Ask a lot of SEO agencies and they’ll tell you that SEO is far more cost effective than PPC in getting qualified customers to your site. Why pay for clicks when you can get that traffic for “free”?

Ask a lot of PPC agencies and they’ll tell you that PPC is far more cost effective than SEO in getting customers to your site. Why spend your limited marketing budget chasing elusive search engine algorithms when you can much better control your visibility and ad creative?

Unfortunately, what both arguments ignore is the important revenue side of the debate – which visitors are likely to convert at a higher rate and spend more when they reach your site – visitors that clicked on an organic listing or a paid listing?

We just completed a 2 year study looking at the value per visitor based on traffic source:

1. Organic listing
2. Paid listing
3. Direct access/bookmark
4. Other referrers

You really need to read the study to grab the full story, but in summary, the average value per visitor when arriving from a paid listing is $1.95 versus $1.35 for visitors from an organic listing.

Of particular note, though is the value of visitors who arrive via a bookmark or by typing the URL into the address bar -> $5.89. Since the only way a visitor could arrive via bookmark is from a previous visit to your site, a primary reason supporting these findings is that any of these visitors in the direct access/bookmark category have visited the site previously, and were probably familiar with the company’s product or service offerings.

These results reinforce the importance of providing reasons to compel your visitors to return often to your site.

Download the study here.

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