In a subject area as vast as digital marketing, it’s easy to get hung up on one particular strategy, especially when it brings strong results.
Take PPC, for instance – it’s hard to argue against an average ROI of 200% for pay-per-click marketing. But what if we told you there was a way to compound this success and propel your business visibility to new heights?
Enter the dynamic duo: SEO and PPC working together.
PPC and SEO together are both inbound marketing strategies, meaning that they’re closely linked. Yet we often see small businesses channelling all their energy into one, while overlooking the natural compatibility of the other.
A holistic approach which merges SEO and PPC can help seriously grow and safeguard your company’s online presence in the long run.
Combining PPC and SEO will help you cover all bases: the former picking up where the latter falls short, and vice versa. Picture this collaboration as the digital equivalent of The Avengers teaming up – each member powerful in their own right, but together, an unstoppable force.
We want to supercharge your marketing strategy, so get yourself comfy and read on as we reveal the special relationship between SEO and PPC, and the 9 key ways you can combine them to greatly improve your search engine rankings, ROI, brand reputation and more.
Skip to:
- An SEO vs PPC comparison
- How PPC and SEO work together
- 9 powerful reasons why SEO and PPC are a match made in heaven
- 9 strategies for successfully integrating PPC and SEO
- The ripple effect: Make waves with a marketing strategy which makes SEO and PPC work together
An SEO vs PPC comparison
So, what are the main differences between SEO and PPC? To understand we need to explore each digital marketing strategy.
What is SEO?
Since you’re already reading this blog, we’re pretty sure you’re familiar with SEO, or at least have a vague idea of what it’s all about, but here’s a quick recap.
SEO – or ‘search engine optimisation’ – covers all of the practices and techniques marketers employ to get pages ranking in search engines. As such, it is a long-term-oriented means of increasing the number of organic clicks your site receives for free. In other words, SEO is how you improve your digital content so that it is placed directly in front of potential customers and clients in SERPs, or ‘search engine page results.’
Example SEO tactics can include:
- Conducting keyword research to find out what queries and terms your audience is using online.
- Improving an underperforming website’s speed and structure so users are less likely to leave the page they land on.
- Creating stellar digital content which encourages internet users to click on and share your web pages.
What about PPC?
Pay-per-Click Advertising – known as PPC for short, and sometimes called CPC or Cost-per-Click Advertising instead – is an online advertising model in which advertisers only pay a fee when their ad is clicked.
When you hop onto Google and type in a search query, you’ll probably find that the results displayed at the top of the results page are paid ads. These ads are being shown to you because you’ve used a keyword or two which the advertising brands have chosen to target for their campaign. Depending on the type of Ad you choose to run, PPC campaigns may be displayed elsewhere on the internet as well—rather than exclusively on Google Search.
In contrast to SEO, which focuses on organic search results, PPC is a paid form of advertising that allows businesses to buy visits to their websites. By its nature, therefore, PPC achieves results much faster than SEO, but demands tangential investment; whereas SEO can be more-or-less free to implement but only shows results long-term.
Similarities between Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Let’s boil the definitions of SEO and PPC down to their core similarities.
- Both SEO and PPC work towards the same objective: driving highly-targeted, good-quality traffic to a website in order to boost conversions (e.g., sales or sign-ups).
- Both PPC and SEO are keyword-driven strategies, informed by popular and brand-relevant search terms.
- Both SEO and PPC are digital marketing strategies which can be completed DIY, with careful research and planning, but which can also be outsourced to experienced digital marketing agencies.
How PPC and SEO work together
We’ve revealed that these inbound marketing strategies have a lot in common, so it only stands to reason that they’d make a great pairing.
Here, at beefound, we support numerous clients with their SEO and PPC efforts, and are proud champions of combining the two.
From our standpoint, getting your SEO and PPC working together can bring more robust results than employing either independently, because a streamlined approach helps to ensure all elements of your digital marketing plan reach peak efficiency.
And it isn’t just us shouting about the merits of using a combined marketing strategy. In 2019, BrightEdge found that in B2B (‘business-to-business’) marketing, SEO and PPC ‘Combined Searches’ generated up to 76% of a website’s traffic.
Similarly, real-world examples of SEO and PPC working together saw Verizon Media increase conversions by 3200%, whilst decreasing their conversion costs by 50%. The University of Nevada saw similar success with a combined approach, increasing their CTR (click-through rate) in search campaigns by 135%.
This being said, getting the relationship between these two marketing strategies right can be complex because at a glance, the two rely on contrasting approaches:
- Paid search is more granular in its targeting, easier to A/B test, and is more reactive than SEO. PPC requires a more stable budget than SEO but can show results (and return on investment) quicker.
- SEO, in contrast, is long-term oriented and technically free (if you choose to conduct the campaign yourself). Of course, in order to realise the full potential of SEO, you should expect a long-term commitment of time and resources.
- Results can take 6-12 months to show for newer sites, whilst combined SEO and PPC campaigns may expect results much sooner.
Does SEO affect PPC, or does PPC affect SEO?
The relationship between search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising is symbiotic: in other words, mutually beneficial—similar to how SEO and social media marketing benefit each other, too!
As such, the answer to this question is that SEO and PPC affect each other in both directions.
In a ground-breaking study into the combined effects of PPC and SEO published way back in 2012, Google—the world’s largest search engine—found that the strength of a site’s SEO improves the CTR for their paid ads. In the other direction, another foundational study proved that PPC fills the gap left when SEO efforts fail to place your site on the first page of SERPs—accruing clicks when you’re organic links are out of sight.
For example, whilst it’s true that PPC ads don’t have a direct impact on SEO rankings (in fact, their reach often outperforms organic results), there is still plenty of evidence to suggest that they can indirectly propel your search performance overall.
But the symbiosis doesn’t stop there…
9 powerful reasons why SEO and PPC are a match made in heaven
Now let’s delve into eight key reasons why combining PPC and SEO together is beneficial to your business.
1) Marketers get a holistic view of the digital landscape
Integrating SEO and PPC provides your marketing team with a comprehensive understanding of both organic and paid search, allowing them to capitalise on opportunities across the entire digital landscape and thus streamline the customer’s journey.
For example, you may want to use PPC for an innovative product launch that is new to the market, and support the launch with SEO to promote the reach of your longstanding offerings. After all, to get organic traffic you need to target queries that users are already searching for. This way, you can ensure that your business is covering all bases.
2) They’re ideal for sharing insights and refining targeting
By combining data from SEO and PPC campaigns, marketers can gain valuable insights into audience behaviour and preferences at different stages of the buyer’s journey, which can be used to refine targeting strategies and improve overall campaign performance.
For instance, there is value in digging into similar metrics from both marketing channels such as:
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Bounce and exit rates
- Average time spent on site / session duration
- Conversion rates
With these nuggets of information in your arsenal, you can identify the keywords that lead to increased sales, as well as those that bring visitors to your site but are less likely to convert. And whilst you could acquire this data separately, double the data = smarter business decisions.
3) PPC can be your playground for SEO experimentation
As PPC is generally a more reactive, short-term approach to search engine marketing, it only makes sense that it’s the best place to experiment.
Paid search campaigns offer a controlled environment for testing different strategies, messaging, and targeting techniques, which can then be applied to your SEO efforts for optimised results.
In turn, the lessons learned and applied to SEO will help elevate the pull of your PPC ads, and so on, creating a positive feedback loop for your business.
4) SEO and PPC working together help you acquire more real estate in SERPs
By appearing in both organic and paid search results for relevant keywords, businesses can increase their visibility and dominate more real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs), effectively outshining competitors.
Just think, if a user skips past the ads section you can then target them in the organic results. Win-win!
Just as interestingly, as the Google study referenced above illustrated, where your Paid Ads exist in SERPs alongside relevant organic links to your site, impression and click-through rates are incrementally increased.
5) Enhanced brand confidence and awareness
Another great reason to make sure that you pair your PPC and SEO campaigns together is the enhanced brand confidence they instil once combined. This is key, given 81% of consumers state that they need to trust a brand before they consider buying from it.
As we’ve just mentioned, a joint SEO/PPC strategy can help your brand occupy more of that precious SERP space – this double exposure will help bolster your brand identity and credibility in the eyes of consumers, leading to increased click-through rates and conversions.
SEO for brand awareness and reputation
SEO will prove key to establishing a clear, consistent, approachable and—most importantly—memorable brand in the customer’s mind. As a support system for PPC ads, quality branding relies on SEO to catch a search engine user’s attention and hold it, as well as delivering a positive UX (user experience) if and when the searcher clicks on your ad.
PPC for improved brand awareness and SERPs ranking
PPC ads hosted by your brand put your brand name, identity, and message in front of potentially millions of eyes—called ‘impressions’. Whether a user clicks on your link or not is, in this case, not the point. Just by putting your brand in front of search engine users, you strengthen and expand awareness of your brand. Users are then more likely to include your brand’s name in their searches for a number of reasons:
- Pure curiosity
- They want to read reviews of your brand
- They simply remember your association with the thing(s) they want
The more users search for your brand, the more authority this gives your site, and the higher Google is likely to organically rank your pages.
Once again, a positive feedback loop is created wherein PPC ads boost brand awareness in the minds of customers and clients, those same people search for your brand more, which boosts your SEO’s effectiveness, rinse and repeat.
6) Compound your clicks, impressions and ROI
Thanks to the combined benefits of PPC and SEO, their integration can have mutually beneficial effects, as we’ve touched upon a few times already. The ‘feedback loop’ created by combining PPC and SEO together results in higher click-through rates, increased impressions, and improved return on investment (ROI) for both channels.
7) Encourages local leads
By combining local SEO tactics with geo-targeted PPC campaigns, businesses can attract more local leads and drive foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations, ultimately boosting sales and revenue.
The logic is this: when people make local searches related to your target keywords, they’ll first see your PPC ad, which draws instant attention to your brand. Then if they scroll past it, they’ll encounter your Google Business Profile.
The best part? Your paid search ad will take up most of the screen on mobile devices, so it’s hard to ignore. Local SEO and PPC should form a central part of any killer local online marketing strategy.
8) Prepare for both the long and short term
We touched on it earlier: SEO and PPC work on different time frames.
Effective PPC bid management can lead to quick returns but can lose effectiveness when people see the same ads too often. Conversely, SEO is a long game that may take time to show results.
As such, when SEO and PPC are made to work together, they help businesses to achieve both their short-term goals—such as driving immediate traffic and conversions—and their long-term objectives—such as building brand authority and organic search visibility over time.
9) SEO and PPC working together can allow small businesses to compete with larger competitors
When smaller, independent businesses enter the market, they often find there are some well established larger companies they’ll need to compete with if they want to succeed. But how do you compete with bigger marketing budgets when you’re operating on a shoestring?
You may indeed find yourself asking whether SEO is even worthwhile for small businesses, or whether PPC might not be too expensive for a fledgling organisation.
The truth, however, is that a combination of SEO and PPC can prove critical to helping small enterprises compete with the big dogs.
You see, the organic clicks generated by SEO are free, for one, but more importantly, search engine optimisation is also a level playing field. A competitor having deeper pockets than you doesn’t mean you can’t compete; much to the contrary: the equitable nature of SEO means that you can actually beat wealthier competitors on high-converting keywords. Google’s August 2024 core update even prioritizes the visibility of smaller platforms and websites by placing greater emphasis on content quality, usefulness and originality.
Small businesses marketing on a tight budget can focus on SEO to drive organic traffic by focusing on keywords which are too expensive for them to bid on. Once they’ve then secured a high-ranking spot on SERPs for their target keywords, they can bid on cheaper keywords with PPC to catch customers—now aware of their brand—a little further down their marketing funnel.
9 strategies for successfully integrating PPC and SEO
Now you know why SEO and PPC working together makes such an effective partnership.
Before we end, we thought we’d take some time to show you 9 best practices you can use to combine your paid and organic search tactic into a winning strategy.
1) Allow your PPC and SEO teams to join forces
If your SEO and PPC professionals aren’t in communication with each other, it’s time to change that. Foster collaboration between the two so that they can share insights, coordinate strategies, and align their goals for maximum impact.
This might mean encouraging regular team meetings and communication channels to facilitate knowledge exchange, or employing a search engine marketing agency that has expertise in both.
2) Try your hand at cross-channel reporting
Cross-channel reporting can come in really handy when you’re working from a modest budget and want to squeeze the most from your marketing activities.
Using platforms like Google Analytics and Google Ads, it’s easy to gain a comprehensive understanding of your campaigns’ effectiveness, audience behaviour, and conversion paths across different channels.
Cross-channel reporting top tip
One way to ensure that your marketing budget is working most optimally toward your goals is to identify which PPC keywords are costing money where you already have a strong organic presence, and/or limited paid Ad competition.
Do this well and you can recalculate your PPC budget and reduce your ad spend knowing that you’re able to prop up performance with powerful organic reach.
This top tip also works the other way around.
3) Leverage PPC data insights to polish your SEO strategy
PPC data can reveal seasonal trends and fluctuations in user behaviour, such as peak times for searches and changes in search intent. By understanding these patterns, you can optimise your SEO strategy to align with the needs and preferences of your target audience throughout the year.
4) Conduct A/B testing across both your PPC and SEO strategies
A/B testing is the practice of measuring the performance of two different versions of a webpage or paid ad. You can apply A/B testing to various elements of your digital marketing strategy, from ad copy and landing page design to your calls-to-action and, if early on in your online journey, your branding.
Leveraging the insights gained from A/B testing, you can convert what you “think” might work into what you “know” does work—implementing changes on your website and in your organic search listings to improve their performance and conversion rates.
5) Drop low-performing keywords
Now that you’re using cross-channel reporting methods and A/B testing to enhance your search engine marketing performance, it’s crucial to spot and remove low-performing keywords from your campaigns.
These keywords may not be driving significant traffic or conversions and holding onto them can dilute the effectiveness of your overall strategy.
By regularly reviewing your keyword performance metrics, you can streamline your campaigns and focus resources on keywords that truly deliver.
6) Continually update and audit your website
Conduct regular website audits to identify technical issues, content gaps, and opportunities for optimisation. Ensure that your website is user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and easily navigated. This includes updating content regularly to keep it fresh and relevant and removing any outdated information that may negatively impact user experience and search engine rankings.
7) Index your PPC landing pages
Ensure that your PPC landing pages are properly indexed to maximize organic visibility and drive additional traffic from organic search results. You can do this by optimising landing page content with relevant keywords, meta tags like H1 headings, and structured data markup.
8) Create consistently sharp copy
Develop compelling ad copy and landing page content for PPC campaigns that align with SEO best practices and your brand guidelines. You’ll want to craft persuasive messaging that speaks to your target audience’s needs and interests, whilst incorporating relevant keywords to improve ad relevance and quality score.
You even use PPC ads to test different messaging variations (A/B testing, as referenced above) to identify the most effective copy, which you can then apply to your SEO content.
9) Give website content a boost with social media ads
While for SEO and PPC, search engines are where it’s at (68% of online experiences start with search engines!), there’s also a strong argument for boosting your online visibility further with the help of social media.
Social media engagement—such as likes, shares, and comments—can indirectly impact SEO. While social signals themselves may not directly influence search engine rankings, they can contribute to increased visibility and credibility, which can lead to more organic backlinks and improved search rankings over time.
The ripple effect: Make waves with a marketing strategy which makes SEO and PPC work together
Bread and butter. Fish and chips. Tea and biscuits. Just like SEO and PPC, some things are simply made for each other.
The advantages of getting your SEO and PPC working together are boundless. Improved brand confidence, local search visibility, lower CPC costs, better ROI, and a higher number of conversions can make a tangible difference to your turnover and the future stability of your company.
Of course, this takes work and not every business owner has the time or resources to pull off a multifaceted marketing campaign.
With an experienced digital marketing agency by your side, you can rest assured that your business’s online presence won’t fall ‘bee-hind’ the competition. With the pressure off your in-house staff, you can focus on what you do best – providing the best possible experience to your customers.
To forge ahead on your SEO x PPC journey, start by exploring beefound.agency’s comprehensive paid and organic search services today.
