The short answer
Choose Google Ads first if you need enquiries soon, your margin per job can carry a cost per enquiry, and you can follow up fast. Choose SEO first if you can wait a few months and want visibility that does not stop the day you stop paying. Many service businesses end up with both: ads for immediate demand, SEO for durable demand.
How they differ
| Factor | SEO | Google Ads (Search) |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Months | Days, once tracking and campaigns are ready |
| Cost model | Work on the site; no cost per click | You pay for each click, plus management |
| When you stop | Visibility fades slowly | Visibility stops immediately |
| Control | Indirect; Google decides rankings | Direct control of keywords, budget and ads |
| Best signal | Organic enquiries over time | Cost per qualified enquiry |
Scenario A: an emergency plumber (hypothetical)
Assume an average job value of £180, a gross margin of 50% (£90), and that the owner can answer enquiries within an hour during working days. Suppose the owner's own research suggests clicks cost around £3 and one in ten clicks becomes an enquiry: £30 per enquiry. If one in two enquiries becomes a job, that is £60 of ad cost per job, leaving £30 of margin before management fees. That is thin, so the campaign must be tightly targeted and the follow-up fast. Ads can work here, but only with discipline; SEO for the main services and the Business Profile is a strong parallel investment.
Scenario B: a B2B consultancy (hypothetical)
Assume a first project worth £4,000 with a 60% margin, and a sales cycle of several weeks. Even if an enquiry costs £120 through ads and only one in five becomes a client, the margin carries it. But the buyer researches carefully, so the website needs proof and answer content before ads can convert. Here, a short SEO and content foundation followed by a narrow ads campaign is often the better order.
Both scenarios use made-up figures to show the method. Your real click costs and conversion rates can only come from your own market and data.
A simple decision path
- Can you follow up within hours? If not, fix that before spending on ads.
- Does your margin per job carry a realistic cost per enquiry? If not, ads will lose money; start with SEO.
- Do you need enquiries this month? If yes, and the first two answers are yes, start a narrow ads campaign.
- Is your website ready? If the page an ad would send people to is weak, fix the page first: it helps both channels.
Using both together
Search terms from your ads account show which searches turn into enquiries. That is useful evidence for which pages SEO should prioritise. In the other direction, strong service pages built for SEO make better landing pages for ads. The two channels share the same foundation: a clear page per service, tracking and fast follow-up.
What each costs with us
SEO is £199 a month with a 3-month minimum. Google Ads management is £229 a month plus a £149 one-off setup, with no minimum term; ad spend is separate and paid directly to Google.
Your next step
Put your own numbers into the paid-search budget planner. Then read how to plan a Google Ads budget, or compare the SEO and Google Ads services.