Leveraging PPC and SEO Together
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are often viewed as competing marketing strategies. However, using them together can compound your marketing results. In this article, we’ll explore how PPC and SEO complement each other and how to effectively use them together.
How PPC and SEO work together
PPC and SEO are complementary digital marketing strategies that share a common goal of driving more relevant traffic from search engines to your website and increasing your online presence. However, each achieves these goals in very different ways.
PPC, or pay-per-click, is a form of paid digital advertising that displays your ads on search engines and other platforms and you pay each time someone clicks your listing and goes to your website. PPC ads offer the advantage of immediate visibility and traffic generation by targeting ads to specific audiences. With PPC you control your ad budget and target your ads to specific demographics, locations, keywords, and devices. While PPC ensures quick search result visibility, your ad traffic will only persist while your budget does. This is where SEO serves as a perfect partner to PPC.
SEO, or search engine optimization, focuses on optimizing your website and content around relevant keywords to rank organically on search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive free traffic. SEO is a long-term strategy for sustainable organic growth. With SEO, you don’t have to pay for the clicks to your website, however, it does take a significant investment to create quality content and begin showing up organically in the search results for relevant keywords.
1. Dominating the SERP
In the digital landscape, 'real estate' refers to the prime spots on a search results page. Paid ads often secure these top positions because advertisers bid on keywords, with the highest bidders usually winning the most visible slots. Below these paid entries, organic results appear, earned through SEO without direct payment. Organic search results feature websites in order of how relative the website content is to the search query, with the most relevant and highest quality content featured first.
Running PPC ads on certain keywords and then implementing SEO around those same keywords can help improve the amount of potential real estate you're capturing in the SERPs. This dual presence expands your brand’s reach and maximizes your chances of capturing more traffic. By covering more real estate on the SERPs, you also reduce the visibility of competitors, making it more likely that searchers will engage with your brand. This strategy significantly improves brand visibility, drives higher traffic, and increases the likelihood of conversions.
Here’s an example of Sachin & Babi showing up in both the paid and organic search results on Google for the keyword ‘evening gowns.’ They’re running PPC ads to show up in the Google Shopping sponsored products section and occupy 3 of the top sponsored product ad slots. They also have a strong SEO strategy in place to show up in the organic results. Since they’re taking advantage of both the paid and organic sections, they occupy 4 of the first 8 results for the keyword ‘evening gowns.’
Description: Example of a Google search result for the keyword ‘evening gowns.’
2. Boosting Brand Name Searches
A strategic blend of PPC and SEO can create a virtuous cycle of raising brand awareness and increasing website traffic. Research by Search Engine Journal shows as more users are exposed to your brand via PPC ads, there is an increased likelihood of them searching for your brand directly on search engines. This increase in direct searches can signal an increase in your brand’s relevance and popularity in the eyes of search engines, which can positively impact your organic search ranking.
A Google search for ‘Banana Republic’ demonstrates this concept well. Notice that Banana Republic advertises on their brand name capturing all of the paid Google Shopping ad results. Banana Republic also ranks number one for the brand name on the organic search results and thus captures the entire SERP above the fold.
Description: Example of a brand name search in Google for ‘Banana Republic.’
To maximize this effect, consider using a mix of branded and non-branded keywords in your PPC campaigns. To further understand how these approaches can complement your overall marketing efforts, read our post on branded vs. non-branded paid search. For the most effective brand-building campaigns, consider partnering with a Google ads agency. They can help set up and manage your brand awareness campaigns to make sure they’re as effective as possible.
3. A Consistent Brand Experience for Users
When implementing SEO and PPC together, it's crucial to maintain a consistent brand experience across your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages. This alignment can be assessed through Google's Quality Score—a metric that measures ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience and that influences your ad's position and cost-per-click. To optimize this score, ensure your ad copy resonates with the targeted keywords without overusing them and reflects the user's search intent. Your landing pages should not only incorporate these keywords naturally but also provide a positive user experience by being clear, relevant, trustworthy, and easy to navigate.
Description: Example of a Google search for ‘summer dresses’ returning paid search ads from REVOLVE and Free People, and the landing pages for each PPC ad.
For instance, if you're a retailer like REVOLVE or Free People, your PPC ads for the keyword ‘summer dresses’ should lead to a landing page focused on summer attire, not a generic clothing page. This specificity boosts relevance, contributing to a higher Quality Score, which in turn can lead to better ad placements and lower costs. In the example of REVOLVE and Free People, both landing pages highlight summer dresses indicating alignment of keywords, ad copy, and landing pages. Google calculates the Quality Score each time your keyword triggers an ad, making real-time adjustments based on how well your ad aligns with the search query and the user's experience on your landing page. Over time, these adjustments can lead to a more efficient ad spend and a stronger overall online presence.
When you align keywords, ad copy, and landing pages you’re also providing a better user experience for your website visitors. This results in stronger ad performance and more conversions since you’re creating an experience that aligns with exactly what the users are looking for.
Keeping these strategies in mind, you can create a cohesive journey from keyword to conversion, satisfying both Google's algorithms and the customers you aim to attract. Focusing on Quality Score helps optimize immediate PPC campaign results and complements long-term SEO efforts by contributing to a stronger online presence.
4. Short-Term and Long-Term Goals
Another benefit of aligning PPC and SEO is that it caters to both short-term and long-term digital marketing goals. PPC campaigns are the go-to for achieving immediate visibility and quick results and are ideal when you’re trying to bring in customers quickly and have the ad budget to do so. SEO is a marathon. It focuses on building a solid foundation for your online presence over time. Through consistent and thoughtful content creation and keyword optimization, SEO efforts accumulate to increase organic search visibility and build website authority. When leveraging both PPC and SEO together, businesses can balance the need for quick results with the goal of long-term sustainability. This hybrid strategy ensures that while you're capitalizing on immediate opportunities through PPC, you're also investing in future growth.
5. Access to More User Behavior Data
Integrating PPC and SEO strategies unlocks a wealth of data, providing double the insights to refine your marketing efforts. You can analyze keyword data from your PPC campaign to help inform your SEO strategy and vice versa. Google Ads provides keyword data from your PPC advertising, and Google Search Console provides data from your SEO strategy.
Here’s an example of using both Google Ads data and Google Search Console data to help improve your PPC and SEO campaigns:
Scenario 1 - Using PPC Data to Improve SEO:
Imagine you have a clothing brand and you’re running PPC ads for your products and implementing an SEO strategy. You have a collection page with long dresses and need to decide between targeting these two keywords:
Full length dresses
Maxi dresses
To assist with the decision, use your existing Google Ads data. For instance, if the keyword 'Maxi dresses' attracts more traffic and converts better, focus on that keyword in your SEO strategy.
Scenario 2 - Using SEO Data to Improve PPC:
If you’ve been implementing an SEO strategy, your Search Console data can improve your PPC campaign by revealing which pages and keywords are generating impressions and traffic. For example, the Search Console allows you to export various keyword performance data. One might use this info to guide your PPC budget allocations by allocating more budget to products with high organic traffic, indicating strong demand.
How to Successfully Use PPC and SEO Together
1. Align Initial Keyword Strategies
When starting with SEO or PPC, the first step is to identify your target keywords. Make sure that the keywords targeted in your PPC campaigns are also a focus of your SEO efforts and vice versa. This alignment helps reinforce your message across both channels, maximizing visibility and coherence in your marketing message.
When identifying your initial strategy, you need to validate search demand and user intent for your keyword prospects. Using a tool like SEMRush will help you understand how often your ideal customers are searching for specific keywords, along with what exactly they’re looking for when they search those keywords.
The main idea is to have a starting point. In the next section, we’ll cover how to use data to optimize your PPC and SEO strategies.
2. Use Data to Prioritize Keywords
PPC and SEO campaigns feed off of each other. Several months after implementing your initial PPC and SEO strategies, you should have enough data to begin optimizing your performance for each campaign.
Use PPC Data to Optimize SEO Strategy
Description: Screenshot from Google Ads dashboard showing the “Search Keywords” tab.
Use the insights gained from PPC ad copy performance to inform your SEO content strategy. Identify which messages and call-to-actions resonate most with your audience and incorporate these elements into your website and blog content. This can help in increasing the relevance and engagement of your SEO efforts.
Keywords that perform well in PPC campaigns are proven to resonate with your target audience. Incorporating these keywords into your SEO strategy can significantly improve the quality of your organic traffic. This method can help you optimize your website for the most impactful and relevant keywords.
To start understanding your high-performing keywords, export your list of keywords from your PPC campaign and sift through the list to determine which keywords would be ideal to show up for organically. Look at the specific metrics that are important to you. That could be the total number of clicks, conversions, or cost per conversion. Once you have a solid list of keywords, determine how you can incorporate them into your SEO strategy.
Targeting high buying intent keywords will work best with bottom of the funnel pages like collection and product pages, whereas top of the funnel pages like blog content will work best for information keywords.
Use SEO Data to Optimize PPC Strategy
Description: Screenshot from Search Console dashboard showing the “Search Results” tab.
Once you have some SEO data available in the Search Console and Google Analytics, you’ll be able to use that information to shape your PPC strategy. You can use SEO data to optimize your ad copy and bid strategy.
Use the Search Console to find:
● Keywords that generate organic clicks
● Pages with a high number of organic clicks
Use Google Analytics to find:
● Products with a high conversion rate
● Products that bring in revenue
Review the information to see where you can improve your PPC strategy. We recommend incorporating successful keywords from your SEO campaign into your ad copy. You should also consider adjusting your bid strategy to prioritize products and categories that convert well organically.
3. Optimize for User Experience and Keywords
User Experience
Both PPC and SEO should focus on delivering a positive user experience, from the ad or search result to the landing page. It’s best practice to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and provides valuable content. A seamless user experience also reduces bounce rates, increases engagement, and improves both ad Quality Scores and SEO rankings.
A well-optimized product page serves several purposes: it improves the user experience for visitors coming through PPC ads and improves organic rankings on search engines.
Here are some key elements that can impact both PPC Quality Scores and SEO rankings:
● Title tags that are concise and keyword-rich.
● Meta descriptions that are attention-grabbing and include relevant keywords.
● Keyword-rich product titles.
● Product descriptions that are detailed, unique, and include relevant keywords.
● Header tags that structure the content and include relevant keywords.
● URL structure that is short and keyword-rich.
● High-quality images that attract customers and include descriptive alt-text.
● Product Recommendations that help customers find other relevant products.
● Customer Reviews that help build trust with your customers
Eloquii is an example of a brand that uses keyword-rich titles, high-quality images, and product recommendations to create a great user experience.
Description: Example of Eloquii creating a good user experience for their customers.
Keywords
Many brands use unique product naming conventions instead of keyword-rich product titles. This is a missed opportunity. You can still maintain your unique naming convention while also incorporating relevant keywords.
Lululemon is a great example of a brand that uses unique product names and keyword-rich product titles. Here is a product named ‘lululemon Align High-Rise Pant 28.’ ‘Lululemon Align’ is their unique naming and ‘High-Rise Pant 28’ is the keyword-rich part of their product title.
Description: Lululemon product page demonstrating their unique product naming while also including keyword-rich product titles.
If you already have data, ensure your top-performing keywords are in both the product title and description to boost PPC and SEO performance. Optimizing product pages for both attracts customers and increases conversions and sales.
Conclusion
PPC and SEO are complementary strategies that can propel a brand's online presence. Aligning PPC and SEO together creates an approach to digital marketing that can drive additional higher-quality traffic, maximize ROI, and ensure long-term sustainability. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the integration of PPC and SEO will undoubtedly remain a cornerstone for successful marketing strategies, helping businesses thrive online.
About
SabinoDB is a leading e-commerce and marketing technology company committed to helping companies grow their business by making data and technology their competitive advantage. Our solutions include Digital Advertising, E-Commerce Personalization, ‘Shop The Look’ Outfit Recommendations and Product Recommendations, Direct Mail and Catalog Response Models, and Web Development. If you are interested in learning about how SabinoDB can help your company, please contact Ryan Hammon. Email - ryan.hammon@sabinodb.com Phone - (415) 847-8103.
Sources:
1. Google Ads Help - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118?hl=en
2. SEMRush Blog - https://www.semrush.com/blog/ppc-and-seo-working-together/
3. Search Engine Journal - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-brand-awareness-is-the-fifth-pillar-of-seo/461435/
4. SEMRush Blog - https://www.semrush.com/blog/buyer-keywords/
