The difference between SEO and PPC is the first fork a business meets when it decides to hire an agency, because the two are sold by different agencies on different retainers and judged on different clocks. This page explains it from the buying side: what is paid search marketing and what is PPC management as a service, how SEO vs paid search compares on cost, time to results and what the business keeps when the retainer ends, and what the difference between PPC and SEO means for the brief. The free in-house versus agency worksheet on this site sizes the retainer against a hire; Retainvia Pro keeps the brief, the shortlist and the scorecard for $49 a month.
What is paid search marketing, and what is PPC management
Paid search marketing is buying a place on the results page for a query, paid per click, with the ad off the moment the budget stops. PPC management is the service of choosing the queries, writing the ads, setting the bids and reporting, and an agency sells it as a retainer that sits on top of the media budget the business pays the platform directly. When a business briefs a PPC agency it is buying that management time and skill; the clicks themselves are a separate line it should always see separately on the invoice.
SEO vs paid search: cost, time, and what you keep
SEO is earning the unpaid place on the same page, and an agency sells it as a retainer for the content, the technical work and the links, with results that build over months and remain after the retainer ends. Paid search produces traffic the week it starts and none the week it stops. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics handbook cited below puts the median pay of a marketing manager at $165,780 a year, which is the in-house alternative to either retainer and the figure the free worksheet on this site compares against.
The difference between PPC and SEO in the brief
A PPC brief states the media budget, the target cost per lead and the queries that matter; a scorecard for a PPC agency reads cost per lead against that target monthly. An SEO brief states the pages and queries the business wants to own and the months it will wait; its scorecard reads rankings and organic leads quarterly. Many businesses retain both from one agency and should still brief and score them separately. Retainvia Pro keeps both briefs, the shortlist and the scorecards in one retainer record for $49 a month.
Questions people ask about difference between seo and ppc
Should a small business start with SEO or PPC?
PPC if it needs leads this month and has a media budget; SEO if it can wait for owned traffic. Most start with PPC and add SEO once the cost per lead is known.
Is PPC management the same as the ad spend?
No. Management is the agency's retainer; the spend goes to the platform. Insist on seeing them as separate lines.
How long before SEO shows results?
Months rather than weeks; brief for a quarter-by-quarter scorecard and judge the agency on the trend.
Does Retainvia run ads or SEO?
No. It keeps the brief, the shortlist, the scorecard and the retainer record for whichever agency the business hires.