Social media or SEO — it's one of the most common strategic questions we hear from businesses trying to figure out where to invest their digital marketing budget. The honest answer is that there's no universal right answer, but there is a clear framework for thinking it through. It starts with one question: when your ideal customer realizes they need what you offer, what do they do next? If they Google it, SEO leads. If they ask their community or discover it on a feed, social media leads. In this post we break down exactly how we make that call for different types of clients — and what getting it wrong actually costs.