Sarah Brice was the first speaker to take to the stage at our digital marketing event, SeshEO. You can get the highlights and takeaways from the whole night here, but if you want to learn more about how PPC and SEO go hand in hand, then you’re in the right place.
Let’s see what our Head of PPC had to say on the matter!
Sarah Brice began her talk by proving just how popular certain search engines really are. As you can see below, Google has the highest search market share (92.37% globally), followed by Bing (2.63% globally). These figures alone prove just how much potential search engines have for your business, no matter what strategy you’re using. Imagine the potential if you were to use both SEO and PPC!
“93% of all online activities start with a search engine. Anyone searching on the internet is searching for an answer to a question”
After explaining the basics behind PPC and SEO, Sarah dug right into the four main types of PPC out there. This included:
🔎 Google Search Ads
🛒 Google Shopping
🔠 Display Ads
📲 Social Media Advertising
🔎 Google Search Ads
Google Search Ads are likely to be the first thing to spring to mind when you think of ‘PPC’. Google Search Ads tend to sit above organic results and will be highlighted with ‘Ad’.
🛒 Google Shopping
Google Shopping allows products and prices, from a series of different vendors, to show in search. This is great if you want to promote an individual product.
🔠 Display Ads
Display Advertising is a form of advertising which uses banners consisting of images, text, animations, videos, etc. Display Ads tend to be found dotted around certain websites or apps.
📲 Social Media Advertising
In a day and age dominated by social media, advertising via the most popular platforms is a no brainer. From Facebook and Instagram right through to LinkedIn, there are many paid social ad options available for your business to utilise.
The similarities between PPC and SEO strategies
After taking us through the dos and don’ts of each form of advertising, Sarah went on to tell us how they work hand in hand with SEO.
As you can see above, both strategies start extremely similarly – keyword research and competitor analysis will always be the first things you do with any marketing strategy. The information you collect at this stage will benefit both campaigns, as you’ll gain a greater understanding of your audience and be able to figure out what steps to take next. This ensures that both your PPC and SEO campaigns are working towards similar goals.
Why should I be using both PPC and SEO?
There are many reasons as to why PPC and SEO should work closely together, but the main four are:
🔎 Reliable keyword research
📝 PPC is a good testing ground for SEO
🤑 Good SEO reduces PPC cost
💪🏼 Increases your confidence
🔎 Reliable keyword research
As mentioned when talking about strategies, both PPC and SEO require thorough keyword research to get the ball rolling. In fact, keyword research should continue throughout the whole campaign, in order to learn about what users are searching for and whether the terms will have any potential. When PPC and SEO campaigns are focusing on similar keywords, the visibility for them will reach new heights.
📝 PPC is a good testing ground for SEO
PPC is an excellent option for those in need of a short-term strategy. Due to this, PPC gives the perfect opportunity to ‘trial run’ keywords before implementing them into a long-term SEO strategy. Simply put, PPC is a good testing ground for SEO. If a keyword works poorly via PPC, it might be worth ditching when it comes to SEO.
🤑 Good SEO reduces PPC cost
Perhaps one of the most shocking, yet valuable, points from Sarah’s talk was this one – good SEO reduces PPC cost! Tieing into the previous point, Sarah explains that high-cost, high-volume or important low-converting keywords can be moved over to SEO and eliminated from PPC. This increases the chances of continuing to rank well for the keyword without paying a fortune.
💪🏼 Increases your confidence
Sarah ended her talk by explaining how working on both PPC and SEO will boost your confidence immensely. If your business is ranking strongly in both paid search and organic search – conversions will go through the roof!
What can I take away from this?
1) Do competitor research – who’s ranking top for your main keywords?
2) Start a PPC campaign to get an idea of your highest-converting keywords
3) Begin to figure out what SEO traffic can be retargeted through PPC
4) Create brand awareness with a social media strategy
Special thanks to Sarah for her incredible talk! 👏🏼
If you would like to see Sarah’s slides from the evening, get in touch with us on Twitter (@bulldogagency) or get in touch with our ecommerce SEO agency in London.