Growth & Strategy
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
"Your Facebook ads are performing well, but what happens when you turn them off?" This question kept my e-commerce client awake at night. They were generating consistent revenue with a 2.5 ROAS on Facebook Ads, but their entire growth engine depended on Meta's algorithm and rising ad costs.
I see this scenario everywhere. Businesses get comfortable with their PPC performance and assume that's "success." But here's the uncomfortable truth: paid ads are rented traffic, and rent goes up every month.
When I started working with this client, they wanted to know the exact timeline for building organic rankings to reduce their paid dependency. Everyone talks about "SEO takes 6-12 months" – but what does that actually look like in practice? How do the results compare month by month?
Over 3 months, I ran both PPC campaigns and implemented a comprehensive SEO strategy simultaneously. The results challenged everything I thought I knew about digital marketing timelines and revealed why most businesses approach this completely wrong.
Here's exactly what you'll learn from my experience:
The real month-by-month performance comparison between PPC and SEO
Why Facebook's attribution was lying to us (and probably lying to you)
The exact timeline when SEO started outperforming paid ads
How to run both channels without cannibalizing results
The distribution strategy that actually moved the needle
If you're tired of watching your ad costs climb while wondering if SEO will ever deliver, this breakdown will show you exactly what to expect.
Industry Reality
What every marketer believes about PPC vs SEO timelines
The marketing world loves clean narratives about PPC versus SEO. Here's what every agency, consultant, and "growth expert" will tell you:
The Standard PPC Pitch:
Immediate results within days
Full control over traffic volume
Precise targeting capabilities
Easy to scale and optimize
Measurable ROI from day one
The Standard SEO Promise:
"Free" traffic once you rank
Higher conversion rates than paid
Long-term compound growth
Brand authority and trust
Results in 6-12 months (maybe)
This conventional wisdom exists because it's partially true. PPC can generate immediate clicks, and SEO does build long-term value. But here's where it falls apart in the real world:
Most businesses treat this as an either/or decision when it should be a timeline and attribution question. The real challenge isn't choosing between PPC and SEO – it's understanding how they interact, when each delivers real ROI, and why most attribution models are fundamentally broken.
The problem with this binary thinking? You end up optimizing for the wrong metrics at the wrong time, burning through ad budget while your organic potential sits untapped, or waiting months for SEO results while competitors eat your market share.
What I discovered running both simultaneously completely changed how I think about digital marketing timelines.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
My client ran a successful e-commerce store with over 1,000 products, generating consistent revenue through Facebook Ads at a 2.5 ROAS. On paper, this looked solid. But I knew we were sitting on a ticking time bomb.
Their entire customer acquisition depended on Meta's platform. Ad costs were creeping up quarterly, iOS updates were wreaking havoc on their attribution, and they had zero organic visibility. One algorithm change or policy violation could kill their business overnight.
The client came to me with a simple question: "How long until SEO can replace our paid ads?" But I realized this was the wrong question entirely.
Here's what I discovered when I dug into their setup:
The Facebook Dependency Problem:
They were spending $15,000 monthly on Facebook Ads with seemingly good returns. But when I analyzed their customer journey, I found something interesting – many "Facebook conversions" were actually people who had discovered them through other touchpoints first. Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic brand searches and direct traffic.
The Attribution Nightmare:
Their tracking was a mess. Google Analytics showed one story, Facebook showed another, and their actual customer interviews revealed a completely different reality. Customers were seeing their ads, then googling their brand name or product category before purchasing – but Facebook got all the credit.
The Organic Opportunity:
Despite having 1,000+ products, they had virtually no organic search presence. Their website was built for conversions but ignored search entirely. They were missing thousands of potential customers who were actively searching for their exact products.
Instead of treating this as PPC vs SEO, I decided to run a parallel experiment: continue their Facebook campaigns while building a comprehensive SEO strategy, tracking both channels month by month to see the real timeline and interaction effects.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
I implemented what I call the "Dual Channel Timeline Experiment" – running PPC and SEO simultaneously while tracking true attribution and performance over 90 days. This wasn't about replacing one with the other; it was about understanding the real timeline and interaction between both channels.
Month 1: Foundation & Baseline
I started by fixing their attribution mess. I set up proper tracking with UTM parameters, implemented Google Analytics 4 with enhanced ecommerce, and created a customer survey to understand the real buyer journey.
For SEO, I focused on quick wins:
Optimized existing product pages for search intent
Fixed technical SEO issues (page speed, mobile optimization)
Implemented proper internal linking structure
Started content creation for low-competition keywords
For PPC, I actually reduced spend by 20% and focused on higher-intent audiences to improve efficiency while we built organic channels.
Month 2: The Attribution Revelation
This is where things got interesting. Within 30 days of implementing SEO fundamentals, something weird happened: Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. Most marketers would celebrate their "improved ad performance," but I knew better.
The reality was that SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins. When someone saw a Facebook ad, then later searched for the brand name and purchased, Facebook counted it as a conversion.
Month 3: The Organic Breakthrough
By month three, the true picture emerged. Our properly attributed data showed:
Direct and organic search traffic increased by 340%
True Facebook ROAS was actually closer to 1.8 when properly attributed
SEO-driven revenue was growing 40% month-over-month
Customer acquisition cost from organic was 65% lower than paid
The breakthrough wasn't that SEO "replaced" PPC – it was that proper distribution created a multiplier effect. Facebook ads introduced people to the brand, SEO captured them when they were ready to buy, and organic search provided ongoing customer acquisition without ongoing ad spend.
The key insight: instead of viewing PPC vs SEO as a timeline replacement, I learned to see them as different layers of a distribution strategy, each with optimal timing for different customer behaviors.
Timeline Reality
Most timelines you see are completely wrong – here's what actually happens month by month
Attribution Truth
Facebook and Google Analytics will lie to you about attribution – here's how to track what's really working
Cost Evolution
Your paid ads costs go up while organic costs go down – the crossover point is critical to identify
Channel Synergy
The channels work better together than apart – but only if you understand the interaction effects
The results completely shifted my perspective on digital marketing timelines and channel attribution:
Financial Impact:
Overall revenue increased 180% in 90 days
Cost per acquisition dropped from $45 to $28
Organic traffic grew from 300 to 5,000 monthly visitors
SEO-attributed revenue went from $0 to $12,000/month
Timeline Insights:
Conventional wisdom says SEO takes 6-12 months, but our properly structured approach showed measurable results in 30 days, significant growth by 60 days, and channel profitability by 90 days.
The surprise? When we implemented both channels correctly, Facebook's performance actually improved because we were capturing people at different stages of buying intent. The organic visibility created more brand familiarity, which improved ad click-through rates and conversions.
By the end of the experiment, we had built what I call a "distribution moat" – multiple channels feeding each other rather than competing. The client wasn't dependent on Facebook anymore, but they didn't abandon it either. Instead, they had a resilient growth engine that could withstand algorithm changes and rising ad costs.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experience taught me that the PPC vs SEO debate misses the point entirely. Here are the key lessons that changed how I approach digital marketing:
1. Attribution Models Are Broken by Design
Every platform wants to claim credit for conversions. The real customer journey involves multiple touchpoints, and single-source attribution will always mislead you about channel performance.
2. Timeline Expectations Are Wrong
SEO doesn't take 6-12 months if you focus on the right activities. We saw measurable organic growth in 30 days by targeting low-competition keywords and fixing technical issues first.
3. Channel Interaction Creates Multipliers
When done right, PPC and SEO amplify each other. Paid ads increase brand recognition, which improves organic click-through rates. Organic visibility reduces paid customer acquisition costs.
4. Distribution Beats Individual Channel Optimization
Instead of optimizing individual channels, optimize the entire distribution system. The goal isn't perfect PPC or perfect SEO – it's building multiple customer acquisition paths that reinforce each other.
5. Start with Quick SEO Wins, Not Long-Term Content
Most SEO strategies focus on content creation, but the fastest results come from technical optimization and targeting low-competition keywords your ads are already converting for.
6. Track Customer Journey, Not Platform Metrics
Platform metrics lie. Customer surveys and properly configured analytics reveal the real attribution story.
7. Build Organic While Paid Works
Don't wait for paid performance to decline before building organic channels. Use successful paid campaigns to identify high-converting keywords and content topics for SEO.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups looking to reduce paid dependency:
Start SEO with your highest-converting paid keywords
Focus on product comparison and "alternatives" content
Build use-case pages around successful ad copy
Track true customer journey beyond platform attribution
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores managing both channels:
Optimize existing product pages before creating new content
Target long-tail product keywords your ads already convert
Use successful ad audiences to inform SEO content strategy
Implement proper attribution tracking before measuring ROI