6 Reasons Why You Should Use PPC AND SEO Together for Your Marketing Strategy
Maybe for you, it’s easier to focus solely on organic
rankings (Google Search) because on the surface, it’s free. Perhaps PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising) is more appealing since you know
exactly what keywords are driving traffic. Both avenues have their strengths
and weaknesses; however, if you’re only using one of these strategies you’re
missing out on potential traffic. Here are six reasons why you should use an
integrated marketing approach:
#1- Reach Customers
Outside of Your Physical Location
Let’s say you own the local flower shop in the beautiful town
of Pawnee, Indiana and just 20 minutes away from your shop is the equally
beautiful town of Eagleton. Some of your customers come from Eagleton. For your
SEO strategy, you would like to rank for both towns.
Google uses “NAP” (name, address, phone number) listings to
determine organic search rankings, meaning that the name, address, and phone
number are expected to be an exact match across the internet. When those don’t
match, the likelihood of ranking organically outside of your physical location
becomes a challenge. Google will usually rank a competitor with a matching
physical location higher than you. Google will rank the flower shop in Eagleton
higher than your Pawnee shop.
Enter Pay Per Click. By targeting city centric keywords,
you can reach your desired clientele. For example, by adding the keyword “red
roses Eagleton” to your PPC campaign you can ensure your ad will be triggered
by someone searching for red roses in Eagleton. More importantly, by setting up
your location targeting for both Pawnee and Eagleton, your ads will show up for
someone searching in Eagleton, even if the search is just “red roses” with no
corresponding location keyword.
Combining local SEO is an important step that cannot be
missed, but when using it in tandem with PPC, you’ll be sure to reach all
potential customers.
#2 – Don’t Put All Your
Eggs in One Basket – Diversify
This isn’t a new idea, and it is something traditional media
has embraced. Brands and other services use a combination of radio, TV,
magazines, and print ads to reach their audience. They recognize that each of
these channels have their own set of users.
Search Engine Marketing relies on many third-party
platforms: Bing, Adwords, Facebook Ads, Twitter, the almighty Google and
others. While these avenues offer effective ways to reach customers, these
platforms are also companies themselves. They make changes that can have a big
effect on the way you’re conducting business on that platform.
On June 29, 2016, Facebook announced another update to its
algorithm for the newsfeed. While businesses’ organic reach has been steadily
declining for years, this move made newsfeeds more friend/family focused,
decidedly reducing the amount posts by organizations. If your main source of
business had been from organic Facebook posts, this change would dramatically
affect your business.
Using a combination approach of PPC and SEO means you’re not
dependent on one marketing channel. If you were already using Facebook ads in
tandem with your organic posts, then your company can weather changes more
easily.
#3 – Gain Valuable
Insights from PPC to Use for Your SEO Strategy Search Engine Marketing
About two years ago, Google encrypted all searches and as a
result, this cut off all keyword level data in Google Analytics, limiting the
keyword insights people could get on their websites. You could no longer see
which keywords brought in users and eventual conversions.
Since keywords still play an integral part in SEO strategy,
marketers have to use other strategies to gain insight. By using a PPC
platform, you can inform your organic strategy. Keywords are also critical to
PPC and are the foundation for PPC campaigns. With PPC, you have insights into
keywords and which have a high click-through-rate and convert. You can even
regain your keyword level insights in Analytics again by hooking Analytics to
your Adwords account. Beyond just informing your SEO strategy, PPC can target
keywords that aren’t ranking organically.
Ad copy is another tool that can inform your SEO strategy.
Metadata is a crucial part of SEO and in Adwords you can test calls to action,
ad copy, and keywords. By selecting the ones with the highest
click-through-rate, you can more effectively prioritize the keywords and
language for your metadata.
#4 – PPC and SEO Target
Different Sections of the Marketing Funnel
With PPC, you want to focus on people who will perform a call
to action (i.e. filling out a form, calling your business, setting up an
appointment, purchasing an item etc.) You don’t want people in the research
phase clicking and spending money on your ad if they aren’t ready to perform
one of those actions. In fact, we regularly add interrogative pronouns as
negative keywords to our PPC campaigns.
Using SEO, you can target those keywords. You want people in
the research phase to come to your site. About 81 percent of consumers research
a product before buying it. They do this through search engines, by reading
reviews, reading product information, and visiting multiple online stores. By
targeting multiple parts of the funnel, you increase the likelihood of
generating an action out of a user.
#5 – Combine Long-Term
(SEO) and Short-Term (PPC) strategies
Generally speaking, SEO is your long game. You research
competition and build high authority and relevant. Increase local citation
links for local organic traffic and positions. Ensure that the most relevant
and high-traffic keywords are used in the meta data and that the meta
information is indexed with the search engines. You build relevant citation
links. This isn’t work you can do once and then call it quits, especially if
you want to rank well and for different terms.
In the short-term, PPC can be used to jumpstart your site and
business. You build out a campaign and you’re off to the races within hours.
You can set up multiple a/b tests, and as we mentioned before, use these
insights to improve your SEO.
#6- Get More Real
Estate—Above the Fold
In February 2016, Google did away with the paid ads on the
right-hand side of the search results, revamping the Search Engine Result
Pages- known as SERP’s (so paid ads now own the top four spots (and the bottom
four). This change rippled through the Search Engine Marketing industry as we
all held our collective breath. Turns out that cost-per-click and organic
remained largely the same, but the emphasis on the top real estate grew.
Even on something you think you own completely, like your
brand, you’re going to have competition. It’s common practice in PPC to pay for
your competitors’ brand terms since these keywords tend to be cheaper. Having a
competitor campaign in your PPC account means you have the chance to
potentially convert a customer and expand your reach by tapping into a “look
alike” audience.
This works both ways. Your brand is also valuable and
competitors will be bidding on your terms as well. At the very least, adding
brand keywords acts as insurance that your ads will be visible, even in the
face of competition.
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