When it is about using marketing techniques to boost growth or increase sales. There is a common myth – you have to decide between SEO and paid ads. Either you have to choose the paid one, or else you can go with organic traffic.
But in reality, the top thriving businesses are those that understand their company’s requirements and combine both SEO and paid ads for more reliable, faster and economic growth. The ones who rely only on paid ads often lack long term growth and the ones that just decide on SEO miss out on the faster leads.
Read this article to understand how to combine both the effective marketing strategies—SEO and paid ads—for faster growth.
The goal of search marketing is simple: to be found when a potential customer is looking for a solution. When you combine SEO and PPC, you dominate the search engine results page (SERP).
There is a psychological advantage to appearing twice on the same results page. When a user sees your brand in the paid ad section and then again in the organic listings below, it reinforces brand credibility. This “search real estate” dominance signals to the user that your brand is a market leader.
Additionally, you can go over your work by applying both strategies at the same time. Your paid ad makes sure you are visible even if an algorithm change causes your organic ranking for a useful keyword to drop. On the other hand, a high organic ranking lets you reduce spending without losing traffic if the price of advertisements for a particular term increases.
One of the most practical benefits of combining both is gap evaluation. SEO takes time to show results. You can’t wait six months for your content to rank if you’re introducing a new product. Paid ads can fill that quick need, operating traffic while your SEO team builds the necessary authority.
You can lower your ad spend on those particular terms as soon as your organic rankings rise and redirect the funds to more competitive keywords where you are still not found organically. This dynamic choice ensures you are always evolving without wasting budget on traffic you could get for free.
The base of both SEO and paid advertising is keyword research. However, how you use this data differs between the two, and sharing insights across teams can lead to major advances.
One of the biggest risks in SEO is investing time and resources into ranking for a keyword, only to find that the traffic it brings in doesn’t convert. Paid ads offer a low-risk testing ground.
You can test the conversion rate of high-potential keywords by placing a bid. Your SEO team can easily focus on writing content for the term “enterprise CRM software” if the data shows that users who search for it convert at a high rate. If the keyword brings in traffic but no sales, you save your content team months of wasted effort.
PPC campaigns often utilize “broad match” settings, where ads appear for search queries related to your target keyword but not exactly matching it. Reviewing your Google Ads search query reports often shows long-tail keywords that your target audience is using but you were not mindful of.
These search queries are gold for your SEO plan. Because they are particular, they often have lower rivalry and higher desire. Including these words into your blog posts and landing pages can help you attract high-quality organic traffic that your opponents are missing.
A common friction point between SEO and PPC teams is landing page strategy. SEO focuses on long-form, informational content that answers user questions in depth. PPC focuses on short, powerful copy designed to convert visitors right away.
While the approaches differ, the basic goal is the same: fulfilling user intention.
Google Ads uses a measure called Quality Score to figure out the amount to pay for a click. A major factor in Quality Score is the value and quality of the landing page. If your ad points to a thin, irrelevant page, you pay more.
By applying SEO best practices to your PPC landing pages—improving load speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, and creating useful, high-quality content—you improve the user experience. This uplifts your Quality Score, lowers your cost-per-click (CPC), and makes your budget go further.
Sometimes, your best ad inventive is already sitting on your blog. If a specific “how-to” guide or case study is creating significant organic traffic and interest, it is a prime candidate for promotion.
Boosting high-performing organic content with paid social ads or retargeting campaigns can boost its reach. Since you already know the content connects with your audience, the risk is lower than advertising a brand-new, unused asset.
To fully understand the impact of a mixed strategy, you need a broad view of your data. Attribution—determining which marketing touchpoint gets credit for a sale—is complex. A customer might click on a Facebook ad, read a blog post found via organic search a week later, and finally click a Google Search ad to make a payment.
If you look at SEO and PPC data in silos, you get a blurred picture. The SEO team might get credit for the organic visit, while the paid media services team claims the final click. This can lead to double-counting revenue and incorrect budget decisions.
To optimize for faster growth, move away from “last-click” attribution models that give 100% of the credit to the final touchpoint. Instead, use multi-touch attribution models that value every interaction in the customer journey.
By studying how paid and organic channels assist each other, you might discover that your expensive top-of-funnel ads aren’t producing instant sales, but they are starting the journeys that eventually convert via organic search. Cutting those ads based on a siloed view would accidentally hurt your organic revenue.
Data sharing is critical here. Combining your analytics platforms ensures that both teams are looking at the same numbers. When everyone understands the full customer journey, you can promote the entire path rather than just individual channels.
Merging the two basic techniques – SEO and paid ads can help a business to grow fast. Paid ads deliver fast growth and SEO ends with long term visibility. Whether used effectively and in the right way – results in a marketing engine that works for your present and future.
The ones who are just investing in running paid ads or only putting effort into SEO may never understand the real benefits of marketing tactics. It is better to blend the strengths and create a balanced and more effective strategy.
Ans: For the people requiring urgent leads, paid ads are perfect. And for the businesses that need long term growth, they should go with SEO methods.
Ans: It depends upon the tricks and project scale. Many see results in 3 months to 6 months, while some have to wait for even a year.
Ans: Yes, it is very common for agencies to apply both SEO and paid ads. It is a very common strategy.
