acquisition through SEO was essentially zero after the initial investment, while Facebook Ads required constant spending to maintain traffic levels.
Channel Physics
Facebook demands instant decisions; SEO rewards patient discovery. Your product determines which physics work better.
Economics Reality
SEO costs are front-loaded investment; Facebook Ads are ongoing operational expenses that scale with growth.
Product Fit
Complex catalogs need browsing time; simple offerings work with quick-decision ad formats.
Attribution Truth
Facebook claims credit for organic wins; SEO often drives "direct" conversions that ads take credit for.
The numbers told the real story of this pivot:
Within six months of stopping Facebook Ads and focusing on SEO, organic traffic increased by 400%. But more importantly, the quality of that traffic was fundamentally different. Conversion rates jumped from 1.2% (Facebook traffic) to 3.8% (organic traffic), and average order value increased by 45%.
The economic impact was dramatic. Facebook Ads required €3,000 monthly spend to maintain €7,500 in revenue (2.5x ROAS). The SEO strategy cost €8,000 upfront for the site overhaul and content creation, then generated €15,000+ monthly revenue with no ongoing ad spend.
But here's the kicker: Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for 60% of those organic conversions through view-through attribution. When we turned off ads, we discovered that many "Facebook conversions" were actually customers who saw an ad, then researched and bought through organic channels later.
The timeline was exactly as expected—SEO took 4-6 months to show significant results, while Facebook Ads showed results immediately. But when we calculated true lifetime value and customer acquisition costs, SEO delivered 10x better unit economics for this business model.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experience taught me five critical lessons that most marketers learn the hard way:
Attribution lies, especially for complex purchase journeys. Facebook's dashboard will claim credit for conversions that happen days or weeks after an ad view, even if the customer found you organically.
Channel physics matter more than execution quality. Perfect Facebook Ads can't fix a fundamental mismatch between your product and the channel's decision-making environment.
"Free" SEO traffic isn't free, but it scales differently. SEO requires upfront investment and patience, but becomes increasingly profitable over time. Paid ads require ongoing investment that scales with your growth.
Complex catalogs need discovery time, not decision pressure. If your customers need to compare, research, or understand options, organic channels often outperform paid channels dramatically.
Most businesses optimize for the wrong metrics. ROAS and CPC don't matter if you're acquiring customers who don't fit your business model or provide long-term value.
The biggest insight? Stop asking "Should I do Facebook Ads or SEO?" Start asking "Which channel physics match my customer's buying journey?" The answer will save you months of frustration and thousands in wasted ad spend.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, consider SEO when:
Your product requires explanation or education
Customers research extensively before subscribing
You have complex feature sets or use cases
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, prioritize SEO when:
You have large, varied product catalogs
Customers need to compare options or specifications
Your products require research or education