SEO vs Google Ads: which should a small business do first?

Start with Google Ads if you need enquiries in the next few weeks and the profit from one job comfortably covers the clicks it takes to win it. Start with SEO if clicks in your trade cost more than a customer is worth to you, or if you can wait months for results. In both cases, set up Search Console, Google’s free tool for monitoring how your site appears in Google Search, and, if customers visit you or you go to them, a Google Business Profile, the listing Google uses for local results in Search and Maps.

What is the difference between SEO and Google Ads

SEO, short for search engine optimisation, is helping search engines understand your content so your pages appear in the unpaid results. Google Ads shows a paid advert alongside those results, and you usually pay only when someone clicks.

Google says it costs nothing to appear in its organic search results. SEO costs time instead, either yours or that of someone you pay.

With cost per click (CPC) bidding you set a maximum you are willing to pay, and the actual charge is often lower. Where your advert appears depends on Ad Rank, whose factors include your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, and the context of each search.

How long do SEO and Google Ads take to work

Google Ads can send visitors as soon as your ads pass review, and Google says most ads are reviewed within one business day. The visitors stop when you stop paying. SEO is slower. Google’s own guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others can take several months.

The speed gap is the main reason to start with Google Ads. A new bakery in Norwich with a fresh website will not rank for “birthday cakes Norwich” next week. An advert can appear for that search as soon as the campaign is running.

How much does Google Ads cost for a small business

There is no set price. You choose an average daily budget for each campaign. For most campaigns, Google may spend up to twice that figure on a single day, but will not charge more than 30.4 times it over a month.

A £20 average daily budget therefore has a monthly ceiling of £608 (£20 × 30.4).

To see what clicks cost in your trade, use Keyword Planner, a tool inside Google Ads that suggests search terms and estimates how often they are searched and what advertisers bid on them (you need to enter billing details to use it). For each search term it shows two bid estimates, defined in Google’s forecast help:

• Top of page bid (low range): roughly the 20th percentile of what advertisers have historically paid to appear at the top of the page.
• Top of page bid (high range): roughly the 80th percentile.

Set the location to your own town or region, because the estimates are based on the location you choose.

How do I work out if Google Ads will pay for itself

Work out the most you can afford per click before spending anything. The sum is:

Break-even cost per click = profit per job × share of enquiries you win × share of clicks that enquire.

Use your own figures. The numbers in the examples below are invented to show the method.

Two worked examples, a plumber and an online shop

A plumber takes £120 profit from a typical boiler repair. From past enquiries, they win about 1 in 2. They guess that 1 in 10 people who click an advert will call or fill in the form.

£120 × 0.5 × 0.1 = £6. Any click costing under £6 is, on average, profitable.

Say Keyword Planner, set to Leeds, shows a high-range top of page bid of £4 for “boiler repair Leeds”. At £4 a click, a £20 daily budget buys up to 152 clicks in a month (£608 ÷ £4). If 1 in 10 enquire, that is around 15 enquiries and 7 or 8 jobs, worth £840 to £960 in profit against at most £608 of clicks, so ads first makes sense. If you set your maximum CPC at £4, Google says you will often be charged less, so treat this as a cautious sum.

Now take an online shop selling hand-poured candles, making £8 profit per order. If 2 in 100 visitors buy (every order is a sale, so the share won is 1), the break-even click is £8 × 0.02 = 16p. If Keyword Planner shows top of page bids of around 60p for its main terms, every click loses money on average. That shop should put its effort into SEO: product pages with full descriptions, prices and delivery costs in text.

In this sum, the share of clicks that turn into enquiries is the weakest number. Set up conversion measurement, which can count calls from ads, calls to the number on your site, sign-ups and purchases, and replace the guess with real data as it builds up.

When should a small business choose Google Ads first

Choose Google Ads first when you need enquiries quickly and your break-even cost per click is above what clicks in your area cost.

• You are new, or your site does not yet rank for the searches that bring customers.
• The search is urgent and people want someone today: an emergency locksmith in Bristol, a boiler repair in January.
• You have a seasonal or short offer, such as a garden centre’s Christmas trees.
• You want to learn which searches turn into customers. The search terms report lists the searches that triggered your ads (Google leaves out very low-volume ones), so you can spot irrelevant ones and add them as negative keywords, words that stop your ad showing.

When should a small business choose SEO first

Choose SEO first when clicks are expensive compared with what a customer is worth, or when people research before they buy.

• A solicitor can publish pages that answer what clients ask before they call, such as fixed fees and timescales for conveyancing.
• A dentist filling hygienist appointments, where each visit earns little, may find in Keyword Planner that the high-range bids sit above the break-even. Good service pages and reviews then do the slower work, without a cost per click.
• For a local café or hairdresser, the map results are where to focus. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and its guidance on prominence covers how many reviews you have and how many sites link to you.

Do AI Overviews reduce clicks from Google

They can. In a US study, Pew found people clicked a traditional search result link in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when none did. In its December 2025 report on how the UK goes online, Ofcom said about 30% of searches show an AI Overview. Search your main terms in a private window to see whether one appears for them. If one does, expect fewer organic clicks than your ranking suggests and weigh that in your break-even sum.

Should I do SEO and Google Ads at the same time

Yes, if the budget allows, because ads show quickly which searches turn into enquiries, and SEO can then target those searches for clicks you do not pay for.

Here is an order an estate agent in Reading could follow:

1. Run ads on a small set of high-intent searches such as “sell my house Reading” and “valuation Reading”.
2. After a month, read the search terms report and conversion data to see which searches produced valuations.
3. Write a proper page for each of those searches, add the matching services and recent photos to your Business Profile, and ask recent sellers for reviews.
4. Watch Search Console for those pages climbing in the unpaid results, and lower ad spend on terms where you rank well.

What to do next

This week, set up or tidy Search Console and, if you serve customers in person, your Google Business Profile. Then open Keyword Planner, set your location, and look up the ten or so searches your customers are most likely to use. Work out your break-even cost per click and compare it with the high-range bids. If most terms sit under your break-even, test a small ad budget with conversion tracking on. If they sit above it, put the money into pages and reviews.

What each looks like week to week is on our SEO and Google Ads pages.

If you want a second pair of eyes, Padon’s free check compares your business with the competition nearby and emails a short report within two working days.