With PPC, or pay-per-click, just like all paid marketing strategies, you can start generating visibility, driving traffic, and earning sales basically overnight.
This is not the case with eCommerce SEO services. In fact, it generally takes more than a year for SEO services to bear results.
So why would you invest in the latter?
Well, here are some good reasons.
90%(+) of Online Shoppers Specifically Ignore the Ads
How about the fact that almost all online shoppers ignore the paid ads, specifically? Some estimates suggest that 90% of online shoppers will intentionally ignore the paid ads, entirely. There’s not much you can do about that, except start generating organic results for your online store.
CTR for PPC Is About 2% on Average
Even with the best minds in the business working on it, the average click-through rate for PPC campaigns is about 2%. It’s a lot higher for organic CTR – the page one, spot one result in the SERPs gets an average CTR of somewhere around 40%.
On Average, 15% of Organic Leads Result in a Close
Plenty of PPC leads fizzle out even if you get a click, which is unfortunate, considering that you still have to pay for that click. Leads that originate organically have a very high close rate, somewhere around 15%, on average, for all eCommerce websites, especially with proper keyword research and targeting.
Digital Marketing Experts Agree That eCommerce SEO Services Offer the Better Return
It’s not really possible to come up with a blanket average ROI for eCommerce SEO services, but even in 2025, with AI and social media taking over digital marketing, most eCommerce SEO experts agree that SEO offers the highest ROI of all digital marketing channels.
SEO Results Are Yours to Keep, PPC Results Are Not
The one good thing about PPC is that you can open an AdWords account and get a campaign going in like a half hour. When done right, you’ll get more visibility for your website practically overnight.
The problem is when you halt the campaign, that visibility will also halt, immediately. There’s nothing gained in the long-term with PPC.
With eCommerce SEO strategies, that is not the case. Search engine optimization results may take a long time to build up a head of steam, but once you start to climb the search engine results pages, those results are yours to keep, and your domain authority and overall visibility will continue to grow over time.
This is often the case even after you stop paying for eCommerce SEO services.
SEO Efforts Benefit PPC
While most online shoppers will scroll past the paid ads, there’s a higher chance of that same domain getting a click if they also show up in the organic search engine results. This may be due to the recency effect but even if not, seeing a website twice on the same page does quantitatively and measurably improve the odds that it will receive a click since you get more overall online visibility.
The Bottom Line: It’s Not One or the Other
The other thing about eCommerce SEO services and pay-per-click marketing is that you don’t need to just invest in one or the other. Both of them can work together to improve your website’s visibility, authority, and profitability. And, the best part? Many agencies and other providers that specialize in SEO also offer supporting PPC.
Getting Started with Data Driven eCommerce SEO Services
If it’s one or the other, go with SEO and be ready to stick with it for the long run. If you’re interested in the relative strengths of both channels, find yourself an agency that offers both SEO and PPC marketing services and work with them. That way you’ll be getting the short-term gains of PPC joined to the long-term ROI of SEO.
