Is ppc becoming more influential than organic search with consumers?
-
Simply put, are consumers clicking on ppc in lieu of organic search. In the past, people use to say that ppc accounted between 30-40% of traffic with organic accounting for majority of activity. My question is whether those numbers have changed, and if so, where are we now?
A friend in Boston in does SEO, remarked that many of her 'sophisticated' friends didn't know the difference between ppc and organic. Seems odd, but with the move to place ppc results from the right hand sidebar to the top left hand column, certainly gives it more presence and makes the separation between ppc vs. organic less distinct.
I certainly understand the value of doing both, but depending on the answer, it begs the question... is the expense of moving up a position or two in organic worth the effort and monies, if ppc is becoming the dominant raffic tdriver?
Anybody have any recent statistics on ppc vs. organic?
Thanks.
-
Thanks Joel. I have a laptop and at times, the distinction between google adwords and organic seems faint. Nevertheless... I think you're right. To the unsophisticated, not sure they make note of the differences, when they don't know there's a difference in results. I agree... there's good synergy when you can get ppc and organic working...as they say in real estate...location, location, location... when you see those results repeatedly on the same page... it has impact. Thanks.
-
Thanks Saijo. I somewhat agree. The distinction between organic and ppc, now that ppc has moved to the top left side from the olden days of just being on the right hand sidebar... blurs the differences. Thanks.
-
I have no data to draw the conclusion from but I get how more users might click on PPC especially the ones on top of the SERPs . Would be interesting to see if anyone has some stats on these.
-
Thanks for your response. We've invested many years in SEO successfully. One interesting change over the past year is that the traffic has dropped for some KW phrases without any change in rankings in Google. In some cases, these are terms sitting at #1 or #2. I think the demarcation between PPC and organic is becoming harder to distinguish and given the naivete of many consumers... many assume the listings are one and the same. If I'm right, it means that a higher percentage of searches are pulling from sponsored links than organic compared to the past. Is there any data or research to negative or support this assumption? Thanks. Alan
-
It may not be that it's becoming more influential, it may be that ppc is taking up more screen real estate and pushing organic listings further down the page.
See: http://www.seobook.com/paid-inclusion
Here’s a quick rundown on what we’ve been doing for Synergy
SEO
We recently performed a comprehensive site audit (<a>\GREEN\S-clients\Synergy\SEO Audit\Synergy SEO Recommendations.docx</a>) which identified the following issues / recommendations:
Fix duplicate content
Fix broken internal links
Optimise title tags
Create an xml sitemap
Update Google Analytics tracking code
Verify for Google Webmaster Tools
Once implemented our recommendations will lead to better search engine indexation, higher rankings and increase organic search traffic.
SEM
We’ve recently refined a number of advertising campaigns which have led to:
Increases in online account signups
Increases in online direct debit signups
Subsequently reducing the workload of the client’s internal resources.
We continue to work towards improving the number of conversions at a lower cost per conversion.
FYI, last month’s SEO and SEM reports can be found here: <a>\GREEN\Q-Admin\Production Management\Site Marketing\Clients\Synergy\Reporting</a>
-
Bing actually has an off white color for the ppc ads versus a white color for organic which makes them blend in together. This is great for the ads because it can cause confusion. So the margin is closer here.
Google still differentiates the two enough that most people notice the difference. People still favor organic results unless they are looking for a brand that is in the ppc section.
Note: It is great to be both on the ppc ad and organic results. You have greater branding potential and people will most often click the organic result vs the ad.
-
Its like comparing Apples to Mangoes really . If you are having client who seems to be confused .. you should educate them about what each of them offers.
With organic you need to invest time and effort and the results will take time .. With PPC you get value based on the Money you put it ( that is not to say there is no time / effort put in to it ) and can be used for quick wins.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How Google Search works
I watched this video over the weekend. If you haven't yet, this is a great documentary every SEO client should watch. watch?v=tFq6Q_muwG0
Paid Search Marketing | | WebDaytona0 -
Google Analytics CPC and PPC not Matching
Hi Why do our CPC in Google Analytic not match our PPC in Adword, surely they should be identical? We have Auto-tagging switched on and data in our history is wrong so it is not a timing issue. Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | Studio330 -
Best UK PPC management company
I'm looking to outsource my PPC management and would love some feedback on which companies are worth paying for this service? I'm worried as there are so many cold calling scam artists out there and I want to choose the best company for the job. I have been considering "Adrac" as they only charge when they save you money! Sounds too good to be true so I'm automatically sceptical. Can anyone vouch for Adrac or suggest a better/different company?
Paid Search Marketing | | niallfred0 -
Is there a PPC basics guide?
something like: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 and, of course: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo but for ppc? :]
Paid Search Marketing | | Mozzin0 -
SEOMOZ of PPC?
Hi The site I'd been following over the years last updated in May, so it's clearly not the authority it once was, I know there's a PPC post here about once a month but I was wondering where do the PPC brigade spend most of their time? My work is 50/50 atm but was once much more PPC focused, is there an SEOMOZ equiv. in the Paid Search world?
Paid Search Marketing | | xoffie0 -
Wordwatch Software: PPC Adwords campaign managers heard of, tried, or actively using this?
I've been trialing WordWatch for about a month. I'll admit I've been skeptical from the start. I don't quite understand the results they're delivering or how it works. So I did a search for "Wordwatch review" hoping someone out there could shed some light or help me decide whether this software was worth keeping. But all I can find are two suspicious and badly written posts, immediately raising red flags. (Penuguin should have eliminated crap sites using the Flesch-Kincaid reading level, but I digress.) **Wordwatch premise: **They take over keyword bidding to maximize budgets and clicks. They monitor the Adwords campaign to find an "optimal" bid price. Two questions about this premise: How is it different than using the Google settings for optimize for clicks or conversions? Since Google Adwords is based on a Vickery auction, wouldn't lowering my bid only lower my position? Bearing everyone has the same QS, then lowering my bids to the range between 2 positions does not increase my actual cost. I have Wordwatch enabled for a few of my campaigns. Their interface leaves a lot to be desired. They don't report the activity or the changes they make to the campaigns from the dashboard. I had to go into my Adwords Change History to track what they were doing. And lo and behold they're also adding long tail keywords to my ad groups. Bottom line I didn't notice any huge impact, and I don't see how it's better than Google's own version of campaign settings. I don't know that they're really legit. But their marketing was so convincing, and they raised $1.4M that I need other opinions. Any one with some pro/cons, or yay/nays?
Paid Search Marketing | | flowsimple0 -
Can anyone recommend a talented multilingual paid search agency or consultant?
We need a multilingual SEM agency for a campaign thats going to span multiple non english speaking markets at a decent monthly spend. Any recommendations?
Paid Search Marketing | | freepeople0 -
Facebook PPC - Number of Clicks According to FB Different Than Visits in Analytics?
Hi There So I was trying out my first FB ads with a client. I see according to FB there were 105 clicks. But according to google analytics there were only 69 visits. I am counting visits from facebook.com and apps.facebook.com Any reason for this discrepancy, or any tips? Am I missing something? Thanks! 687sfgMVaE 1j56Pm7nD
Paid Search Marketing | | evolvingSEO0