6 Benefits of Running SEO and PPC Campaigns Together

PPC and SEO are frequently regarded as two completely separate marketing strategies to increase brand visibility in the digital market, however they should not be viewed as mutually exclusive. Many business owners have the view that if they are already performing well through one of these approaches, the other is not necessary. However, running SEO and PPC campaigns together can increase site visitors, increase your visibility, and increase your revenue.

An airtight SEO strategy focuses on backlinking, meta descriptions, and outreaching to increase organic search rankings, while a PPC strategy uses paid advertising and strategy to earn your link a higher spot on the results page. Although PPC and SEO have many differences, both are forms of the same line of attack – search marketing. There are a number of benefits that come with running both SEO and PPC campaigns simultaneously, working together to complement each other and form a more successful search marketing strategy. 

1 – Combining SEO and PPC Can Ensure More Consistent Ranking

Google constantly updates their algorithms. As a result of these algorithm updates, organic rankings can change significantly in a short period of time. SEO optimises organic ranking based on comprehensive research, however, a site could rank in top positions for many competitive keywords one week, and not be found anywhere near the first page the next due to an update. To mitigate the potential loss of rank stemming from these fluctuations, PPC can be used in conjunction with SEO to maintain page rank while an SEO strategy is optimised to the new updates.

For example, fluctuations in the algorithm that push site rankings to page 2 or more can be avoided if you are running paid ads in addition to organic SEO. Ad Rank is generally fairly consistent, so long as your ads are relevant and specific, and you have your ads set up and managed with the right blend of budget and quality score in place. In this scenario, by not placing all your eggs in one basket (in this case, SEO), you will still have the other to fall back on and give you that all important first page visibility.

2 – Double Your Visibility

One of the great advantages of running both Google Ads campaigns and an SEO strategy, is the potential to appear more than once on the search results page. This will double the visibility of your site on a page, giving you that extra ammunition to fight for a user’s attention amongst the competition.

A site owner who appears in the top 3 positions organically, may decide there is no point in pursuing with the PPC advertising. What he/she should consider however, is that the top few results on a results page are paid ads. Meaning the user could see your site listed twice, within the top 6 results or so on the page.

3 – Receive Greater Click Through & Site Traffic

One of the great advantages of running both Google Ads campaigns and an SEO strategy, is the potential to appear more than once on the search results page. This will double the visibility of your site on a page, giving you that extra ammunition to fight for a user’s attention amongst the competition. 

A site owner who appears in the top 3 positions organically may decide that there is no point in pursuing PPC advertising. What he/she should consider however, is that the top few results on a results page are paid ads. Meaning the user could see your site listed twice, within the top 6 results or so on the page.

4 – Greater Opportunity For Conversions

Doubling the visibility of your site increases the chances of a user clicking through to your website. A dual PPC and SEO strategy allows your website to stand out to users, and avoid getting lost in a sea of seemingly infinite links. With added visibility in search results pages comes higher potential for clicks through to your website. This extra traffic means a higher proportion of users or consumers will see your products or services listed on your site, and therefore increase the chance of gaining business.

5 – Keyword Data Sharing and Testing

This dual strategy allows you to increase your data sample size, thus allowing you to fine tune your marketing strategy to a more accurate degree. By having both PPC and SEO campaigns running together, you will have twice the data to analyse. This extra data will enable you to make more informed decisions as part of your overall search marketing strategy.

In addition, PPC adverts can offer a medium in which to test keywords, and therefore inform SEO campaigns. Ads can be set up to test how well certain words convert. A decision can then be made whether or not to pursue certain phrases as part of your SEO campaign.

6 – PPC Ad Copy Performance Can Help With Organic Content Plan

As with testing keywords using PPC, it can be useful to see which of your ads are performing well and resulting in the highest conversions in terms of ad copy. By taking examples that are working for PPC, you can then create title tags, meta descriptions and on page content based on these, to try and achieve similar click through success with your organic listings.

PPC campaigns allow you to expedite the process of testing the performance of ad copy and keywords. Testing elements with PPC is effective due to the immediate results that can be seen. You’ll be able to quickly understand which ads are working, whereas testing things like titles and meta data through SEO adjustments can take longer.

Conclusion

Overall, taking an integrated approach to your digital marketing through the combination of SEO and PPC campaigns offers numerous advantages. By focusing on a single area or platform, you are ultimately reducing your potential for that all important visibility, traffic and conversions. PPC and SEO, although different, can really compliment and strengthen the effectiveness of one another to help bring extra online success. There are many more ways to improve your digital marketing strategy, read our top 5 here.