Learn SEO first, then Facebook ads. SEO costs nothing to practise, and it teaches you to read the numbers that later decide whether an ad was worth its money.
Most beginners in Nepal do it the other way round. They boost a few posts, see the likes go up, and call it marketing. Then a business owner asks how many of those likes became customers, and they have no answer.
Why do beginners in Nepal start with Facebook boosting?
Because it is the button they can see. Many shops in Nepal take orders through a Facebook page and Messenger, so boosting a post looks like the whole job.
The problem is cost. Every test on Facebook spends real money, and you pay in US dollars. Regular debit and credit cards from most Nepali banks do not work on Facebook, so you need a prepaid dollar card. One bank's card that we checked allows 500 US dollars a year.
So a beginner who learns on ads learns slowly and at a high price. Each mistake costs money. Worse, you cannot yet tell a good result from a lucky one.
What does SEO teach you that ads do not?
SEO (search engine optimisation) means getting your page found on Google without paying for each click. It runs on one question: what do people actually type?
Put a website into Google Search Console, which is free, and it shows you the searches that found you. For each search you see impressions (how often you showed up), clicks, click-through rate and your average position.
Those are the same words an ad report uses. Impressions, clicks and click-through rate mean the same thing in Meta Ads Manager. Learn to read them on your own site for free, and the first ad report you open will make sense.
SEO also gives you your ad copy. Say people in Kathmandu type "laptop repair near me" and not "computer servicing". Then that is the phrase your ad should use. Keyword research tells you this before you spend a single rupee.
How long does SEO take to show results?
Longer than ads, and that is why you start it first. Google's own SEO starter guide says some changes show up within hours and others take several months. It advises waiting a few weeks before you judge whether a change helped.
Ads are the opposite. You see clicks within a day. That fast feedback only helps when you already know which number to watch. So start the slow clock early, and learn ads once you can read what they tell you.
When should you learn Facebook ads first?
There is one case. You already work for a business that runs ads every week, and now you are the person in charge of them. Learn tracking and ads now, because the money is already being spent. Still set up Search Console in the same month, so the slow clock starts too.
For everyone else, the order holds. A cheap mistake on your own blog teaches more than an expensive mistake on someone else's ad account.
How Saarathi Academy orders its digital marketing course
At Saarathi Academy in Old Baneshwor, Kathmandu, our Digital Marketing with AI course follows this order on purpose. It runs for 8 weeks, 2 hours a day, Monday to Friday. Classes run in person and online.
Weeks 1 to 3 cover the basics: the sales funnel, your customer, marketing math and SEO basics. In Week 2 you work out CPM, CPC and click-through rate in a Google Sheet. SEO is the spine of Weeks 3 to 5. You build it on a WordPress website you publish in Week 4.
Paid ads come after that, one platform at a time. Week 6 is tracking and Meta ads. Week 7 is Google ads, and your multi-channel campaign goes live that week, so in Week 8 you report on real data. We give you a small ad budget to test with, so you do not need a dollar card to practise.
A batch has up to 10 students in the classroom, and the mentors still do the job they teach. The full syllabus is public before anyone pays.
What can you try for free tonight?
- Take the free Ahrefs SEO course for beginners. It has 14 lessons, about 2 hours in total, and needs no sign up.
- Read Google's SEO starter guide from start to end. The people who run the search engine wrote it.
- Search Google Maps for a small shop you know, maybe a relative's. If it is missing, a Google Business Profile is free to set up, and setting one up is real local SEO practice.
- If you have any blog or website, add it to Search Console and check which searches found it.
The Digital Marketing with AI course page has the details, and the week by week syllabus lists every topic.
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