>What does it all mean for dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing strategists?

As a search strate­gist, this research con­firms what I always thought to be true. Google encour­ages adver­tis­ers to buy ads from AdWords by allow­ing the Google rank­ing algo­rithm to favour web­sites that have a pres­ence in both paid and organic search rankings.

Is there a valid rea­son for this favoritism? Per­haps not, but when we look at CTR (Click Through Rates), we notice that users are more likely to click through when they see both organic and a paid results in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Rank­ing for both paid and organic results seems to add legit­i­macy to the web­site, ulti­mately increas­ing CTRs.

>What’s the Cost of Cut­ting PPC Spend?

There are far too many vari­ables to take into con­sid­er­a­tion for each PPC mar­keter, mak­ing it vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble to assign an actual dol­lar fig­ure to the cost of not doing PPC. We can just as eas­ily guess how much it costs to do PPC as we can guess how much it costs not to do PPC and rely solely on organic SEO.

It’s true that traf­fic gen­er­ated by organic SEO is more afford­able than PPC. But when you slow down or stop you PPC ads, there are greater con­se­quences than a dip in site traf­fic. Now that your com­peti­tors are eat­ing up all those clicks (thanks to your dis­ap­pear­ance from the paid list­ings) your rev­enues will go down as well. The more real estate you can own on the SERP (being seen in both paid and organic list­ings), the more likely you are to increase CTRs, which should result in higher revenues.

>PPC Advice for All Sites, New & Old

The best advice I can give is to always con­duct your own tests to learn how paus­ing your PPC key­words affects your ROI. As dig­i­tal mar­keters, we have access to very pow­er­ful ana­lyt­ics tools that can show us pre­cisely what dri­ves rev­enue. Mon­i­tor those ana­lyt­ics and allo­cate mar­ket spend to strate­gies that have proven ROI.

At the end of the day PPC should be prof­itable. If it’s not, change your strat­egy and/or bud­get allo­ca­tion until you find the per­fect recipe for your web­site. Dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

I’ve been telling my clients this all along, and Google’s updated research proves my orig­i­nal the­ory: web­site own­ers need a com­bi­na­tion of PPC and organ­i­cally opti­mized pages to build an online brand that will ulti­mately turn vis­i­tors into loyal customers.

For more tips and advice on ppc strat­egy and more, check out Mediative’s Cheat Sheets.


Biography / Resume : Elsa is a Performance Media Strategist at Mediative, her responsibilities include assisting clients in setting up and managing their PPC and display campaigns. She manages several key accounts and has a passion for mobile advertising and maximizing client ROI. With a background in web development and ecommerce, Elsa brings a strong technical background to her position at Mediative. She plays a key role in many of the company’s SEM projects and brings 6 years of multinational digital marketing experience to her SEM and display advertising projects. Elsa believes in keeping the focus on constantly improving performance metrics (and good karma) for success in digital marketing.