Advertising better than SEO?

Is it true guys that advertising is better than SEO? We'll for me, I have no idea on which one is better because there are many advertisers and webmasters there in the internet, and we cannot count on it. Let's compare between the advertising and the search optimising.

Advertising: You will pay for the number of hits depends on your budget, and just let it roll till your credits are out. Potential sales, leads and revenue might be generated on advertising.

Search optimising: You have nothing to invest but time. It can take you about five to eight hours if you're a total dedicated person who wants his website to be popular in the search engines.

We can't say on who's really the best, but the thing is both of them are worthy and profitable, if we're smart only.