Paid & Organic Traffic Working Together
Both paid and organic traffic rely on search engine results. It’s usually the case that businesses will tend to target the same core audience via both channels and somehow find ways within to align paid and organic click-through’s.
In many organisations, Google Ads and search engine optimisation (SEO) are performed by the same person or team. Other firms like to separate the two from each other. Regardless of your current strategy, it’s a fact that all businesses can benefit from sharing tactics, data and approaches across different disciplines. SEO and Google Ads can help each other, you could reduce costs, save on workloads and be smarter with your approach to campaign optimisation by combining the two.
Here are just seven ways that your paid and organic searches can work symbiotically for twice the benefit.
1. Shared Keyword Research
This might sound obvious, but the first way to link your SEO & PPC is to recognise how keyword research essentially has the same impact on both disciplines. Paid and organic searches rely on specific keywords and require continuous research and insights to discover which topics and keywords match with what your target audience is searching for.
While you might use different analytics and tools to obtain your keyword research data, there is no reason to keep specific keyword data sets for Google Ads and SEO. You can achieve great insights into search volumes for specific keyword(s) when running an active Google Ads campaign for some time. Also, don’t forget to use the performance tab in Google Search Console to see relevant keywords, volumes and positions (tab formerly labelled search analytics in the old Google Webmaster Tools website).
2. Combine Ad Copy With Meta Descriptions & SEO Titles
Have you ever noticed how paid search text adverts are formatted in a very similar style to organic search results? It’s worthwhile taking a look at your best performing PPC ad copy and comparing it to the performance of your meta descriptions/SEO titles and vice-versa.
If you spot a disparity between the two, perhaps it might be time to experiment and format your SEO titles in the same manner as your ad copy to see if it makes a difference to your search engine rankings.
3. Look At Your Competitor Data<
Your competitors are a huge factor in search engine rankings, ad positioning and the costs of investing in both PPC and SEO. It can be beneficial to look at who is paying the most for adverts, and what keywords they are targeting. Likewise, you should consider who is currently dominating the search engines with their SEO. You may notice that some competitors are dominating in PPC, but not in SEO.
All this information can provide you with meaningful insights into how much your competitors are spending on PPC, who is jockeying for the top spots on the search engines and how much time/money/effort it will require to overtake them.
4. Consider The Performance Of Search Terms
The quickest route to optimal search performance is to keep historical data to identify areas you can leverage, and areas you can avoid. You can access search term reports from Google Ads – analysing this will help you to avoid costly mistakes. Your Google Ads report should also give you an insight into what keywords you should be focusing on in your organic SEO efforts.
5. Discover Re-marketing Opportunities
While exit data might be frustrating to look at, there are lots of insights to be gleaned from it – in particular, opportunities for re-marketing. While SEO might have driven traffic to your site, PPC re-marketing could be the means to send your prospects back to your pages and further down the sales funnel. Don’t be afraid to experiment with re-marketing and remember to check your reports to see whether it has a positive impact on revenue.
6. Keep An Eye On Serp Layouts
Search engine results can vary daily. Localisation, algorithm updates and even the intention of the searcher can impact upon the visibility of PPC text ads, shopping ads, images, news, answer boxes, news and more. Search results should also impact upon how you target prospects via PPC.
For example, if you own a pizza restaurant in Cork and all the first page search results are for high-profile review/rating sites for restaurants in Cork, then an advert is likely warranted. On the flipside, if your organic search results are taking pride of place at the top of Google, you probably don’t need to be spending money on ad traffic but this can depend on how many ads appear above your organic listing.
7. Consider Whether You’re Getting Good ROI
Before launching a PPC or SEO campaign, one of the most difficult questions is “will I get a good return on investment?”
Previous PPC and SEO campaign data can help you to set realistic campaign expectations, and even assist you when it comes to saving money by highlighting when you need to consider PPC ads and where.
Conclusion
Ultimately, sharing data and insights between SEO and PPC is essential to running smart campaigns. Saving time on SEO can be equally as important as saving money on advertising – so try to align your SEO and PPC strategies to leverage the maximum possible returns.
