Ilias Ism split $1,500 three ways for GenPPT, an AI presentation tool. $500 of Google Ads produced 1 trial signup; $500 of Meta ads, 2 purchases; $500 of content and backlinks, 5,000+ visitors a month — most of it from one $100 blog post.
01The problem
Paid ads or SEO: which should a small SaaS put its first budget into?
02The experiment
He spent $500 on each channel for GenPPT and tracked results over 12 months.
The SEO $500 covered 5–6 blog posts and 10–15 backlinks. One of those posts — a $100 article on Gen Alpha slang — ended up driving the majority of the site's traffic.
Paid traffic stopped the moment the spend stopped; the content kept bringing visitors.
03Results
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Google Ads trial signupsfrom $500 | 1 |
| Meta Ads purchasesfrom $500 | 2 |
| SEO visitors a monthstated as “5,000+”, from $500 | 5,000 |
| Visits to one $100 poststated as “35,000+” over 12 months | 35,000 |
| Spend | $1,500 |
“Not disclosed” means the source doesn't say. We never estimate or fill in missing numbers.
04What worked — and what didn't
What worked
- Content: one $100 post drove most of the traffic
- SEO keeps working after you stop paying
What didn't work
- Google Ads: $500 for 1 trial signup
- Viral posts bring traffic but not buyers ready to purchase
05Lessons
He would start SEO earlier and write more content aimed at people ready to buy.
06Source & evidence
- View original
Originally shared on Blog · Jan 20, 2026
SEO vs Paid Ads: We Spent $1,500 Testing Both (Case Study)
Public source. Extracted from publicly available content by the founder.
Want to try this?
Copy this experiment
A checklist built from what Ilias Ism actually did. Their numbers are a reference, not a promise.
- 1
Pick the channel and tactic
SEO — Equal $500 test: Google Ads vs Meta Ads vs content + backlinks.
- 2
Set a budget cap
Ilias Ism spent $1,500. Decide your own cap before you start.
- 3
Set an end date
Ilias Ism didn't say how long it ran. Pick a review date before you start.
- 4
Copy what worked
From Ilias Ism's experience:
- ☐Content: one $100 post drove most of the traffic
- ☐SEO keeps working after you stop paying
- 5
Avoid what didn't
Where it went wrong:
- ☐Google Ads: $500 for 1 trial signup
- ☐Viral posts bring traffic but not buyers ready to purchase
- 6
Track the same numbers
So you can compare like for like:
- ☐Google Ads trial signups
- ☐Meta Ads purchases
- ☐SEO visitors a month
- ☐Visits to one $100 post
- 7
Compare, then share what happened
Ilias Ism's headline result: 1 google Ads trial signups. Yours will differ — that's the point. Win or flop, the result is worth sharing.
Was this experiment useful?
Want the full playbook behind this?
Ilias Ism hasn't published a step-by-step playbook. If enough readers ask, we'll ask Ilias Ism for one.
Related experiments
- 23K
- google impressions per day, after
- 52.7K
- clicks, whole chart
- 1.8%
- average click rate, whole chart
Tibo ran his SEO tool Outrank on SuperX: Google impressions went from about 2K a day to 23K
Tibo · SuperX
Tibo turned on Outrank — his own AI SEO tool — for SuperX in November 2025. It did the keyword research, wrote the articles, got contextual backlinks and built some free tools. By September 2026 daily Google impressions had gone from about 2K to 23K. Signups and revenue weren't shared.
- 4
- months
Nevo David paid an SEO freelancer around $3K a month for 4 months — “it was useless” on a brand-new domain
Nevo David · Postiz
Before Postiz went open source, Nevo David focused on SEO: an UpWork freelancer pitched news sites, bought backlinks and wrote many articles. After four months at around $3K a month he called it useless — with very low domain authority, even easy keywords wouldn't rank — and switched to open source.
- 70
- domain authority
- $20K
- MRR when he wrote the playbook
Postiz's SEO: open source took it to 70 domain authority and traffic kept rising — but revenue didn't follow
Nevo David · Postiz
Nevo David built Postiz's search presence through open source — GitHub awesome-lists, open-source and SaaS directories, a daily AI blog post and free tools — reaching 70 domain authority. By August 2026 he wrote that traffic went “up and up and up” but revenue didn't follow, and he's moving effort to getting cited by AI assistants.