The short answer
If you need enquiries this month, start with Google Ads, and start on SEO alongside it as soon as you can. If you can wait six months or more and money is tight, start with SEO and the basics of your website. If you're in a crowded market where clicks are expensive, you'll probably need both, and the real question is the balance between them.
That's the headline. The rest of this article explains the reasoning, so you can decide for your own business rather than taking a rule of thumb on trust.
How the two actually differ
Google Ads is renting visibility. You pay for each click, your ads can be live within hours, and when you stop paying they disappear. You can target particular searches, places and times of day, and you can measure the results closely.
SEO is building visibility you own. You invest in your website, content and reputation so you appear in the unpaid results. It's slower, often months before anything meaningful changes, and there are no guarantees. But the results build on each other. A page that ranks well keeps bringing in visitors without a cost per click, and it now feeds the AI answers that appear above the results as well.
When to start with Google Ads
Ads are also a quick way to learn. The search terms report shows exactly what people typed before they clicked, which is invaluable when you plan your SEO later. Start with ads if:
- You need enquiries or sales soon and can't wait months
- You're launching a new service, location or product
- You want to test which offers and messages people respond to before investing in content
- Your trade is seasonal and you need to be visible at particular times
- You sell online and can track the revenue from each campaign
When to start with SEO
One point below matters more than it looks: sending paid traffic to a slow, unclear website is an expensive way to find out the website needs work. Start with SEO if:
- Budget is tight and clicks in your sector are expensive
- Your customers research carefully and read a lot before they buy
- You have expertise you can turn into genuinely useful content
- You're planning for the next two or three years, not the next quarter
- Your website has basic problems that would waste ad spend anyway
What good paid campaigns can look like
Numbers without context mean very little, so here are some with context. These are results from campaigns Brintech delivered in partnership with Media Mace, with client names withheld. Tracked return is the conversion value reported by the ad platform; where a platform didn't show return on ad spend directly, it's reported conversion value divided by spend.
- Automotive, Google Ads: £588 spend, £5.64K tracked return, 9.52x (year to date)
- Clothing, Google Ads: £6K spend, £70K tracked return, 11.6x (year to date)
- Fragrance, Meta Ads: £14K spend, £53K tracked return, 3.78x (year to date)
- Pharmacy, Google Ads: £338K spend, £1.1m tracked return, 2.8x (annual)
What those numbers do and don't tell you
Two things stand out. The multiples vary a lot, because sectors, margins and competition vary a lot. And the largest account has the lowest multiple but by far the biggest return in pounds. Chasing the highest return-on-spend figure isn't always the right goal; profitable volume often is.
Your results will depend on your market, your margins and your website. Anyone who promises you a particular return before they've looked at those is guessing.
Why most businesses end up doing both
The two feed each other. Ads data shows which searches turn into customers, so you know what content to build. SEO gradually reduces how much you depend on paid clicks, so the ad budget can go on the most profitable searches instead of everything. And appearing in both the paid and unpaid results for the same search tends to reassure people who are comparing options.
A common pattern for a small business is to start with a tightly focused ads campaign on searches with clear buying intent, fix the website so it converts, then build SEO steadily so paid spend can become more selective over time.
Mistakes that waste money on either
Most wasted budget comes from a short list of avoidable mistakes:
- Sending ad clicks to the homepage instead of a page that matches the search
- Using broad match keywords with no negative keywords, and paying for irrelevant searches
- Not tracking enquiries and calls properly, so nobody knows what's working
- Buying cheap SEO packages that promise page one
- Judging SEO after six weeks, or running ads for years without reviewing the search terms
How much should a small business spend on Google Ads?
Enough to get meaningful data in a reasonable time. That depends on the cost per click in your sector and how many clicks it takes to win a customer. Start with a budget you can sustain for at least a couple of months on your most commercial searches, then increase it where the numbers justify it.
How long does SEO take to work?
Usually months. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says it typically takes four months to a year to put improvements in place and start seeing the benefit. Fixing technical problems can show results sooner. Anyone guaranteeing rankings by a date is overpromising.
Does Google Ads help SEO?
Not directly. Paying for ads doesn't improve your unpaid rankings. Indirectly it helps a great deal, because ads data shows which searches bring in customers, and that tells you what content to build.
Not sure whether to start with ads or SEO?
We'll look at your market, your website and your goals, and tell you where your first pound is best spent, even if the answer is neither yet. It's a free, no-pressure consultation, and we never chase you afterwards.
