Pay Per Click Marketing and SEO Optimization are both highly effective tools in a marketing tool kit. They work even better when pair, complementing each other.
Your website exposure relies on your Google ranking; it can live or die by its visibility or the lack of it.
However, organic ranking isn’t the only trend nowadays. With Google’s recent updates, ads are getting more prominent spots in the SERP.
That said, you need to pay attention to both your SEO and pay per click marketing strategies. You can take it one step higher, though.
While you can produce great results from either one, you can have even greater results from both. How so?
Keep on reading below to learn how you can take advantage of their synergy for both your SEO and PPC efforts.
1. What Is SEO and Pay per Click Marketing?
SEO or search engine optimization is a marketing strategy that aims to increase the visibility of a website in the search engine results page (SERP). It uses a variety of tactics, like using keywords, using backlinks, optimizing for mobile, and so on. Its goal is to drive organic traffic to the website.
The idea is to conform to the standards set by Google to rank higher in the search results. You can achieve this by optimizing your site’s loading speed, producing quality content, and so on. You also have to take into account the user experience in this strategy.
PPC, on the other hand, is an advertising model. Like SEO, though, the goal is to drive traffic to your website.
The different PPC has with SEO is that you pay for the traffic. It’s in the name: pay-per-click. You pay for every user that clicks the ad.
This also means you don’t pay for ad space. If no one clicks your ad, then you don’t pay for it.
How Does One Affect the Other?
The simple answer is that they don’t. The results of your SEO strategy don’t have any effect on your PPC marketing strategy and vice versa.
This means that no, your PPC ads don’t affect your SEO. Conversely, your site’s ranking doesn’t have any impact on your ads.
Furthermore, the approach to SEO and PPC is different, and so many websites have two teams for each one. If these types of marketing are so different from one another, can you use them together?
Yes, there are ways they can work together to improve each other.
2. How SEO and PPC Work Together to Improve Your Website
The best way you can use SEO and PPC together is through data sharing. You can use the data you get from one strategy to improve the other strategy.
Running both campaigns give you double the data. This allows you to have more parameters to analyze. Google gives you a trove of information about your PPC and SEO campaigns. Examples are conversion rate, engagement metrics, click-through-rate, and such.
You need to look at this information as one set and then apply them to both your strategies.
For instance, you have impressions, ranking, and organic CTR from the SEO campaign. On the other hand, you have the CPC, CTR, and conversion data from your PPC ads.
Looking at both sets as one gives you a better idea of how you can change one or the other for the better. There are many ways you can use this information, such as when:
You Need to Lower Your Budget
You can look at the data provided by both campaigns to see which areas you need to cut. For instance, look for the keywords that are using too much budget and which you’re ranking for. You can pause PPC ads for those keywords, but don’t stop analyzing the effect this has on your traffic and sales.
If you need to make more cuts, you can try to see how you can use certain keywords for SEO rather than PPC. Check which PPC keywords you’re spending much on and analyze if you can use those for SEO instead. You’ll need to write content that will allow you to rank high on these keywords.
If you do this right, you can recapture the traffic driven by PPC using your SEO strategy. You won’t need to pay for the clicks anymore, giving you much savings. This will also drive traffic for far longer than paid campaigns.
Another way you can save is by using long-tail keywords. These usually cost less than generic keywords, and you can find them using data from your SEO results. By bidding for these keywords, you can lower your advertising budget.
Geotargeting can save you money, too, by adjusting bids based on location. The SEO team might observe significant traffic coming from a certain place. The PPC team can use this information for targeting the right audience.
Looking for More Keywords
It’s not uncommon for both SEO and PPC teams to miss out on keywords. By being able to look at more data, however, the teams can spot keywords they would have missed otherwise. If you’re hiring a digital marketing agency to do the work, try to find one that has experience with a similar business. This may sound odd but let’s think about it, a digital marketing agency that specifically provides automotive SEO services is more likely to know all the money keywords for an automotive business as opposed to an agency that provides general SEO services for any business.
Information like the search terms used by the users that led them to a page or ad, keyword phrases that aren’t targeted but generated a SERP impression, and similar data are available to both teams.
Having access to such valuable information can improve both teams’ targeting efforts.
For a more specific example, let’s say that a user searches for a phrase that brings up your ad. They then click this ad, so this will show up when you review your PPC ad performance.
You can check if it’s already in use by your SEO campaign. If otherwise, you can target it as it’s already a likely term that your audience uses.
You can review both data at the same time to see which keywords overlap. You can uncover the underperforming keywords. And then, give them to the other team to see if they can perform better on the other side.
You Want to Get Ahead of the Competition
Reviewing your SEO/PPC performance and your competitors can only get you so far. In a world wherein the landscape is regularly changing, you always need to be one step ahead. Google releases constant updates to its algorithm, so marketers need to always stay alert lest they fall behind.
That’s why you should use all the resources available to you. In this case, you can get ahead by using other information that some of your competitors might not be using.
By leveraging the data you get from both your campaigns, you can reach higher heights. You can use both sets of data to improve your paid and organic ranking.
You’re Looking for Ways to Improve Your SEO
Google’s Keyword Planner used to be an indispensable tool for SEO marketers. However, the search engine has since limited the data to the non-active advertisers. This was a great loss to marketers as it was central to their keyword research efforts.
PPC campaigns can help with keyword research, though. That’s because Google still gives plenty of information about your keywords. Marketers have access to valuable information, like which keywords convert users to customers.
SEO teams can use this information in optimizing their content. They can also use this for their product pages, landing pages, and such to drive sales.
3. Effects of Integrating SEO and PPC
By now, you already know the importance of data sharing in both of your strategies. But, that’s not all the benefits you can gain from incorporating SEO into your pay per click services.
Through integrating SEO and PPC, we can reap the benefits below.
Increased Visibility
The number one benefit of integrating SEO and PPC is the increased visibility on the SERP. Ranking on both organic and paid search results gives you more exposure. It frames your brand as more authoritative than the other sites.
This gives you an advantage over your competitors. It gives the impression that you’re more established in the industry. How can you achieve this through SEO and PPC?
The key is keywords; by using more targeted keywords and better phrases, you have more chances of ranking for both paid and organic search results. You can create better content, more targeted ads, and more refined strategies.
We all know that the top three spots in the search results are the ones that matter most. They get over 75% of all the clicks, so you’re practically invisible if your website is lower than the third rank.
Having a visible PPC ad gives you visibility even if you fall lower. If you’re one of the top three, that’s even better since you appear authoritative. They work in synergy together, driving more traffic to your site.
Better Testing Options
Testing keywords in SEO strategies take a while since the results aren’t immediate. Testing titles and metadata, for example, can take a long time to produce results.
In PPC, however, you get the results faster. This becomes useful when you want to test the effectiveness of a keyword.
You can test the organic keyword on PPC first. You’ll be able to know what works and what doesn’t right away. You’ll then be able to adjust your strategy according to your findings.
This way, you get a better idea of how to optimize your content and meta details for the keyword you want to rank for.
Retargeting / Remarketing
Retargeting also becomes easier when you have more data to analyze from PPC and SEO. You can use one or the other to remarket to the users who have already expressed their interest.
Not everyone who visits your site or clicks your ad converts. Around 70 to 96% of your visitors won’t return after leaving your website without completing your desired action. For PPC ads, the average is only 3.75% across all industries.
What this means for you is that a large percentage of your visitors don’t convert. That’s okay; it happens. But, that doesn’t mean, however, you can let them go without a fight.
This is where remarketing comes in. You can target those people again and remind them to complete their transaction.
For example, you can use PPC to retarget those who have visited your website through organic search. You can tailor the ad to be the product or service they’ve already expressed interest in. Use segmentation to create different types for different audiences.
This time, though, you use PPC to give the users the final push by giving them what they need. Study the data to see what prompted them to leave without completing the transaction. Then, use that information to make sure they complete it the second time.
It can also be the other way around. You can use content to drive conversion by acting as a reminder for those coming from paid search.
Remarketing is also useful for your existing customers. You can notify them of new products and services this way. This is essential for long term growth for eCommerce brands and other industries.
Matching the Content
Crafting ads that match the content becomes workable when you utilize both your SEO and PPC campaigns. This ensures the maximum effectiveness of an ad.
The PPC team may be able to create effective ads that bring in a lot of traffic. But, what happens after that?
The post-click is important in conversion, but what happens most often is that there’s a disconnect between the ad and the landing page. The content doesn’t match the ad, and so the users are less likely to convert.
By having the PPC and SEO teams working together, they can create better ads and landing pages. The SEO team can create content that pushes the visitors to act, while the PPC team can create an ad that matches it.
Doing this, the ad creates an expectation for the users that the landing page can follow through.
Create a Harmonious SEO and PPC Marketing Campaign
SEO and pay per click marketing can work great on their own, but they produce greater results when combined. It’s not an easy task, though, and it can get too confusing if you don’t know the data that’s useful for each strategy.
But why stop discovering how to market and boost your business here? We offer more tips for you to learn from and we invite you to keep checking out our library of guides right here!
