Why you should be using PPC to inform your SEO strategy
Rather than thinking about them as two separate entities, it's wise to recognise the benefits of using PPC and SEO to complement one another.
If you own a business or you work in marketing, you’ll no doubt be somewhat familiar with SEO and PPC. With the majority of businesses now needing an online presence to succeed, SEO has formed the foundations for many brand’s long-term digital marketing efforts, while PPC is often used to gain an immediate presence for a new company or service offering.
SEO and PPC work in different ways to achieve the same end goal
Through SEO you can increase your site’s organic traffic through enhanced visibility and site authority – basically, direct the right people to your website by gaining the trust of the search engines.
On the other hand, PPC works to generate traffic through carefully created and targeted paid adverts in search engines and social channels.
Both are designed to drive traffic and increase the amount of visitors to your website, they just go about it in slightly different ways.
How SEO and PPC complement each other
Many see them as two completely different channels but in fact, they work incredibly well together. SEO and PPC strategies often rely on one another, feeding the other with key information that can help to improve the performance of the other.
Here’s how…
PPC campaigns generate immediate, measurable results, which marketers can use to identify keywords that have proven to be profitable and most effective. These can then be incorporated into the SEO strategy to ensure maximum exposure and long-term visibility.
Benefits of combining SEO and PPC campaigns
You can attract people at different points in their buying journey
It’s not completely black and white but generally, those visitors who come through your PPC ads tend to be a little further along in their buying journey and are therefore more likely to convert. However, that’s not to say your SEO efforts don’t have value. People searching for specific terms who find you organically may not be ready to buy immediately, but by optimising your blog posts and site content for these keywords, it means you’re attracting visitors looking for a bit more information before they purchase – who will hopefully come back and convert.
You maximise your visibility
Being present via both PPC and SEO means you’re dominating in terms of your online presence. As we’ve said, SEO is a long-term strategy and it takes time for it to start showing you the results you want – basically you’ve got to earn your organic place. However, if you want things to move a little more quickly, whilst your SEO efforts are taking hold, you can invest in PPC to pay for your place on the search engines.
Many brands utilise the effectiveness of implementing both PPC and SEO together and done right, it can double the chances of a browser visiting your website.
Take the example below. When you enter “dining chairs” into Google, the brand Made appears twice: one as a paid advert and one organic result…
You can manage budgets more effectively
PPC varies in cost depending on what you’re targeting and where. Plus, you pay per click with no guarantee of a conversion (which depends on your keyword research, market analysis and landing page design amongst other things) so you may come to the end of your budget without having as many conversions as you’d like. The great thing about PPC is that you can pause your ads at any time, switching them off and on when your budget suits. By having a strong SEO strategy in place, it means when your paid ads aren’t running, you still have a good online presence to work with.
As a leading digital agency in Manchester, we can help maximise your online exposure by ensuring your PPC campaigns are in sync with your long-term SEO goals. If you’re looking for an SEO agency that can combine great creativity with technical knowledge that builds truly integrated campaigns that deliver, contact us about your goals and ambitions.
