SEO v PPC… Which is more important? Ok, actually this is a trick question. You should always have your SEO strategy at the forefront of your marketing activities.
Writing a blog? Consult your keywords and web queries.
Planning some campaigns? Again, look at your keywords.
And yet many of us think of SEO as an afterthought. Or something to fix once in a while, like when your website is redesigned.
This chart from SEMrush is just great. Look at it. It makes it all so simple, right? You can see that while you’ll get quicker, punchier results from running a PPC campaign, working on your PR or keeping an active social media presence, creating regular content that’s informed by a tight SEO strategy is the MVP. It’s the long game sure, but it works.
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SEO is the central nervous system of your website
Think of it like this: without a strong SEO strategy, your website won’t function properly. Sure, it might look nice and you might get the odd bit of traffic. But you might not convert as many leads. You almost definitely won’t be reaching your full potential.
There’s plenty to get your teeth into here. It’s a never ending job in fact. And it’s not just about keyword identification. Oh boy, there’s a LOT of work that goes into your SEO strategy.
SEO can be split into three key areas: on-page, off-page and technical. Some of these tasks will require experts in the field, whereas others you can learn as you go.
You can have a look at our more in-depth SEO best practice guide here. It’ll help you plan your strategy, identify what you need to focus on and hopefully answer your burning questions about SEO.
That said, SEO is just one part of your marketing ecosystem. You can’t just expect to generate leads and convert to customers from SEO alone. Each channel feeds into the bigger picture.
PPC is the cosmetic, go-getting personality!
While we’re still on the body analogy boat, consider PPC like an injection of confidence. It might turn heads, but it needs the groundwork of an optimised website with compelling content to stop traffic.
PPC is an ideal way to bolster your marketing qualified leads (MQLs) by driving more engaged traffic to your website. These spikes in traffic will depend on your campaign's budget, length, quality etc.
However, your campaign's success also relies on the set up of your campaign being done properly. There are demographics to target. Keywords to research and select. Making sure your creative and landing page are both optimised.
In fact, a lot goes into making sure your PPC campaigns are a success. You can read all about best practice for PPC here.
SEO v PPC: A good old fashioned list of pros and cons
Because who doesn’t love a list? And this one’s another belter from SEMrush.
As mentioned at the beginning of this blog, it really depends on what you’ve already been doing. If you’ve laid the groundwork for your website with an excellent SEO strategy and all the green ticks are in place, it’s time to go nuts with PPC. If not, you’re never too late. And if it’s really not your bag, luckily it’s ours.
Next steps…
If this means you’re ready to start running PPC campaigns, your next steps are coming up.
Before we begin, it’s absolutely crucial you’ve got your customer personas in order. While some marketers are satisfied to go ahead without, we at UP Digital really believe they’re an essential part of the best practice process. After all, if you don’t know who you’re talking to, how can you tailor your campaign to speak to them?
If you choose to work with a digital marketing agency like us, we do the “hard work” identifying the best channels. To achieve this, we look at the following factors of your target audience:- The sites they use
- What media they consume
- What motivates them to convert
Personas in place, here’s your checklist of what to consider:
#1 What do you want to achieve?
We are firm believers that you must start with your goals before you can plan your campaign. It just makes sense.
#2 What channels are best for you
Once you’ve established your goals and you have researched where your personas “hang out”, it’s time to identify the best channels for your campaign. PPC isn’t restricted to Google, y’know:
- YouTube
- Facebook (and Instagram!)
- Bing
And those are just the well known ones!
#3 What formats lend themselves best to your campaign?
There’s so much to consider. Will you take advantage of multichannel, multimedia campaigns, or will you keep things simple? A PPC specialist will be able to help make recommendations for what formats to incorporate into your campaign. But to give you a toppling idea of what’s available, there’s:
- Video
- Search
- Display
- Social media
- Remarketing
- Google Shopping
You can read about what they are and when to use them here.
#4 Campaign essentials
While the devil is in the detail, let’s keep things concise here. The next five factors of your campaign will be the cornerstone of its success:
- Keywords
- Landing page quality
- Creative (both visuals and ad copy)
- Quality score (Google grades this based on your ads relevance, CTR and UX on your landing page)
- Split ad groups
Don’t have the resource?
Whether its time or expertise you’re running short on, that’s what we’re here for. We pride ourselves on being a friendly extension of your team, rather than a pretentious agency that makes everyone feel inadequate.
If you’re considering your next steps, leave us your details and we’ll be in touch to help. Whether its your SEO strategy, helping run your PPC campaigns or anything else within the digital marketing realm.
