SEO vs PPC: An Integrated Approach for Higher Traffic
Hundreds of marketing publications have said that SEO and PPC should not be handled separately. However, traditional conventions prevent many digital marketing organizations and marketers from fully combining the two. In many models, an agency’s SEO team is even considered a danger to that agency’s PPC-fee income.
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In addition, one vendor may own the client brand’s SEO connection, while another separate organization manages the PPC. In that instance, the client may be hesitant to place both “families” in the same room. The client then serves as a middleman but may not always successfully transmit critical information back and forth.
This post will discuss a few crucial reasons for SEO PPC integration into collaborative campaigns, as well as why it is necessary to break down SEO vs PPC silos.
What’s the Difference Between SEO and PPC?
The primary distinction between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) is that traffic created by SEO (organic) is free, but the traffic generated by PPC is not (it has a cost per click).
This is also why you may come across the terms “organic search engine listings” and “sponsored search engine listings” (or Paid Search Advertising).
SEO and PPC campaigns are both components of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Some of the core differences between SEO and PPC include:
- With SEO, you rank on the first page of search engines by creating a keyword mapping strategy and optimizing your website content accordingly. PPC puts your ad on the first page if you pay a higher cost per click (CPC).
- Organic SEO traffic is incremental and continuous if you keep on top of your optimization efforts. PPC ads can get more clicks and traffic if you pay more money.
- SEO traffic does not always convert as well as PPC traffic that is driven from highly optimized keywords. Part of this is due to the ability to target and retarget narrow audiences on platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn with paid advertising campaigns, but also due to the opportunity to drive users to conversion-rate optimized landing pages that may be difficult to SEO because of the small amount of content on the page.
- PPC enables your website to show up when customers search for competitor brand names through the use of competitor conquesting in advertising.
- SEO is typically a long-term strategy, whereas PPC can create short-term gains by quickly creating search engine visibility.
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While there are differences between the two, the best B2B startup marketing strategies will focus on a strong SEO and PPC synergy.
How do SEO and PPC Work Together?
Several studies have indicated that SEO affects the number of clicks received by PPC ads. Google noticed that when a website has excellent organic search results, the clickthrough rate for its PPC advertising on the same search engine results page improves. Further studies demonstrated that this might also operate in the opposite direction – if you were wondering “does PPC affect SEO?”, the answer is oftentimes, yes.
Efforts in one channel might have a rippling effect on another’s performance. Stark Visibility achieves holistic development by applying best-practice SEO PPC management techniques and monitoring results across different channels.
Technical adjustments and content optimizations, for example, can be applied by SEO professionals for pages that have been recognized as underperforming by paid platforms in terms of their quality score (we will talk about quality scores in more detail later in this article). CPCs might be reduced, allowing for better use of budgetary resources. Because of this approach, nobody on the team misses out on fresh possibilities to increase performance.
Omnichannel marketing and retargeting allows you to get the benefits of SEO and PPC marketing without a lot of effort.
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You may remarket to people who find your site through organic search on social media, Google Ads, LinkedIn, and other online channels using the correct parameters. You can get users already familiar with your product to return to your site for a relatively low investment. For B2B and SaaS customers that find it hard to break into typical social channels, retargeting helps them to nurture the right buyers without broadcasting your ads across the web.
Benefits of SEO and PPC Synergy
There are various reasons why people are more inclined to click on an organic search result when they see a PPC advertisement.
Once they’ve clicked on an organic listing, they may be more inclined to convert if they’ve already seen your strong presence in the paid listings. PPC and SEO strategy working in tandem develops trust and brand recognition growth.
Creating Google Search campaigns for visibility in sponsored search results can also influence the organic clickthrough rate, while links in paid ads also drive visitors to a website. Additionally, when taking advantage of SEO and PPC together, brand’s can maximize their digital real estate of SERPs (search engine results pages).
For example, if you were ranking organically at position #1 for a certain keyword, and also ran search ads targeting that same keyword (along with free ad extensions to increase the information shown), your domain could dominate 2 out of 5 total destinations above the fold that a user can choose from. That’s 40% of the options your user has if they don’t scroll down the page (which they often don’t), massively increasing your website traffic.
Search engine results are also influenced by the volume of visitors and activity on a website. As a result, your organic search rankings may benefit if your PPC ads are bringing traffic to your website. Because this is only one element of the highly intricate jigsaw that determines how Google ranks websites, you’ll need to make sure all of your other ranking signals are in order as well.
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Having an SEO PPC agency ensures that your target demographic, brand identity, and voice are well defined. Using data from PPC creative messaging to assess the best outcomes for meta content optimization is just one example of how this can work. Your entire team will see the whole customer experience and work together to get the best outcomes for your consumers and your business, all while keeping brand voice consistent across digital touchpoints.
How to Integrate SEO and PPC
To get a high Quality Score in Google search results, Stark Visibility’s B2B lead generation agency focuses strongly on SEO keyword research services and on-page optimization. The Quality Score is based on Google’s estimation of the overall quality of your organization’s keywords, advertising, and landing pages. Ads with higher quality can lead to better placements, reduced pricing, and improved conversion rates.
This score is based on three factors: ad relevancy, predicted clickthrough rate, and user experience on the landing page. The higher your Quality Score is in Google’s view, the more relevant visitors find your landing page and ads—and this is where Stark Visibility comes in.
Stark Visibility’s inbound marketing approach utilizes Google Display and LinkedIn advertisements to generate brand awareness and fill the top of the sales funnel. Once demand has been developed, our strategy uses Google Search and SEO best practices to nurture incoming visitors, and optimized landing pages / paid lead generation campaigns to convert those visitors.
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More people will trust you, your content will be higher quality, and your brand will be well known if you have an optimized site through SEO. The better your website is, the more likely people will know about it, trust it and click on your ads. You’ll see a difference in your Adwords quality score because of this.
One key activity you don’t want to overlook when integrating SEO and PPC is accurately measuring marketing effectiveness. Developing a marketing measurement framework will enable you to attribute wins to the various campaigns and efforts across your marketing strategy.
SEO vs PPC: Is Organic Search or Paid Search Better for My Business?
PPC generates short-term results, but it may also bring long-term advantages. It’s typically a good idea for firms to use paid advertising while increasing their organic traffic. Others have discovered that running advertising even when organic traffic is consistent provides a steady revenue stream.
Reducing the reliance on SEO to fill all sections of the sales funnel and convert those users with paid advertising is always a good recipe for growth. Plus not only does SEO reduce PPC cost via Quality Score, but it also creates the opportunity to focus PPC budgets towards the section of the funnel that needs it most – oftentimes driving users to bottom of funnel landing pages to increase conversion rate.
SEO focuses on long-term results, and when done effectively, it may give a steady stream of new customers month after month.
The bottom line is that the best SEO and PPC companies are using both channels within their marketing strategies. You can rely on paid advertising as a fast resource to rank beyond your initial capacity, but in the long run you’ll spend a lot less by investing in search engine optimization.
Imagine a B2B startup or SaaS company.
For B2B technology firms, SEO is a superior long-term approach; but while you wait for your content to rank, you may use PPC to fill the gap and quickly go-to-market. Here, it’s essential to create a balance between your SEO PPC marketing efforts to lower the long-term cost per lead and eventually lessen your dependency on PPC for lead generation.
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Where Should I Get Started?
The Stark Visibility team can help you combine SEO and PPC for effective awareness, traffic and lead generation. Our B2B agency works with clients to understand their website structure, content, business objectives, and the competitive landscape to enable you to deploy the right SEO vs PPC tactics.
Our Google Ads management services and LinkedIn lead generation services adhere to best practice PPC SEO synergy. The data-driven Adwords management works in tandem with the B2B SEO services using shared algorithm concepts of SEO and PPC.
Contact Stark Visibility for a free consultation to begin scaling your website traffic and visibility.