When you’re doing everything you can to boost visibility in the market, some efforts overlap. When you’re running both SEO and PPC campaigns, you need to be aware of the effect the two efforts are having on each other.
The interplay between these two channels can impact your online presence. Paid search campaigns, while effective, can inadvertently overshadow organic search performance. By investing heavily in keywords that already drive organic traffic, businesses may find themselves paying for traffic they could have acquired for free.
Are you buying top search results from yourself?
By understanding how your PPC campaigns might affect your organic performance, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your overall search strategy. In this guide, we will explore how paid search affects organic, how the two can work harmoniously, and strategies for balancing both to maximize your digital marketing efforts.
In this guide:
Session Interactive excels in organic and paid search, offering customizable SEO strategies and PPC solutions. We have seen organic search cannibalization with clients and fixed it.
We bring a data-driven approach and decades of experience managing Google Ads and SEO campaigns. We make strategic campaign optimizations that meet clients’ unique marketing goals.
Does Paid Search Affect Organic Search?
The short answer: Yes.
The relationship between paid search and organic search is intricate, especially when it comes to branded PPC campaigns. Search ads get your link to the prime real estate above organic search results, but when you are already near the top of search, this prominent positioning can tempt users to click on a paid link when they would have clicked on your organic search result. Essentially, the visibility of paid ads can overshadow the organic listings, altering the flow of traffic that might have otherwise been captured without paying.
It’s important to consider the intent behind users searching for a specific brand. These users typically have a predetermined interest in engaging with the brand—whether for further information, a purchase, or customer service. This implies that they will likely visit the brand’s website regardless of paid ads. Consequently, PPC on brand terms could mean paying for traffic that would have naturally gravitated towards the brand’s site organically.
Therefore, you must carefully analyze the interplay between their paid and organic search efforts to make informed decisions. By assessing key metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and overall traffic distribution, you can identify whether your paid search strategies are complementing or cannibalizing their organic performance.
Does Paid Search Help Organic Search?
Paid search does not directly influence organic search rankings.
Search engine algorithms treat paid and organic search separately, meaning that boosting your paid search budget won’t inherently improve your organic rankings. However, paid search can indirectly influence user behavior, which may have an impact on your site’s organic traffic. While a significant portion of users prefer organic search results over paid ads, an impactful paid search strategy can pique interest and motivate users to explore a website organically.
It’s crucial to capture user attention with creative messaging. A well-crafted ad can create a strong initial impression, resonating with the viewer beyond the immediate click-through. If users encounter a paid ad that effectively communicates a compelling message or value proposition, they might remember the brand and seek it out organically later.
Paid search can also interest searchers who know your brand in other aspects of the business or deals they would otherwise have missed. By linking new or less-visited parts of your site in paid ads, you can avoid cannibalization and spark organic interest in your site.
How SEO & PPC Work Together
Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are two crucial components of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Google has conducted studies demonstrating that paid ads can drive additional traffic to a site beyond what organic search alone can achieve. However, it’s important to acknowledge Google’s vested interest in promoting Paid Search.
When a brand’s website appears both in paid and organic search results, the likelihood of capturing user clicks increases. This dual presence reinforces brand visibility while catering to different user preferences. Some users may trust organic results more, while others might be drawn to the immediacy of paid ads.
Even if a site is already ranking well organically, there are strategic reasons to invest in PPC campaigns. For instance, if competitors are actively bidding on your brand terms, they could divert traffic and capture users who are in the consideration phase. Maintaining competitive PPC campaigns ensures that your brand remains top-of-mind and accessible.
However, PPC campaigns can impact organic performance, particularly for high-intent keywords like branded terms. While branded PPC campaigns can provide immediate visibility and control over brand messaging, they may also reduce organic clicks for the same keywords. However, turning off PPC campaigns could lead to a decrease in overall traffic, as the site loses its dual listing advantage. Therefore, a thorough understanding of paid search strategies is crucial when evaluating your brand’s search performance so you can optimize both channels effectively without compromising overall traffic and engagement.
Balancing Organic Search with Paid Search
Effectively balancing organic search with paid search efforts requires a data-driven approach. You can investigate how these channels influence each other by analyzing performance trends in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and comparing keyword performance in Google Ads and Google Search Console (GSC). This analysis helps in understanding the interplay between paid and organic strategies and informs decisions on whether to adjust spending to allow organic traffic to flourish.
Analyze Keyword Performance in Google Ads and Google Search Console
To begin, it’s essential to identify high-performing organic keywords within GSC. These are the terms that naturally drive significant traffic to your website. Once identified, assess your ad campaigns in Google Ads that include these keywords. You can discern any inverse relationships between the channels by mapping performance trends. For instance, you may notice that as paid search spending increases for certain keywords, organic performance for those terms declines.
If this is the case, you should focus more on organic efforts for those keywords, potentially reducing paid search spending without sacrificing traffic volume.
Assess Cumulative ROI
Evaluate whether the total traffic was higher when both channels were active and determine whether higher spending on paid search justified itself or whether it merely duplicated the traffic that organic search could have captured.
If conversions and revenue from paid search mirror what was previously achieved through organic efforts alone, paid search is likely unnecessary. A well-rounded analysis ensures that both channels contribute to the overarching business goals efficiently, maximizing both visibility and profitability without unnecessary overlap.
Are your SEO and PPC campaigns playing nice?
At Session Interactive, we know analytics inside and out. We can help you discover and solve SEO and PPC issues and increase the overall efficiency of your marketing efforts. Contact us and watch your digital presence in search blossom.
