SEO and paid media solve different parts of the same problem: helping prospective customers find your business. The useful question is where each belongs in your plan, given your budget, your website and how soon you need enquiries.
When paid media makes sense
A paid campaign can put an offer in front of an audience while you are still improving your website. It can also help you test a message or reach people around a particular event. But buying traffic does not establish whether the offer will work. The landing page and the quality of the enquiries matter as much as the clicks.
When spending stops, the campaign stops buying placements. That does not erase the awareness or customer relationships it may have created. Assess those outcomes separately from the cost of continuing the campaign.
What an investment in content involves
A useful page can keep attracting visitors after publication. It still needs maintenance. Products change, competitors publish and search results move. Budget for reviewing older pages as well as producing new ones.
Start with the questions customers ask before buying. Review the pages you already have and identify the gaps. An article is worth commissioning when you can explain who needs it and what it adds to the information already available.
Plan the two together
Paid campaigns can test messages that inform website copy. Search data can reveal questions worth addressing in a landing page. Neither channel needs to operate in isolation.
For a B2B business, review enquiries with the sales team. A form submission may be an early research question, an unsuitable prospect or the start of a substantial contract. Those distinctions help you decide where to spend next.
Choose the next investment
Check whether tracking works and whether the website explains the offer clearly. Then consider what is holding the business back. You may need to reach an audience sooner, fix important pages or build coverage of a subject your customers research. The answer should determine the work, rather than a blanket preference for SEO or paid media.