Question

describe the difference between organic and paid search and provide some examples of the different tools and tactics you would use to optimize each channel thoroughout a user journey?

Answer 1

Organic search is based on unpaid, natural rankings determined by search engine algorithms, and can be optimized with various SEO practices. In contrast, paid search allows you to pay to have your website displayed on the search engine results page when someone types in specific keywords or phrases. The fee you pay is based on either clicks or views of your ads.

A strong marketing strategy uses both search engine optimization and paid search to get found online.

On a search results page, you can tell paid results from organic ones because search engines set apart the paid listings, putting them above or to the right of the organic results, or giving them a shaded background, border lines, or other visual clues.

The typical Web user might not realize they’re looking at apples and oranges when they get their search results. Knowing the difference enables a searcher to make a better informed decision about the relevancy of a result. Additionally, because the paid results are advertising, they may actually be more useful to a shopping searcher than a researcher (as search engines favor research results).

The paid search industry is set to develop significantly through 2018, both in its array of options for advertisers and in its level of sophistication as a marketing channel. The pace of innovation is only accelerating, and technology is freeing search specialists to spend more time on strategy, rather than repetitive tasks.

Google continues to add new machine learning algorithms to AdWords that improve the efficacy of paid search efforts, which is undoubtedly a welcome development. This technology ultimately becomes something of an equalizer, however, given that everyone has access to these same tools.

It is at the intersection of people and technology that brands can thrive in PPC marketing. Better training and more enlightened strategy can help get the most out of Google’s AdWords and AdWords Editor, but there are further tools that can add a competitive edge.

The below are technologies that can save time, uncover insights, add scale to data analysis, or a combination of all three.

Keyword research tools

Identifying the right keywords to add to your paid search account is, of course, a fundamental component of a successful campaign.

Google will suggest a number of relevant queries within the Keyword Planner tool, but it does have some inherent limitations. The list of keywords provided within this tool is far from comprehensive and, given the potential rewards on offer, sophisticated marketers would be well advised to look for a third-party solution.

Competitor analysis tools

AdWords Auction Insights is an essential tool for competitor analysis, as it reveals the impression share for different sites across keyword sets, along with average positions and the rate of overlap between rival sites.

This should be viewed as the starting point for competitor analysis, however. There are other technologies that provide a wider range of metrics for this task, including Spyfu and SEMrush.

Landing page optimization tools

It is essential to optimize the full search experience, from ad copy and keyword targeting, right through to conversion. It is therefore the responsibility of PPC managers to ensure that the on-site experience matches up to the consumer’s expectations.

A variety of tools can help achieve this aim, requiring minimal changes to a page’s source code to run split tests on landing page content and layout. In fact, most of these require no coding skills and allow PPC marketers to make changes that affect only their channel’s customers. The main site experience remains untouched, but paid search visitors will see a tailored landing page based on their intent.

It Isn’t Always Organic vs. Paid Search

The notion of comparing one channel versus another can lead you to prioritize one or the other for various search queries. But does it always have to be a tradeoff?

If user intent is unclear (e.g., on some branded or very general non-branded queries), it is desirable to have visibility on both.

Natural search aligns well with users in the awareness stage.

Paid search can complement that well, focusing on users with the same queries but who are ready to transact or make a decision.

Set the stage for your organic and paid search synergy. Develop complementary coverage for reaching all relevant audiences or pursue the same audience in the most efficient way.

Understand the Full SERP Landscape

Comparing your own natural and paid results is helpful, but doing it without context of who appears alongside misses valuable perspective on why result are what they may be.

Incorporating competitive and the universal search insights is important for a thorough analysis of organic versus natural search.

• Ranking gets tricky when the first organic results actually appear much lower in the SERP as their high rank may suggest. Similarly, if meta search results, shopping, or other paid listings appear alongside paid search results, standard paid search ads no longer control the assumed prime position.
• Messaging in ads and organic results is key for understanding what happens onsite. Poor performance could be due to misalignment of landing page experience with what users see in the SERP, not the organic versus paid search dynamic.

Split the Analysis by Device

With mobile traffic share rapidly growing, it is worth splitting any paid vs. organic analysis by device.

Mobile is, or is poised to fast become, the biggest traffic driving device in many verticals. However, the desired level of site engagement often lags on mobile versus desktop, or even tablet.

With the comparatively higher short-term cost for mobile search ads vs. organic listings, this is a good case for SEO to take more of a lead.

Engines increasingly getting better at building mobile SERPs around micro-moments, and mobile results vary more and more from desktop where historically many focused their analysis of organic vs natural search.

With us at the tipping point of the mobile-first search, it is worth breaking away from desktop focused analysis.

Use Multiple Success Metrics

Before kicking off the analysis, reconsider what metrics are not only important to monitor for comparison but also will be most actionable for your team. If a KPI is hard for your team to influence, then it becomes of secondary importance.

Use a weighted, multiple metrics approach rather than pinning the analysis on any single success criteria.

• Conversion rate, cost/conversion event: The most intuitive metrics consider how successful and costly it is to leverage each site visit. Other metrics will give clues on why a given performance is observed and how to improve it.
• Clicks or visits: This is a helpful guide for prioritizing opportunities. Any identified opportunity or insight should pass the test of being scalable enough to impact your business. Opportunities with limited traffic impact are ultimately not worth resource investment given the small impact on the bottom line.
• Bounce rate: Frequently used in SEO and overlooked for paid search, bounce rate is a good indicator if your user’s intent aligned with the search result’s message (more on that later) and the landing page content.
• Time on site, pageviews, pages/visit: Together with bounce rate, knowing how long users spend on the site and how much content they have consumed provides much-needed context for conversion metrics. Are people converting poorly after seeing much content? Maybe they are not bouncing, but still not finding what they need. Or maybe conversions are strong with a high number of page views. This is an opportunity to look into landing page content and shortening the site journey.
• Click-through rate (CTR): If traffic opportunity is much greater than your visits, CTR is a good metric to use for keeping those seemingly little opportunities on the radar. Here, even a small SERP language optimization would notably boost site traffic.