Commercial SEO p. II - SEO x PPC

Get to grips with search as a whole and work with your PPC team to improve your branded query bidding. Something that requires a little business acumen.

TL;DR

1. PPC provides real time feedback on keyword performance, conversion rates and CTRs

2. SEO provides long-term insights into user behaviour and trending queries related to your brand

3. If your PPC team bids on branded terms, you can work out whether this has a positive or negative impact on your bottom line

4. Paid search should increase the total number of conversions. SEO should keep the total CPA low

When someone in PPC mentions that they’ve increased their branded query spend, SEOs tend to roll their eyes and say, ‘but that’s just free traffic.’ My free traffic.

My precious.

Which isn’t wrong. But it isn’t right either. This isn’t a black and white initiative. It requires a little nuance and commercial acumen.

It’s not uncommon to see significant drops in branded traffic when branded keyword bidding is increased

Why bid on branded terms in the first place?

When done well, SEO and PPC are, in words of modern-ish crooner Jack Johnson, better together. These aren’t channels that should operate in a silo. A good SEO and PPC strategy should increase the total number of conversions, reduce your blended CPA and long-term ROI.

Big boy shit.

It’s also a defensive strategy. Competitors often bid on your brand name. Sometimes quite creatively too. It gives them exposure. It gives them a chance to leech your brand awareness to an already engaged user.

Y tu, Semrush? Ghastly behaviour

Everyone’s heard of both Ahrefs and Semrush. Semrush bid on Ahrefs brand name with a ‘free trial’ CTA. The game is the game.

Having your organic listing in position #1 and an ad above the fold - one that takes users to an appropriately commercial landing page - is usually a good thing.

PPC should plug gaps that SEO currently can’t fill. It should increase the total number of conversions and revenue. SEO should reduce the total CPA and reduce reliance on paid traffic.

Becoming a commercially minded SEO (make more money)

Controlling the message

When someone searches for your brand, where do they normally end up?

The homepage. I’m no detective, but I suspect your homepage doesn’t give you very good control over current offers or messaging your brand is running.

Do you have summer sales or specific offers you want a new audience to see? If so, paid search gives you something SEO typically can’t. Flexibility.

Similarweb have used this flexibility to create a specific landing page and to highlight a free seven day trial. I suspect the title tag could be better utilised here. Nevertheless, custom landing pages and promises of free shit are, I suspect, more likely to convert than a catch all homepage.

How can you work together?

I’d probably start by actually talking to the paid team. Maybe set up a monthly meeting. Spend some time with them or the agency you use. Just don’t treat these teams as separate entities.

Conversion rate data

Good SEOs prepare and build keyword universes. We have a wealth of demand style data that can help inform bidding strategies.

• What pages or site sections convert well?

• What keywords drive traffic to those pages?

Most tools give you a CPC estimate. The higher this is, the more commercially valuable the keyword is likely to be

And PPC data can help SEOs uncover highly commercial terms. SEOs should use terms that convert well in paid search to find high value content gaps.

If PPC data tells you that your conversion rate for ‘blue shoes’ (don’t judge, I can’t be arsed to think of a better option) is incredibly high, but expensive - your ears should prick up. That is gold dust to an SEO.

Get that page to rank and you already know it will drive value.

Title testing

PPC gives immediate performance data. Good PPCs (I think) will run tests and help SEOs improve our page titles and descriptions.

• What messaging and CTAs resonate with our audience?

• What type of landing page generates the best conversion rate?

• Are there things we can change at scale?

Qualifying success

This is almost all about revenue and a blended CPA. A good SEO x PPC strategy should make better use of your marketing budget and increase the total number of conversions at a more effective rate.

Key metrics

1. Total revenue/conversions: Should go up ⬆️

2. Blended CPA: Should go down ⬇️

3. Overall branded search traffic: Should go up ⬆️

4. Incremental traffic: Should go up ⬆️. This is arguably the most insightful metric. Bidding on branded terms should generate incremental clicks from search.

There are also a few PPC specific indicators here, like impression share and top impression share, which a certain hallucinogenic robot tells me are important. But in the spirit of EEAT, I am not going to go into things I know very little about.

Measuring the change in incremental traffic

1. Benchmark your branded traffic through search

2. Once the PPC campaign goes live, track how your organic branded search changes

3. For example, if you lose 200 clicks per day through organic search, but gain 600 via paid, there’s an incremental gain of 400 clicks

Case Study

Let’s pull it all together into a tangible case study with the help of my robot friend. One that compares;

• Cannibalisation

• Net gain/loss

• Blended CPA

• Incrementality

• Actual bloody money

All you need to see here is that the total amount of branded traffic has gone up. The campaign has driven incremental value.

1. Total Revenue/Conversions: ⬆️

• Conversions: Increased from 500 to 680 (a 36% jump).

• Revenue: Increased from $100,000 to $136,000 (also a 36% jump, der).

• Despite a 20% dip in organic traffic, the PPC campaign expanded the branded market.

2. Blended CPA: ⬇️ (a good thing)

• The Before PPC CPA for branded terms was effectively $0 (free traffic, as ever)

• The After PPC blended CPA is $8.82. Whilst the cost has gone up (+$6,000), the revenue gain makes it worthwhile

• This blended $8.82 CPA represents the average cost to acquire a branded conversion across both paid and organic channels.

3. Overall Branded Search Traffic: ⬆️

• Increased from 10,000 to 12,000 clicks (a 20% increase).

• The PPC campaign brought in new users searching for the brand. It has expanded the total audience.

4. Incremental Traffic: ⬆️

• Organic Branded Traffic Loss: 10,000 − 8,000 = 2,000 clicks

• Paid Branded Traffic Gain: 4,000 clicks

• Net Incremental Traffic: 4,000 (Paid Gain) − 2,000 (Organic Loss)= + 2,000 clicks

• In this example, we generated 2,000 additional clicks from branded search that they would not have received without the PPC investment. Real. Added. Value.

Anyway, that’s it. As always, leave a comment, send me a message. Very possible I’ve missed out some gold. You know where to find me.