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They answer different questions
SEA answers 'can we sell this at all?' within a week. SEO answers 'can we own this market?' within a year. Using one to do the other's job is the most common way marketing budgets are wasted.
Use SEA as market research
Before writing thirty SEO landing pages, spend a small SEA budget on the same keywords. The ones that convert tell you exactly which pages are worth building. This is the cheapest research you will ever buy.
In B2B the long tail wins
Nobody outbids a distributor on a generic head term, and you should not try. Fifty specific pages about norms, part numbers and applications will out-earn one expensive campaign on a generic keyword — and they keep earning after you stop paying.
A split that usually works
Roughly 70% into content and technical SEO that compounds, 30% into SEA for testing and for the terms where you must defend your brand. Revisit the split every quarter with actual revenue numbers, not impressions.
- Test with SEA, then build SEO pages that won.
- B2B money is in the long tail, not head terms.
- Judge the split on revenue, not impressions.
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