Here at Click Consult, I cannot tell you how many times a PPC client has said to me: “Why are we paying for a click on a PPC keyword, when we are at the top in the natural search listings?” Clients are especially concerned about this when it comes to their own brand name as a PPC keyword. Why have PPC and SEO?

Here are the 5 things I say to them:

1) Studies have shown that customers further along the buying process will actively seek out sponsored link ads and not organic listings. PPC ads are short, snappy and straight to the point – they say to people “Here’s the sales pitch. I want your custom/click; I’m willing to pay for it.” With several lines of truncated text, natural listings say to people “I’ll provide you with the information you need” (…in the earlier stages of the buying process).

2) With so many companies employing SEO specialists, the natural search results are susceptible to change and manipulation. With PPC keywords, you can stay at the top of the search results by monitoring cost per click (CPC) settings and by building up a good quality score rating.

3) With own brand keywords, it allows you to monopolise the search results (particularly if your company name is trademarked). Without PPC ads for your brand, it is possible for rivals to force you into 4th position – even though the user is searching specifically for your company. All it takes is three competitors to bid on your brand name and their three PPC ads will cause your first place natural listing to fall to fourth.

4) PPC and SEO combined allows you to double your exposure on search result pages, meaning you are twice as likely to capture/steal traffic from your competitors.

5) Some people who are looking for you online may misspell words, not use spaces between words or type URLs incorrectly. For example, someone looking for the website www.MattressOnline.co.uk could make lots of mistakes. They could type in .com instead of co.uk; they could use the plural spelling of mattress; or they could misspell mattress with only one ‘T’. With PPC, you can include all these variations in your keyword list and make sure you capture this traffic.

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Is PPC merely a stepping stone to SEO? Some people say that PPC is becoming more similar to SEO. The introduction of the quality score, which I have referred to before as Google’s reward for advertisers, has opened the door for advertisers to be able to see which keywords perform best for their website and also which terms provide quality traffic. Google want users to be served for exactly what they are looking for. The more relevant your ad text and landing page to your keywords the better quality score your keywords will achieve over time. Google started assessing how you organise your campaigns and whether or not your landing page is relevant enough for the keywords you are advertising with. If you have a low quality score, Google will increase the minimum bid you have to pay. The higher your quality score, the less your clicks will cost you.

When looking at the advantages of PPC, the fast implementation of the campaign and benefit of seeing immediate raw data in front of you is self evident. The overall control you have over the account, which keywords to bid on, the daily budget that you set. PPC also proves very beneficial when it comes to companies who see spending arcs with seasonal changes, with the ability to chop and change campaigns and ad text accordingly. Companies with specific retail products would probably find that a PPC campaign would suit them better, being able to control keywords and target ads at specific products, while also being able to control seasonal trends such as a Christmas time boom in sales. SEO would be better suited to companies wishing to get a strong foothold in the market they are in and build their brand on a mass scale. It may take time to come to fruition but the rewards will come with the hard yards.

While advantage can be gained from PPC campaigns for SEO research, I firmly believe that PPC’s individual benefits to advertisers provide unique marketing opportunity that is there to yet be exploited by many companies.

ClickConsult is an expert Pay Per Click (PPC) Management company with over 25 years combined PPC Management experience. Contact us for more information or call 0870 145 1017.

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