4 Reasons Your Digital Marketing Campaign Should Include SEO and (not or) PPC
75% of searchers never move on to the second page of search results. Meaning, if you are not appearing in search results (paid or organic) on the first page, you will be lucky to be found by a quarter of the search queries happening each day. What is even more telling is according to BrightLocal, 98% of searchers choose a business that is on page 1 of the results they get. Hopefully, you know that your online footprint is important and you are considering the right strategies to increase awareness of your organization. In order to provide greater clarity into WHY your digital marketing campaign should include BOTH search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC), we need to start with the purpose of each and how each strategy is unique, yet complementary.
What is SEO?
In general, search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing a website (through multiple methods) to appear organically (unpaid) in search results. SEO is a long-term investment and should not be expected to elicit results overnight; however, the reward for staying the path is worthwhile.
But in some cases employing a robust SEO strategy in combination with a targeted PPC strategy can be effective in the near term. For example, over a one year period, our team was able to grow organic traffic by 213% for a niche healthcare consulting company.
There are many factors that go into a larger scale SEO strategy including, but not limited to keyword optimization, technical audit, content marketing, link building, content outreach, local partnerships and more.
What is PPC?
Pay-per-click is a form of paid advertising. Businesses pay advertising dollars to appear in search engines, on social media, and elsewhere online to a direct, targeted audience. PPC allows your website or advertisement to show up immediately. PPC can be in the form of search advertising (text-search or shopping campaigns), display advertising, YouTube, or social media advertising. Your keyword and audience research is incredibly important to ensure you are bidding on the right audiences and a focus on your landing page optimization will make an impact on your conversion rates. According to the Google Economic Impact Report, businesses make an average of $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads.
4 Reasons Your Digital Marketing Campaign Should Include SEO AND PPC
1. Data Sharing – Strategies Assisting Each Other
Your digital marketing strategy should leverage PPC campaigns to drive your SEO investments and vice versa. By using data from PPC campaigns, you can keyword mine for the exact short and long-tail keywords that convert. This knowledge will assist you in developing your content strategy, generating content that converts as opposed to writing content that you hope will convert. Additionally, the data will inform searcher intent. Is the user looking to make a purchase right away or are they looking for more information to inform their decision making?
Determine where your conversions are occurring and how can you better optimize search traffic and results for these conversions. Furthermore, A/B Testing your meta descriptions, landing pages, calls to action, and key messaging with your SEO efforts allows you to maximize your overall spend on paid (or vice versa) because you’ll already know what works and what doesn’t.
2. Increased Exposure
Shut out your competition by owning your branded and non-branded keywords. Own the SERP (search engine results page) real estate by coordinating efforts on both paid and organic results by using targeted keywords that will elicit the best results. In addition, there are only so many results above the fold on mobile and desktop. By placing a paid ad at the top of search results, you’re practically guaranteeing exposure for your brand name, whether users click or not.
3. Remarketing
Remember that shirt that followed you around for three weeks when you didn’t buy it? That’s remarketing. The discounts probably got higher and higher as the weeks went on to see if the price was the barrier. Remarketing allows you to advertise to people who already visited certain pages on your website. You’ll likely see a comprehensive call to action that is urging you to act—making the purchase, signing up for the newsletter, or submitting a contact form are just a few examples. Once someone has visited your site or clicked on an ad, they are more likely to make a purchase than someone who has never heard of your organization.
4. Search Engines are Unpredictable
SEO will always be an important and effective part of your digital marketing efforts; however, results are not static and change regularly with updates to algorithms. Results will also vary by your location, what you search, and the latest algorithm update. If an algorithm update adversely impacts your SEO rankings, you want to ensure that you do not disappear from search results altogether and a PPC campaign is an effective option to have running. Additionally, PPC is only continuing to increase as the monetization of search results becomes more prominent.
While SEO and PCC can be used exclusively, when you bring the strategies together and work collaboratively across the board you’ll realize efficiencies, effectiveness, and conversions.
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