Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
OK, so here's the thing about SEA vs SEO that most people completely miss. I was having a conversation with a client last month who was burning through €3,000 monthly on Google Ads while their organic traffic was basically zero. When I asked why they weren't investing in SEO, they said: "SEA gives us immediate results."
Right, but what happens when you stop paying? Crickets.
Here's the uncomfortable truth after working with dozens of businesses: most companies are addicted to paid ads because they're afraid of the SEO waiting game. But what they don't realize is that this fear is costing them way more in the long run. I've seen businesses spend €50K on ads in a year while their competitors quietly built SEO empires that now dominate their market.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why SEA and SEO aren't competitors - they're completely different games
The real cost comparison that most businesses get wrong
My framework for deciding when to use each (hint: it's not what you think)
Why I pivoted an entire client from paid ads to SEO and 10x'd their traffic
The Channel-Product fit concept that changes everything
This isn't another "SEO vs PPC" comparison post. This is about understanding which channel actually fits your business model and why most people are optimizing for the wrong metrics.
Reality Check
The advice everyone gives about SEO vs SEA
If you've researched "SEO vs SEA" before, you've probably seen the same tired comparison everywhere. It goes something like this:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization):
"Free" organic traffic
Long-term results
Takes 6-12 months to see results
Higher click-through rates
More sustainable
SEA (Search Engine Advertising):
Immediate results
Costs money per click
Better for short-term campaigns
Easier to measure ROI
Stops working when you stop paying
Then they conclude with the classic cop-out: "The best strategy is to use both!"
This conventional wisdom exists because it sounds balanced and safe. Nobody gets fired for recommending "both." Marketing agencies love this answer because it justifies bigger budgets. SEO consultants can point to the long-term benefits while PPC managers show immediate wins.
But here's where this breaks down in the real world: most businesses don't have infinite budgets. When you're a startup with €5K monthly for marketing, "use both" isn't helpful advice. When your ecommerce store has 1000+ products but limited resources, you need to make a choice.
The real question isn't "SEO vs SEA?" It's "Which channel actually fits my business model and current situation?" And that's where most advice fails completely.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Let me tell you about a B2C e-commerce client I worked with who perfectly illustrates why the traditional advice is broken. They came to me spending €2,500 monthly on Facebook and Google Ads with a 2.5 ROAS. On paper, that looks decent, right?
But here's what the metrics didn't show: they had over 1,000 products in their catalog. Their strength wasn't in having 1-3 hero products that work great in ads - it was in variety and discovery. Think about how you actually shop online for certain categories. Sometimes you need to browse, compare, and discover the right product for your specific needs.
Facebook Ads demand quick decisions from cold traffic. You've got maybe 3 seconds to capture attention and convert. But their customers needed time to explore the full range, read reviews, compare options. The ad format was fundamentally incompatible with their shopping behavior.
So we tried the "best of both worlds" approach first. Split the budget: €1,500 for ads, €1,000 for SEO. The problem? You can't half-ass SEO. With €1,000, we could maybe optimize 10 product pages per month. At that rate, it would take 8+ years to optimize their full catalog.
Meanwhile, the ads were still burning money on quick-decision traffic that wasn't converting well. We were stuck in the middle - not enough budget to dominate either channel.
That's when I had to make a recommendation that terrified the client: "Let's kill the ads completely and go all-in on SEO." They thought I was crazy. "But we'll have zero traffic for months!" they said.
This decision wasn't based on theory - it was based on product-channel fit. Their product catalog was perfect for SEO but terrible for paid ads. The math was simple, but the execution required courage.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's exactly how we executed the transition and why it worked:
Step 1: The Channel Audit
Instead of looking at generic "SEO vs SEA pros and cons," I created a framework I call Channel-Product Fit Analysis. For their business, we mapped out:
Customer Journey Reality: Their buyers needed 3-7 touchpoints before purchasing, often researching for days or weeks
Product Complexity: 1,000+ SKUs meant infinite long-tail keyword opportunities
Purchase Intent: People searched for specific product features, not generic brand terms
Competition Analysis: Their competitors were dominating paid ads but ignoring SEO for 80% of their products
Step 2: The SEO Overhaul Strategy
With the full €2,500 monthly budget now focused on SEO, we could actually move fast:
Website revamp focused on discoverability, not just conversion
Content optimization for their extensive catalog
Strategic content creation targeting long-tail keywords
AI-powered content generation to scale across 1,000+ products
The key insight: while their competitors were bidding against each other for the same 20 high-volume keywords in ads, we were capturing the thousands of specific, lower-competition searches that their products naturally ranked for.
Step 3: Measuring the Right Metrics
Here's where most businesses screw up the SEO vs SEA comparison - they measure different things. With SEA, they track ROAS, CPC, and conversion rates. With SEO, they track rankings and organic traffic. But these don't tell the full story.
We tracked what I call "Channel Economics":
Cost per Acquisition (CPA) over 12 months - not just immediate conversion
Customer Lifetime Value by channel - organic traffic often converts better long-term
Compounding factor - how much organic traffic grows without additional spend
Channel dependency risk - what happens if we stop investing
Step 4: The Results That Changed Everything
Within 6 months, something remarkable happened. Not only did organic traffic grow significantly, but we discovered something about attribution that most businesses miss: SEO was actually driving some of the "direct" traffic and "email" conversions they previously thought were from other sources.
People would find them organically, bookmark the site, return later, and complete purchase through direct navigation or email remarketing. The real impact of SEO was much bigger than the analytics showed.
Channel Fit
Focus on which channel matches your customer's buying journey, not which one is "better"
Traffic Quality
SEO brings visitors who are actively searching for what you offer - higher intent than interruption-based ads
Budget Reality
With limited resources, dominating one channel beats being mediocre at two
Attribution Mystery
SEO often drives "dark traffic" that gets credited to other channels - track the full customer journey
The results spoke for themselves, but not in the way most case studies present them. Instead of just showing traffic growth, let me break down the real economics:
Financial Impact:
Went from spending €2,500/month with 2.5 ROAS to €0 ad spend with growing organic revenue
Organic traffic became their primary revenue driver within 8 months
Customer acquisition cost dropped by 60% when measured over 12 months
Most importantly: revenue wasn't dependent on continuous ad spend anymore
The Unexpected Discovery:
What surprised us most was the attribution revelation. Before the switch, their analytics showed a decent amount of "direct" traffic and email conversions. After going SEO-focused, we realized much of that was actually SEO-driven behavior - people discovering them organically, then returning later through bookmarks or email.
This is why the SEO vs SEA debate is usually measured wrong. Paid ads get perfect attribution tracking, while SEO influence often hides in other channels. The real impact was 40% higher than what Google Analytics initially showed.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After running this experiment and working with dozens of other businesses on channel selection, here are the key lessons:
1. Product-Channel Fit Trumps Everything
Don't choose based on what's trendy or what your competitors do. Match your channel to how your customers actually buy. Complex products with long research phases? SEO wins. Impulse purchases with clear value props? Paid ads work.
2. "Both" Often Means Neither
Unless you have serious budget, trying to do both SEO and SEA usually results in mediocre performance in both. Better to dominate one channel first.
3. Attribution is Broken
Paid ads get perfect attribution. SEO influence is often hidden in "direct," "email," and "social" traffic. Most businesses underestimate SEO's true impact.
4. The Timing Trap
Everyone focuses on "immediate results" vs "long-term results." But the real question is: what's the total cost of customer acquisition over 24 months? SEO often wins this calculation.
5. Channel Dependency is Risk
Relying entirely on paid ads means your traffic dies the moment you stop paying. Building organic channels creates sustainable growth, but requires patience and consistent investment.
6. Most Comparisons are Bullshit
Generic "SEO vs PPC" advice ignores business context entirely. The right answer depends on your product, market, customers, budget, and timeline.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS Startups:
Start with SEO if you have a complex product that requires education
Use content marketing to build authority while SEO grows
Track assisted conversions, not just last-click attribution
Focus on problem-solution fit keywords over brand terms
For your Ecommerce store
For E-commerce Stores:
Large catalogs (500+ products) favor SEO over paid ads
Use programmatic SEO to scale content across product lines
Track customer lifetime value by channel, not just immediate ROAS
Consider seasonal budget shifts rather than constant ad spend