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How Can I Build On SEO Knowledge To Be Better In PPC?

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) often end up here.

This causes friction between teams, questions about attribution, and oftentimes self-sabotaging strategies to impede scalable monetization.

I love this question that seeks to build PPC empathy and collaborate on SEO initiatives. asks Barwer in Yerevan, Armenia:

“If someone knows about SEO and about marketing in general (customer personas, target marketing), and has a very basic knowledge of PPC, where should they begin to understand how to create a PPC campaign for their company?”

This post goes over the concepts that SEO / PPC are compatible and can enable each other and provides recommendations for further exploration.

Keyword theory: active targets vs. negative targets

Keyword research, management and strategy are all part of search engine optimization (SEO) and PPC.

However, the associated tasks and keyword selection criteria are slightly different.

One of the biggest differences is that PPCs need to calculate contiguous variables instead of perfect syntax.

You won’t need to bid on everything as close variants capture subtle differences in keywords as well as implied terms.

For example, bidding on the keyword “balanced dog trainers near me” will allow you to throw in the following terms in all match types:

  • “dog trainers”
  • “[location] dog trainers
  • dog training near me

In PPC, advertisers are interested in:

  • auction priceIs this keyword the best cost-benefit formula and am I doing enough to justify the costs?
  • competitiveness: Will everyone go for this alternative?
  • inclusivity: Will this syntax capture the search methods I need?
  • structureDoes this keyword fit my account structure or does it require major changes?

Including these questions in keyword research will help translate work into paid efforts.

Deciding what you’re actively targeting versus allowing passive targeting through close variables will come down to cost, competitiveness, and search volume.

Read more about keyword theory here.

Dynamic Search Ads: Make the most of your well-optimized site

Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are a key component of PPC – they rely on Google/Microsoft crawling your site to come up with ad titles and the best landing page based on your search term.

If the ad algorithm is able to correctly understand the content, then you know that you have done a good job in the SEO of the site.

If you’re having trouble getting to the right categories, you may need to adjust your tagging and site structure.

Taking advantage of a DSA can be a great way to get started with PPC because:

  • DSA campaigns / ad groups will let you know How do potential clients search?
  • You have to be able to Cover more parts of your business with one budget.
  • the SEO investments can bring a greater return By performing a dynamic search ads campaign.

Dynamic Search Ads can be set up as a standalone campaign or added to existing campaigns.

It is important to note that Google Ads allows hybrid campaigns, while Microsoft does not.

If you end up importing your Google campaigns into Microsoft, make sure to choose Split DSA from Campaign.

Dig deeper into Dynamic Search Ads here.

Conversion Tracking: Understanding ROI from a single source of truth

Conversion tracking tells you which parts of your campaign are delivering value and which are falling short.

Google Analytics is useful for tracking conversions across disciplines.

As an SEO expert, you are probably familiar with using Analytics Goals and Events.

Advertisers have a choice – they can either use the ads platform’s conversion tracking (which is a separate code), or import from Google Analytics.

You’ll want to use Google Analytics in most cases for the following reasons:

  • Consistency in reporting and evaluation of events.
  • No additional code is needed On site.
  • More advanced conversion events may be needed.

Using Google Analytics also helps with attribution.

Ad platforms have been walking away from last click and tangible conversions.

By leveraging analytics attribution models, you can use the same source of truth for everyone and integrate conversion models across all reports.

Landing page theory: directing the user to profit without sabotaging SEO

The hardest shift in strategic thinking will be landing pages.

In SEO, the content should be rich and navigation bars help in technical SEO gain.

In PPC, the content should only focus on the most important insights with little opportunity for the user to do anything other than make a conversion.

One of the best ways to handle this is to direct PPC traffic to a subdomain.

This will allow you to adhere to PPC rules without compromising your SEO.

The CLS change also affects PPC (it can negatively hurt your Quality Score), so a page CRO still needs to wait at least five seconds (ideally eight or more) before launching.

Takeaway

Most SEO strategies pave the way to PPC empathy and never need to start over.

Just keep in mind that you ideally want to separate your landing page experiences and use a single source of truth for conversions and reports.

Do you have a question about PPC? Submit via this form or tweet me at @navahf using the hashtag #AskPPC. See you next month!

More resources:

  • 7 ways SEO and PPC can help each other
  • How to combine SEO and PPC data to get stronger results
  • Top 10 Pay Per Click Trends To Know In 2022


Featured Image: Paolo Bobetta/Search Engine Magazine

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