Use knowledge from Google Ads to boost your SEO (and vice versa)

Krzysztof says: “By using data from SEO, you can achieve better results in Google Ad campaigns, and the opposite is also true.”

What information can we get from Google Ads that will help with SEO?

“Keywords. In SEO, you can’t check the results of keywords, because Google Analytics is asked not to provide it. You might only be able to check the landing page and how it works towards your ROI. In Google Ads, you can test exact keywords. If you’re fighting for a few keywords and you go after them, you might find out that those keywords don’t work at all. Without Google Ads, we’d all be using content links to fight for the same keywords - but end up getting no sales from them.

If data shows that a keyword is working in Google Ads, it will usually work in SEO too. If you have thousands of clicks in Google Ads and a very low conversation rate, you’ll probably get the same low rates in SEO.

The next step is all about user intent in SEO keywords. When you put content out to users on the Google SERP, you’ll experience different click-through rates (CTRs). You can test them in Google Ads, and use side links as a content extension for ads, callouts, and headlines. In Google Ads, you’ll get results in real time and you can know which elements give the best CTRs. You can take this data and use it to improve titles, descriptions, etc. You can also put this content inside your landing page because, if you know something works in Google Ads, putting it in your content will make people stay on your landing page longer. It’s worth testing something in Google Ads for a period of time and then implementing it in SEO if it’s successful.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are a great way of searching for new keywords for SEO. The way it works is that Google tries to match your keywords with your landing pages based on its algorithms. You can use Google information to configure which keywords go to which landing pages as part of your long-tail strategy. This is a great way to implement data from Google Ads but also, in reverse, you’ll find better results in DSA campaigns and Google Shopping when landing pages are optimised by SEO.

Incorporate more common keywords that will extend the reach of your campaign. You can also optimise the speed of the landing page to improve your Ads campaign. Collaborating with someone who’s working on a Google Ads campaign will also provide a lot of benefits. You should test ideas before implementing content strategy in SEO, for example, to make sure you’re doing things that will result in sales/conversions.”

Should the ultimate goal be to stop paid campaigns and focus on getting to page one organically? Should you optimise as efficiently as possible with the data gleaned from PPC and then switch it off?

“No. What’s more important is establishing synergy with clients. You won’t find every keyword accessible in SEO because they are expensive to get. Being in the Google Ads and organic search results is better for clicks, and therefore conversion rates. Google Ads campaigns can be used as leverage for more budget, leads, etc.

With a good strategy, you can do SEO on a basic level. You might find that, if a crisis hits and you can no longer use Google Ads, this could be a blessing in disguise for greater focus on getting your SEO strategy in place. You could essentially do nothing new with no budget and still get leads from organic.

Have a baseline of sales leads from SEO and try to improve this with Google Ads. It’s not a case of doing one meeting and trying to implement data - you have to check the data. With Google Ads, the best ads will only be good for certain periods. After months, competitors change copy and you may find your ad is no good anymore. If this happens, you should implement changes in titles, descriptions, blog posts, etc. Be careful not to make title changes site-wide because it can take months to change the whole title structure on a big site.”

How is this kind of keyword data better compared with when SEO was confined elsewhere?

“You can go to Google Analytics and try to check the viewers you don’t have any data for. You can check the landing page, for example, and look at whether you have a page about SEO audits and surveys. If you put both of these terms in Google Ads and SEO, you can fight for the relevant keywords.

Some keywords can be very expensive because they’ll be industry keywords, but you can use Google Ads to see what the actual conversion rate might be – which is very useful when it comes to SEO audits. Often, people fight for keywords in SEO but fail because the conversion rate is so low, not just because the keywords are expensive.

Lots of people look to tools to do things for them rather than find an agency. You should learn how to determine whether a sales keyword is wrong by spending money on Google Ads and devising an SEO strategy. If you check the landing page, you’ll get a bunch of brand-new keywords that will up your conversion rate a lot.

Trying to extrapolate data by analysing landing pages in Google Analytics is not a good idea when you have brand keywords involved. You can use data to tell clients not to go for very common keywords on the entry-level side of eCommerce. You can also show a big store that they can work for keywords they’re likely to sell for if the attribution suggests so. They might then go with the campaign in SEO and experience great sales. When you can’t show data in SEO, you can show it in Google Ads.”

What can Google Ads learn from SEO?

“Lots of Google Ads specialists don’t use their knowledge to say when a page is wrong. If they did, they could work out when to update, improve usability, and speed things up. Specialists tend to stick to the interface of Google Ads; SEO will tell you when something is bad or when you need more keywords.

For example, if you have a shop with no keywords and specify further information about your products, these descriptive keywords will work great for SEO and you’ll see an improvement in shopping ads. There will often be lots of keywords missing from titles that fail to describe products in more detail. When these are expanded, Google will have more content to find new keywords to market a product for DSA and shopping ads combined. If you spend time expanding on the description of product titles, you’ll achieve more and more reach. Then you won’t just be refreshing some old common keywords, but long-tail precision ones - like the exact colour of a product. Specific descriptions will have better conversions than common words.

The optimisation is focused on sales. If you look at quality scoring in Google Ads you’ll find there are three pillars: expected CTR, relevance, and landing page experience. If you assign a keyword to your campaign and your landing page gets 5/10, you’ll know something is wrong. You could try to optimise for a week and still be at 5/10. In this case, you could try to improve your campaign but also improve in terms of technical SEO.

There are human behaviour and algorithm-based elements to consider. If you improve the algorithm-based side of things, you’ll be better off in terms of PPCs. Analyse elements of the quality score and focus on where you can do better in the Google Ads interface and on-page. Expand your knowledge and what you know about the page. Testing new landing pages is hard in Analytics but easier in Google Ads. You can do these tests Ads to work out whether you should implement changes across your whole site.”

Should search marketing teams, SEOs, and paid search experts interact together all the time?

“Yes, they should definitely interact. In a situation where one company is doing SEO and the second is doing PPC strategies - they should all communicate to unite toward the common goal of client success.”

What shouldn’t SEOs be doing in 2023? What’s seductive in terms of time, but ultimately counterproductive?

“The business structure of agencies and specialists is usually geared toward making big sales. However, selling content by quantity over quality can be counterproductive. Internal content often only focuses on results like the number of keywords and users in Google Analytics. When you delve deeper into those results and ask for data, you might find your campaign has been unsuccessful.

It’s easy to write an article that attracts users by incorporating keywords from a keyword planner, but will it sell more? In Google Analytics we can do exact reports to check the traffic on a new landing page and whether it led to sales in the long or short term. You can use this information to embrace the importance of not focusing on all keywords purely based on volume data.

You must think about the real people who type those keywords in to buy your stuff after reading your content. Learn that investing in SEO is good for the long term. Planning to sell X amount of content over a period of time is a bad strategy, and you might experience empty traffic in sales. When you pay for content, you always have to check the results. The best way to benchmark is on conversion rates/value. Sometimes you’ll sell big stuff and have big merging profits, but if you don’t go to look at your analytics you’ll probably pay for content that doesn’t sell at all.”

Krzysztof Marzec is CEO at DevaGroup and you can find him at devagroup.com.