Part 3. Debate: paid vs. natural. When and where should I allocate my budget on search?

Paid search tips by Karl Havard, Managing Director, Propellernet

Brands achieving high visibility and relevance, will achieve stronger levels of attraction. I said “brands” and not “websites”, this is on purpose – more on that later.

So, why Paid and Natural Search working in unison? Well, if your brand is achieving page 1 rankings in the Natural Search results for all your major keywords (generic, brand and long tail); firstly congratulations, secondly, incorporating Paid Search listings will provide you with dual visibility, taking up more real estate of the page. The more savvy searcher (those who actually know the difference between Paid and Natural Search results) will most probably click your Natural listings meaning you have taken up more real estate, looked more relevant and not paid for the click through.

In the real world there is a high probability that your brand doesn’t feature on page one for all priority keywords in the Natural Search rankings. Enter Paid Search. Instant visibility can be achieved, which is ideal for a number of reasons :

• It can fill the “gaps” until your Natural Search results start to appear on page 1. If achieved, decisions can then be made on whether you wish to maintain dual visibility.
• If you operate in a dynamic ecommerce market place you can move inventory at short notice through offers, sales and late deals.
• You can react quickly to industry or associated “hot topics” and have your brand associated with these at any given time.• Be visible and encourage dialogue on associated brand, product or service reputation issues, should there be any.
• Point to content, such as editorial and blogs. What! How do I track the ROI? If you have real advocates saying positive things about you in trustworthy places why wouldn’t you point to this? Especially if this content links back to your site. You’re helping the searcher on their brand journey from interest to gaining commitment.
• Test and learn, then feed into your Natural Search strategy. People search differently based upon their needs; even if they ultimately want the same thing. Paid Search provides an understanding of this behaviour; which are the most effective keywords and the most effective Paid Search creatives (language, style, tone of voice etc.) and the relationship between the two. These learnings can then be fed into the Natural Search strategy to ensure high visibility and relevance is achieved in a sustainable and more cost effective manner.

So why did I say “Brand” and not “Website”? Well, the searcher wants relevancy, and likes to see content and comments from other like minded searchers. This will include content outside of your website. Natural and Paid Search, incorporating online PR and social media content, all working together will ensure visibility is achieved for all searchers and your online brand footprint will be maximised.

An opinion: Can paid and natural search work together fluently to deliver better campaigns?

By Oliver Rapson, director of paid search, Steak

In a word: yes. In fact the positive impact of having both paid and natural campaigns allowing visibility across search real estate far outweighs the negative. We work closely with clients to share data across both PPC and SEO activity – even if one of the campaigns is run by a different agency – and uses keyword data to inform other direct response marketing campaigns, especially when it comes to planning and research. Going further, different marketing messages or taglines can be tested via paid search ad copy with learnings then being fed back into sales promotion and offline activity.

At the moment there are only a handful of analytics software packages and third party tracking tools that allow search marketers to register user behaviours and attribute meaningful “success” to a joint paid/natural search campaign.

A further challenge comes in understanding the value of PPC or SEO data and implementing strategic campaign changes as a result of this intelligence. This requires both a level of collaboration between teams and the understanding that PPC and SEO should not be viewed in silos, rather as part of a wider online and offline sales and marketing mix.

Integration is key here, of course, but it has become more important than ever to ensure chosen technologies are implemented flawlessly and accounts set up intuitively. It’s easy to overlook this investment of time early on, but it’s absolutely crucial that the information passed back through the tool is accurate and can be acted on without hesitation.

Separately, advertisers need to spend time understanding and analysing the data and differentiating between user journey information and keyword popularity before making sweeping changes to their marketing campaigns.

Technology companies spend hours training agencies and their clients on how to use paid search tools. For me this is proof enough about the importance of using paid search data intelligently and making meaningful, positive changes to online activity, including SEO, as a result. The best campaigns undoubtedly incorporate both paid and natural element but there’s so much more that PPC data can help marketers understand – ignore it at your peril.