How SEO Can Increase Your PPC Budget: On Combining These Often-Separate Strategies

In the world of digital marketing, there is always something new to learn. Whether you’re an analytic SEO adapting new data measurement criteria, a social marketer focusing on branding, or a paid search consultant simply trying to keep up with the ever-changing horizon, it starts to make sense why so many marketing departments are still rather divided along the lines of SEO, PPC, Social, and Content Marketing, allowing each to hone their specialty.

Now, as we all know, content marketing has a direct correlation with PPC in that it involves a type of content that can be enhanced whereas SEO and Social have become increasingly friendly. But even in the most forward-thinking marketing agencies and departments, SEO and PPC are seen as two separate endeavors, albeit with similar goals of increasing traffic and conversions.

Often when a company is happy with their SEO efforts and find themselves ranking atop Google for a large number of searches, they won’t even invest in PPC as it can seem like a redundant expense. After all, if you’re already investing in organic search, paying for paid visits that may convert at a lesser rate is far from an attractive proposition.

But think about this. You’re constantly aiming to reduce your cost-per-click in PPC while also seeking to grow your ranking with SEO. SEO also takes some time before the results are truly felt whereas with PPC, you can drive traffic and get yourself on page one of the SERPs almost instantly, offsetting the limited SEO results one can expect within the first three months of a campaign.

A recent report published by the marketing agency ZOG found that clients that invest and implement both SEO and PPC experience an overall higher CTR. Additionally, clients that invested solely in SEO saw an average CPC of $2.06 where those that did both saw their CPC drop to $1.18. This was due to the fact that nearly all paid ads with organic efforts in place saw a higher CTR, likely caused by enhanced SERP exposure and richer content.

And achieving this integration does not require a massive restructuring or months of strategizing. It simply requires total transparency between the two departments when it comes to sharing data and information. By organizing that data around keywords with active search ads, keywords with organic rankings, and keywords with both, you can directly monitor how your respective PPC and SEO efforts are feeding into and enhancing one another.