Merging SEO and PPC strategies can offer a competitive advantage to B2B digital marketing campaigns. While these two techniques are often viewed as two separate sets of activities, they share the same goal of capturing more leads and improving sales.
By using SEO to increase organic traffic, and PPC to generate leads and sales via paid advertisements, businesses can create a powerful marketing mix that delivers results.
This article delves into the benefits of blending SEO and PPC techniques while also providing actionable tips on implementing these strategies in your upcoming campaigns. Discover how you can take your digital marketing efforts to new heights.
SEO and PPC – The differences
Search engine marketing encompasses various techniques, among which SEO and PPC are two of the most extensively employed. While both methods are designed to enhance a company’s online presence, there are notable distinctions between the two strategies. Let’s explore those differences and show you how to use them to your advantage.
For instance, consider that you are responsible for marketing an e-commerce shop that specialises in selling organic skincare items. To boost website traffic and sales, you opt to invest in both SEO and PPC. Utilising SEO can enhance your organic search rankings and drive consistent traffic in the long-run, while PPC can generate immediate traffic and sales.
Here’s a quick comparative refresher about the primary differences between SEO and PPC:
- Placement: PPC adverts can be found at the top of search engine listings, surpassing organic rankings that SEO offers.
- Cost: Advertisers who benefit from PPC adverts have to pay a fee for every site visit.
- Timing: Results from PPC campaigns, whether it’s for traffic, awareness or conversion, are immediate. SEO strategies take a specific amount of time, and businesses may need to wait for several months to get a return on investment.
- Longevity: Once SEO starts yielding results, the changes are long-lasting and advantageous for the business.
By understanding these differences, businesses can tailor their search engine marketing strategies to their specific needs and goals. And, by using a combination of B2B SEO and B2B advertising, businesses can capture immediate leads and build long-term visibility, resulting in a comprehensive and effective online marketing campaign.
SEO and PPC – The similarities
While SEO and PPC may seem like entirely separate activities, they actually share some notable similarities that shouldn’t be overlooked. For one, both SEO & PPC are all about driving traffic to a website and turning that traffic into leads and sales.
The biggest similarity between SEO and PPC is that they’re both keyword-driven tactics. SEO experts need to carefully analyse the terms and phrases that people are searching for in order to optimise their website content. And in PPC, advertisers use keyword research to bid on the most popular phrases and exclude irrelevant ones.
One of the greatest benefits of utilising both SEO and PPC strategies is how they can complement each other, resulting in a more substantial influx of traffic and potential leads. By leveraging the strengths of both approaches, businesses can create a truly comprehensive online marketing strategy that maximises their reach and gets results.
Let’s consider a legal firm that specialises in personal injury cases. The firm wants to increase their online presence and generate more leads. By using SEO, they can optimise their website content for relevant upper-funnel keywords and improve their organic search rankings for people researching their options after suffering an injury. Meanwhile, PPC ads can help them bid on relevant keywords and drive immediate traffic from people who are ready to contact a personal injury firm.
Here are some of the key similarities between SEO and PPC:
- Both aim to drive website traffic and generate leads or conversions in return
- Both require keyword research to identify relevant search queries
- Both require regular monitoring and adjustment to maximise their effectiveness
- Both are integral components of a comprehensive search engine marketing strategy
By combining SEO and PPC, businesses can cover all bases and ensure that their online marketing efforts are comprehensive and more effective. Whether it’s immediate traffic and conversions from PPC or long-term visibility from SEO, the two techniques can work together to deliver great results.
The synergy: Using SEO and PPC together
Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising differ in many ways. When these two activities are combined, it can lead to excellent outcomes for businesses, such as greater reach and a more steady & reliable pipeline of new business. Here’s what you can achieve:
1. Increased sales and better lead generation
Over 70% of search traffic is directed towards websites that appear on the first page of search engine results, with the majority of clicks being attributed to the top five websites. Using PPC advertising allows a business to quickly obtain placement at the top of search results for targeted keywords and attract more clicks, ultimately leading to more sales.
However, relying solely on PPC ads can be risky, as not all users click on ads. By implementing a robust SEO strategy, businesses can also appear in organic search results, increasing their visibility and chances of generating leads. However, by implementing both SEO and PPC, businesses can achieve greater (double) exposure on search engine results pages (SERPs).
2. Brand awareness
Building brand awareness is crucial for every business, but solely relying on SEO to accomplish this can be a challenging and time-consuming endeavour. It can take several months of consistent effort to see significant results, leaving businesses buried in the SERPs and struggling to gain visibility on the first page of organic search results.
Nonetheless, by merging SEO with a carefully planned search advertising (PPC) campaign, businesses can gain superior brand visibility in both the immediate and distant future. Unlike SEO, PPC provides businesses with the opportunity to bypass the organic search ranking algorithms of platforms like Google and Bing to appear at the top of search results for particular keywords.
3. Keyword symbiosis
Effective keyword optimisation plays a vital role in both search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA aka PPC) campaigns. However, determining the most effective keywords to target can be difficult without the appropriate tools and data.
To achieve the best outcomes, businesses can take advantage of the mutually beneficial relationship between SEO and PPC. By running a PPC campaign that targets several keywords, businesses can gain valuable insights into which keywords are generating the most leads and user engagement.
This data can subsequently be transferred to the SEO team, who can use it to refine their campaign and target those particular keywords.
4. Better decision making
In addition to improving brand visibility and driving sales, SEO and PPC can also provide a wealth of data for businesses to make informed decisions. By analysing metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, time spent on site, and conversion rates from both campaigns, marketeers can gain valuable insights into consumer behaviour and preferences.
These insights can be used to optimise keyword targeting, generate more leads and conversions, and make informed decisions about marketing strategies and website changes. By combining the data from both SEO and PPC campaigns, businesses can benefit from a comprehensive and robust source of data for better decision making.
Tracking and measuring performance
It’s important to set specific goals for your business, such as determining the amount of traffic you wish to generate, how much you are willing to invest in leads, and the expected timeframe for achieving results. These objectives should be well-defined but not overly complex.
When it comes to PPC, there are numerous vital performance indicators (KPIs) to consider, such as click-through rates and return on ad spend. By analysing this data, you can determine which keywords drive revenue, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
In terms of SEO, the focus is on generating organic traffic, improving keyword ranking, enhancing user engagement metrics such as time spent on a page, and ultimately increasing organic conversions. With tools such as Google Analytics, these metrics can be tracked to ensure that the right keywords are being targeted and content that resonates with the audience is being created.
By leveraging the strengths of both SEO and PPC, a business can enhance their website’s performance and boost profitability. Therefore, it is important to conduct experiments, monitor progress, and make data-driven decisions to accomplish SEM objectives.
Suggestions for a successful hybrid SEO and PPC strategy:
- Use PPC advertising to quickly establish brand recognition and visibility for targeted keywords.
- Develop and execute a comprehensive branding strategy that includes a mix of PPC and SEO tactics to build a consistent and cohesive brand presence on search.
- Leverage the targeting and messaging capabilities of PPC advertising to reach specific audiences and increase brand awareness.
- Use data and analytics to track and measure the success of your brand awareness campaigns, making adjustments as needed to achieve better results.
- Continuously optimise and adapt your branding strategy to stay relevant and competitive in your industry.
- Use A/B testing to determine the most effective ad copy and landing pages for each keyword.
- Track and analyse metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, time spent on site, and conversion rates from both SEO and PPC campaigns.
Final thoughts
When it comes to search marketing, it’s not about pitting SEO against PPC anymore. Combining both strategies can unlock a world of opportunities! Breaking down the silos between SEO and PPC can help create a holistic approach that will give your campaigns a competitive edge.
Leveraging the best-performing channels to reach your target audience will empower you to achieve higher search marketing ROI. So, don’t settle for just one when you can have the best of both worlds with SEO and PPC!
