SEO or Google Ads — which should I start with?

They do different jobs

Ads buy the top of the page today and stop the day you stop paying. SEO earns a position over months and keeps working afterwards. Comparing them on price alone misses the point.

Start with ads if

• You need enquiries this quarter
• You are testing whether an offer has demand
• Your season is close
• You know roughly what a customer is worth

Start with SEO if

• You can wait two to three quarters
• Click costs in your category are painful
• Local competition is light
• You want cost per enquiry to fall over time, not stay flat

What we usually recommend

Fix the website and tracking first — neither channel works without that. Run ads for enquiries in the meantime. Let SEO build underneath so that a year later a growing share of enquiries arrive with no click cost attached.

The mistake to avoid

Two years of ads and no organic foundation. It works until click costs rise or the budget pauses, and then enquiries stop the same week.