7 Ways SEO & PPC Can Work Together to Improve Results

Updated on June 1st, 2023 

SEO and PPC are two effective aspects of a digital marketing campaign. Here are 7 ways SEO & PPC can work together for better results in 2023.

SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click advertising) are two different strategies that you can use to increase website and business visibility in search engines and generate more leads and sales online.

While each of these strategies works in a unique way, combining both of them works well in a variety of valuable ways.

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How SEO & PPC Work Together

Here are 7 ways SEO and PPC teams or efforts can work together to give you results that are better than the individual value of each one of them.

1. Increase Search Engine Visibility

One of the most valuable benefits of combining PPC and SEO strategies is the additional search engine visibility acquired.

After conducting some initial keyword research and content planning, implementing an SEO strategy and optimizing your content for search engines can lead to more search visibility and organic web traffic to your website over time.

In combination, running PPC ads can increase your search visibility pretty quickly. For a Google Ads account, it typically takes around one working day for ads to be approved.

If you invest in ads targeting the same keywords you are targeting with SEO efforts, you'll increase your search presence by doubling up website listings in search results, increasing the potential to generate more site clicks and sales.

2. Improve Click-Through Rates

One of the biggest misconceptions related to SEO & PPC strategies is that when your page is already ranking at the top of search results for a given keyword, it's not worth running PPC ads for the same keyword.

While this might be understandable, you’ll be surprised to know that also running PPC ads for the same keywords you're ranking for can increase traffic to your site quite a bit.

Consider these Google Ads Statistics:

  • People who click on ads are 50% more likely to make a purchase
  • Online ads increase brand awareness by 80%
  • 65% of small-to-midsized businesses have a PPC campaign.
  • 46% of clicks go to the top three paid ads in search results.

Since you'll likely lose search result density or real estate by ditching PPC ads, you might miss out on highly relevant, more purchase-oriented clicks.

Even if you end up breaking even with PPC ads, the additional insights gathered make running Google PPC campaigns worth it.

3. More Digital Real Estate for Your Brand

Managing your brand’s reputation online can be a tricky task, especially when anyone can say anything in full anonymity, which can affect your business reputation. This can be a comment, review, post, etc.

If your page is organically ranking using an SEO strategy but your business is negatively showing up for specific keyword research or on other sites, running PPC ads can be an excellent way to push out a positive reputation.

By investing in PPC ads, you’ll claim more real estate on the first page of search engine results, and therefore, steer prospective or existing customers clear of negative media about your brand and direct them to more positive content.

After all, over 44.2% of users will only click the first two search results in a search engine, and this number falls to less than 11% for the following result, according to a report by Search Engine Journal.

4. Test Keyword SEO Value With PPC Ads

SEO strategies and ranking content organically are highly effective forms of marketing but they are long-term strategies that can take anywhere from 4-12 months to see results.

This time-consuming practice of search engine optimization can be counterintuitive if you're not sure of keyword ranking performance and want to test out the value of a few keywords to see which one of them would grant you more conversions, leads, and sales.

In this case, implementing a paid search campaign would be an excellent way to quickly rank near the top of search results and assess the SEO value of a potential PPC keyword, including testing the type of content that resonates with searchers in the PPC ad copy.

5. Create Excellent Opportunities for Remarketing

Another way to benefit from combining PPC and SEO teams or efforts is by exploring all the opportunities for remarketing campaigns, also known as retargeting.

This is when you serve ads to users who have visited a website or specific landing page, and may or may not have taken a specific action.

Remarketing can improve user engagement with your brand, leading to additional leads and sales. Combining SEO and PPC will help drive more users to content assets you can then utilize for retargeting.

6. SEO Gives You More Refined ROI & ROAS Data

Like any successful business model, you should always have a clear idea of where you’re spending your money, especially while investing in ads.

The problem is, that it’s quite difficult for anyone to predict the return on investment (ROI) and the return on ad spend (ROAS).

To get more preliminary data for your PPC advertising campaign, you can get an idea of future keyword performance with PPC ads based on related keywords you rank for that generate traffic and/or sales.

This way, you can have a better idea of the performance of the keyword and the potential worth of this investment.

7. Google Ads Search Terms Reports for SEO Strategy

Google is the market leader when it comes to search engines for a wide range of reasons. In addition to helping users find the best possible results, the company also provides data analysis tools and reports you can use to better understand your SEO & PPC performance.

The search terms report within Google Ads provides valuable insight into the exact keywords people are searching for when they see your PPC ads. You can then use this PPC data to decide which PPC keywords are worth creating additional content for and ranking organically.

Whether for Google Ads or Facebook Ads, you can access valuable user insights by running PPC campaigns that can help your search engine optimization strategy.

Example insights include clicks, impressions, locations, and devices. These insights can help you create SEO-optimized content that is more helpful to your target audience and ranks higher on Google.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are several methods and ways where PPC and SEO campaigns can work in synergy to provide greater benefit than the sum of each one on its own.

If you’re interested in increasing search engine visibility, web traffic, and leads/sales, investing in SEO and PPC campaigns together is a smart move for maximum data and results. You can always pause your ad campaign if it doesn't work out ROI-wise.

In the beginning, you might feel overwhelmed when using both strategies together. However, with enough time and practice, it’ll feel more natural and you’ll be able to maximize your benefits from the combined efforts based on the insights you gain.

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