Why SEO and PPC Work Best When Used Together

Many brands view SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) marketing strategies as separate entities and may only focus and invest in one of them at a time.

It’s true that both SEO and PPC are effective marketing strategies that can drive traffic to your website if you were to use just one or the other. However, even though they work in different ways, you can achieve even better results when you use SEO and PPC together as part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

For the uninitiated, SEO helps increase a site’s organic traffic through enhanced visibility and site authority; search engines like Google see keyword-optimized content and rank it more highly. 

PPC, alternatively, is a paid advertising method where you pay to have your ad shown on the search engine results pages, or SERPs. Consider the Google search pages for a very easy demonstration of these two strategies. The PPC ad will be displayed in a specific ad space, either above or below the organic search results. While SEO is free, PPC is paid, and you will have to pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

In spite of being very different from each other in theory, SEO and PPC strategies are reliant on one another more often than not. Running SEO and PPC campaigns will unearth vital information that helps one in improving the performance of the other. Therefore, it’s a huge mistake not actively to integrate your SEO and PPC efforts, as doing so can help your website reach its fullest potential in the SERPs.

Similarities between SEO and PPC Marketing Strategies

The differences between SEO and PPC – one is paid and one is free, and one is on your website while the other is ads hosted on other sites – are obvious. Now, let’s look at some of their similarities.

• Identifying the best keywords is an integral part of every marketing strategy. Both SEO and PPC marketing strategies require keyword research to identify the best keywords to target.
• In order to be successful, ongoing effort and constant monitoring of both SEO performance and PPC are extremely crucial.

The Benefits of Using SEO and PPC Together

These two tactics are supportive of each other, and taking pains to do them correctly will produce gains in both campaigns. 

Let's look at some of the benefits of using SEO and PPC together that will help you make the best decisions for your business:

1. Widens your company's reach
2. Creates a highly economical marketing strategy
3. Keyword data sharing produces better outcomes
4. Increase conversions using remarketing ads
5. Understanding you audience better
6. Reach failed conversions

A Wider Reach

When SEO and PPC are used together, it helps you gain a wider reach and connect with more potential customers.

While SEO helps attract organic traffic from customers who are already interested in your offering, PPC lets you reach out to those who may not be familiar with your brand but are searching for keywords related to your products or services.

When PPC is coupled with SEO efforts, your brand can potentially consume a large portion of the SERPs, showcasing advertisements at the top and organic listings below. So, even if searchers skip the ad section and go directly to the organic rankings, they will be able to find your business there as well.

If your company is well-represented in the SERPs, it enhances the confidence of the consumers, who will view your business as a reputable one that provides products and services of high quality. This helps your site gain more exposure and helps attain a wider reach, increasing the chances of users clicking through to the brand’s site.

A Highly Economical Marketing Strategy

Using SEO and PPC together can be a cost-effective marketing strategy, as PPC can help supplement any organic traffic you're already getting from SEO.

Even if you're currently ranking in the top three spots for a certain keyword, you might still want to consider running a PPC campaign to help increase your chances of getting clicks. This means that even if you drop down in the rankings, you will still have some visibility because of the PPC ads.

Now, let’s look at a different scenario. If you're not currently ranking for a certain keyword, but you're running a PPC campaign for it, then utilizing SEO can be helpful in improving your chances of getting organic traffic from that keyword. People click on your ad, go to your site, and in doing so, give you higher traffic. Search engines, in turn, see the higher traffic and raise the site’s prominence accordingly.

Keyword Data Sharing Produces Better Outcomes

Keyword research and keyword data sharing provide one of the biggest opportunities for growth while trying to bridge the gap between SEO and PPC.

PPC campaigns can generate immediate results, so advertisers can identify the keywords that have proven to be profitable and pass that information to SEO teams, which will help them optimize pages for enhanced visibility and traffic.

Another advantage of using keyword information from PPC campaigns is that SEO teams will be able to understand the types of terms that users are searching for. This allows marketers to utilize PPC data to make the necessary adjustments to SEO campaigns instead of waiting on their own SEO data to begin rolling in. This helps generate immediate results.

Increase Conversions Using Remarketing Ads

Let’s suppose that you have a website page that has been in the #1 spot in search results for some time. You managed to drive a ton of traffic to that site via organic search using SEO. You can now remarket to those same visitors using PPC ads.

Since these visitors are already familiar with your brand as they have visited your website before, the remarketing ads will be very effective for increasing conversions.

It is true that remarketing ads are often used to drive conversion and stimulate a purchase from someone who left your site without converting; however, remarketing ads can also be used for targeting the bottom of the marketing funnel as they help in fostering loyalty and retaining customers. 

Understand Your Audience Better

Through paid advertising, you get to learn a lot about your target audience. Things like regular A/B testing help you find out which images and text are more effective at resonating with your audience. 

The below screenshot is one such example. It gives details about the images used in a PPC campaign, including the number of clicks, impressions, and conversion rate. This data will be helpful in determining which images are effective and which ones are not. 

In a nutshell, A/B testing helps in finding out what words, phrases, images, videos, and other elements work best. The data that you collect from your PPC campaigns can be applied to your SEO work. This will help you understand more about consumer preferences and search intent.

Reach Customers that Failed to Convert

Many users may show interest and visit your pages thanks to SEO work, but fail to take any actual action such as subscribing to your newsletter or purchasing something. This may be a bit disheartening; however, you shouldn’t feel demotivated, because this consumer just became aware of your company.

Since you used SEO to attract this visitor, they got an idea of what you do and what you have to offer. At a later point in time, you can chase these customers and recapture their attention through compelling PPC ad campaigns. The prospective customers are more likely to show interest and engage with the organically listed content as they are familiar with your brand.

SEO + PPC = Unlock a World of Opportunities

PPC and SEO are effective individually but can see additional success when implemented alongside each other. Getting the most out of both your SEO and PPC campaigns requires careful planning and expertise.

It is important to understand that PPC and SEO teams can benefit greatly if they share data and opportunities, and ultimately your aim should be to create one digital marketing strategy that supports the entire marketing stack.

What are small businesses doing with their SEO strategies? Read through our 2022 report.

Additional Reading:

• What Does PPC Stand For & Why Invest in It
• 3 Ways to Approach Online Presence Management
• Search Engine Marketing: Why People Click on Paid Search Ads