Can SEO Replace Paid Ads? When It Works—and When It Doesn’t

Many online shops use Google Ads to reach people who are ready to buy. But that doesn’t make paid campaigns a prerequisite for running a successful shop. SEO agencies promise to reduce your reliance on paying for clicks. So when can organic search sustain a business—and when does it make sense to add paid advertising?

How changing search results affect your traffic

Google’s results pages increasingly offer filters and visual features that used to be found mainly on shopping sites and publishers’ websites. People can now do more of their research without leaving Google. 

A strong organic ranking can build credibility. But for searches that lead to sales, the practical question is how many people still click through to those organic results.

Google’s filters let people narrow a broad product search without leaving the results page. Shopping ads and other prominent features compete with organic listings for attention. The share of clicks each receives depends on the search and how the results are displayed.

What about informational content?

You might argue that this mainly affects searches for products and services, rather than people looking for helpful articles on topics your audience cares about. 

But informational searches face competition too. AI tools give people another way to find answers without visiting a publisher’s website. 

In February 2024, Gartner predicted that traditional search engine volume could fall by 25% by 2026 as some activity shifted to chatbots and other virtual assistants. This was a forecast, not evidence that the decline had already happened. For publishers, the key question is whether direct AI answers complement visits to their websites or replace them.

Why SEO still deserves a place in your strategy

Even if paid ads seem essential in your market, that’s no reason to neglect SEO. Despite predictions of its decline, Google remains an important source of traffic. 

Chatbots and traditional search engines overlap, but people also use them for different tasks. Reducing their use to a single market-share figure can therefore be misleading. What matters more for your strategy is where your audience actually looks for information and which channels bring relevant visitors to your site.

One approach is to run ads for searches with clear buying or booking intent while building organic visibility for the same queries. Helpful blog or magazine content can attract visitors earlier in their research, often in results with fewer ads.

These two screenshots illustrate the challenges publishers can face even when people are searching for information rather than products.

The takeaway: find the right balance between SEO and ads

Paid ads can matter a great deal in competitive product searches. Whether you need them depends on demand, your margins, your brand and the traffic sources you already have. SEO alone can work—but neither an organic strategy nor a large advertising budget guarantees success.

SEO can help you rely less on paying for every click and reach people through content that answers their questions. But search is changing. Direct answers, multimedia results and AI features can leave traditional organic listings with less visibility.

A combined approach often makes sense: ads for searches that generate a worthwhile return, SEO for long-term visibility, and content in the formats your audience needs. Review the results regularly and allocate your budget according to each channel’s contribution to enquiries, sales and profit. The right mix matters more than choosing one side.