Ahrefs vs. Google Ads

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ahrefs
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Ahrefs is an SEO tool providers. Ahrefs Site Explorer provides a suite of tools including a component for backlink & on-page SEO analysis, online brand mentions tracking, and domain comparison tool for competitor analysis, etc. They refer to themselves as “the largest index of live backlinks.”
$99
per month
Google Ads
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Pricing
AhrefsGoogle Ads
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Standard
$179.00
per month
Advanced
$399.00
per month
Agency
$999.00
per month
Offer A
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offer B
$1500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offer C
$3000
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AhrefsGoogle Ads
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AhrefsGoogle Ads
TrustRadius Insights
AhrefsGoogle Ads
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Ahrefs predominantly attracts marketing professionals and SEO specialists who utilize the tool to enhance their website’s organic reach through detailed SEO audits, backlink analysis, and competitive benchmarking. Users have appreciated Ahrefs’ capability to uncover competitor backlinks, optimize content, and gain comprehensive insights into website health, which aids in planning and executing result-driven marketing strategies. It particularly stands out for its depth in offering insights on backlinks and domain ratings, which are crucial for improving a website’s ranking and visibility.

Google Ads, on the other hand, is equally favored by marketing teams but caters to a broader marketing approach where immediate visibility and conversion are the focus, typically through pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Users value Google Ads for its effectiveness in driving targeted advertising campaigns that result in quick returns in terms of lead generation and sales conversions. The platform enables precise customer targeting based on the desired marketing funnel stages from brand awareness through the conversion which is enhanced by its advanced targeting and bidding options.

While both platforms serve critical roles in digital marketing, their primary uses and the outcomes they drive show distinct orientations: Ahrefs excels in in-depth SEO management and organic growth strategies, while Google Ads is pivotal for immediate market presence and direct response campaigns.

Features
AhrefsGoogle Ads
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Keyword analysis9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Backlink management8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Page grader5.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Competitive analysis9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Site recommendations5.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Task management7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
7.5
Ratings
1% below category average
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Local SEO8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Social SEO6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile SEO6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Global SEO9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
8.9
Ratings
5% above category average
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Multi-domain support9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
-
Ratings
Google Ads
3.9
Ratings
3% below category average
Ad campaign creation00 Ratings2.50 Ratings
Ad deployment00 Ratings2.50 Ratings
Display advertising00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Sequence targeting00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Contextual advertising00 Ratings2.30 Ratings
Social advertising00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
-
Ratings
Google Ads
6.4
Ratings
20% above category average
Ad dashboards00 Ratings2.50 Ratings
Ad performance reports00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization00 Ratings2.50 Ratings
Ad Auctions
Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Product A and Product B
Ahrefs
-
Ratings
Google Ads
7.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Ad bidding00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AhrefsGoogle Ads
Small Businesses
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Conductor
Conductor
Score 8.6 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AhrefsGoogle Ads
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(0 ratings)
5.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AhrefsGoogle Ads
Likelihood to Recommend
It gives the best report to us which helps us to find the opportunity to build backlinks. Another main feature that makes Ahrefs a safe and sound approach to SEO is that it provides information about duplicate content, URLs, redirects along with other errors that can be dangerous to the website.
Read full review
Clients who are selling products such as dresses, clothes, jewelry, beauty products, etc., generally work well. Also, in some cases, it doesn't fetch a good ROAS for very small business owners. If a client is already doing well in SEO, the probability for it to perform well over Google Ads is always enhanced, and if it doesn't have a good organic reach, Google Ads also suffers.
Read full review
Pros
  • Their backlink database is still one of the most up to date we've seen when compared to similar tools.
  • The user interface is very intuitive and easy to learn.
  • They provide you with a lot of great information and the ability to set a date range can really help you narrow things down.
Read full review
  • Keyword Research - Google Ads has a handy built in tool that helps determine important keywords to target both for Ads & SEO
  • Intuitive Analytics Dashboad - Google Ads makes it fairly simple to see and analyze important metrics on how your ads are running week after week
  • Intuitive Setup - Google Ads makes it easy to figure out how to run ads with little to no training (although training is highly recommended to run effective ads), as their interface is clean and easy to figure out (unlike competing products).
Read full review
Cons
  • Ahrefs Site Explorer provides an overview of domain health and the issues that can be fixed, and sometimes the suggested "critical issues" can be an astronomical number and not accurate.
  • For certain features on Ahrefs Site Explorer, there can a more elaborate description/guide on how to utilize the feature.
Read full review
  • Google's heavy dependence on AI makes many of the campaign behavior inscrutable and, often, it performs poorly as a result.
  • Their responsive ads, for example, which are heavily recommended by them, often perform significantly worse than normal text ads.
  • Their support, while relatively quick, becomes useless if you need any deep insight/help.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Their index is too vast to ignore when looking at a complete backlink profile. We find links in Ahrefs that do not appear in any other link detection tool. For this reason, it's a must for our agency to use for the foreseeable future. Plus, it's very affordable considering the data you get
Read full review
As of today Google AdWords leads approximately 90% of paid searches globally. There is practically is no other network that can offer such a relevant and engaging audience at the price. The PPC model is also unique in that no media dollars are wasted, since PPC models ensure brand interaction versus traditional media which has heavy ad avoidance and clutter but still charges a hefty amount for ads.
Read full review
Usability
Ahrefs is very easy to use - you can jump right in and understand most of the assets. Overall, the dashboard snapshots give a very good picture of inbound link activity. For deeper analysis of historical trends, the system can become cumbersome, making it hard to do full work without exporting and reformatting the data.
Read full review
This is more of a subjective rating, because I think it can be increased with how much our ad spend is. The more of an ad spend, the more visibility we can get, and therefore all features can climb. With an overall larger presence the usability is that where we can get messages out quick, and that's the main thing we try to do with our campaigns.
Read full review
Support Rating
Ahrefs has always been responsive when there's been a technical issue with the site. There are usually very little problems, but if there are, they announce it on their social media accounts which keeps its customers informed. Email support is prompt and the customer service people are very helpful, knowledgable and friendly.
Read full review
We have not yet had an account rep who hasn't tried to bully me or other employees to raise our budgets. At the same time, several years ago, one attempted to help refine our ads and ended up changing the ads to be something we were not affiliated with
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
It's competitive with Semrush, Moz and other tools of that same ilk. It's great for serious SEO work - not at the Enterprise level - but at the small business, small agency level. I would not consider it competitive with BrightEdge, Conductor, SEOClarity, etc. - but it IS competitive and on par with the tools that are one level below those big enterprise tools.
Read full review
Google Ads remains at the top advertising channel within our business for both lead volume and revenue generation, whilst maintaining a reasonable cost per lead (CPL). Both Meta Ads and Microsoft Ads have a much lower CPL, those channels don't contribute as much revenue and lead generation.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Ahrefs has helped save hours of work because it functions as an all-in-one SEO tool. Before Ahrefs, I would have to switch toolsets multiple times, compile the reports, then organize data. Ahrefs as an all in one helped managed the chaos that having too many tools create.
  • Backlink data is crucial to predicting content success. Ahrefs has provided us with better backlink data, allowing our predictions to be more accurate.
  • Ahrefs has helped us cut away from having another rank tracker subscription. Their rank tracking tool is good enough to not warrant a dedicated rank tracker, helping us save on costs.
Read full review
  • Once we got the hang of it and had everything setup, it was a great monthly expense that we could count on ROI from. Either by obtaining new customers or literally staying above our competition in search rankings.
  • We also started consulting on ads for customers and helping them set things up, which created a new revenue stream for us.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Ahrefs Screenshots

Screenshot of Analyze backlinks and keywords of any website to find opportunities for your organic traffic growthScreenshot of Check your website for 100+ pre-defined SEO issuesScreenshot of Get relevant keyword ideas supported by accurate SEO metricsScreenshot of Find the most shared and linked-to content on any topicScreenshot of Track your and your competitors' search rankings