[Hot] Do You Need Paid Search in 2018?
Search advertising, which places paid ads on search engine's organic results pages (and elsewhere), is poised for a "late-stage renaissance." This is the prediction of Forrester Research, a prominent market research firm.
"In recent years," writes Brandon Verblow, a Forrester forecast analyst, "search has been the important but sleepy mainstay of the digital advertising market. Even though it garners the most digital advertising dollars, the attention paid to search has faded as growth has matured and novel channels like social and video have emerged."
Forrester actually predicts that paid search's share of all digital advertising will decline over the next five years--but the renaissance "will make the slope of that decline...more gradual."
Read: "Search Advertising Enters 2018 On The Cusp Of A Renaissance"
Although the Organic SEO Blog focuses on organic SEO, a "free" form of online advertising, we do acknowledge the value of paid advertisements, when applicable to a website's goals.
Read: "What is Organic SEO?"
Like organic SEO, paid search advertising (also referred to as PPC or pay-per-click) targets keywords. The keywords are chosen by the advertiser--and tools can help businesses select good short and long-term keywords.
For any given search, up to seven paid ads will appear on the SERP (search engine results page), four above the "organic" results and three below.
Paid ads are also often placed on websites with other (often incidental) content. We all know the creepy feeling of visiting Facebook only to see an ad for the product we Googled yesterday. In essence, as Wikipedia's page on "search advertising" notes, paid ads "offer highly relevant search results which are based on the consumer’s own queries."
The viability of paid ads, however, is questionable. Are paid ads right for you?
Organic SEO vs Paid Search
The Wikipedia page on paid search claims that "the opportunity to present consumers with advertisements tailored to their immediate buying interests encourages consumers to click on search ads instead of unpaid search results, which are often less relevant."
This is simply not true. Many SEO practitioners argue that organic traffic is far superior to paid search. Barry Adams, a prominent SEO writer, believes "organic traffic beats paid traffic for every single metric."
Many SEO practitioners agree with Adams' assessment. And certain metrics do prove the primacy of organic results. A 2016 Similar Web Search Report, for example, noted that organic search accounts for 95% of all clicks.
However, as Search Engine Land notes in a response to Adam's tweet, "Google has been steadily making changes that directly harm organic search and help to keep paid search click growth strong."
The value of paid advertising for any brand, Andy Taylor writes for Search Engine Land, is more nuanced: "Declaring [good] results apply to every brand in existence is just ridiculous."
The Cost of Paid Ads
For many brands a combination of organic SEO and paid search may be the best approach. But cost is a huge factor--especially for smaller brands.
Google's AdWords works on bids: "AdWords runs an auction every single time it has an ad space available -- on a search result, or on a blog, news site, or some other page. Each auction decides which AdWords ads will show at that moment in that space. Your bid puts you in the auction."
With recent changes to the SERP, Google is placing fewer ads on any given page, which means that the cost of each ad may increase over time. The increase of top-of-the-page ads (from three to four), for example, may decrease bids at the top--and potentially increase bids for bottom ads, which may make ads for smaller businesses more costly.
Talk of costs, however, are entirely incidental to the effectiveness of a campaign: a $50 investment, if performed with the right keywords, can be more profitable than a $500 investment.
The Value of Organic SEO
A few years ago, a research study revealed that 40% of consumers did not distinguish the difference between paid ads and organic results. As Econsultancy reported: "41 out of the 100 individuals tested did not know that Adwords were paid-for adverts, believing them instead to be the most authoritative links."
Still, even the findings of this study reveal that a majority of consumers do understand the difference. And even more comprehensive research, cited by Econsultancy in 2011, revealed that most browsers prefer organic results:
"Paid search only accounts for 6% of total clicks from search engines versus natural search at 94% of clicks."
For those browsers who understand the difference between ads and organic results, organic results will likely always be the top choice.
In any case, the higher your website appears on the rankings the more visibility you will have. This is the reason some websites pay for visibility. But a paid result is the opposite of organic, and despite what Wikipedia says, it is often not what a browser is looking for--even though it appears on the first page of a search engine's results.
Like Barry Adams, we believe, in the end, that the most tried and true digital marketing approach will always be organic SEO. Other approaches can only supplement organic SEO.
The Renaissance SEO Company: Stepman's SEO
To build an effective, fully-optimized website, you'll need the help of many experienced professionals to perform different tasks. Or you can call one multifaceted company. Stepman's SEO is the rare company that offers a host of SEO and marketing professionals to optimize your website. Contact Stepman's SEO today to learn how you can improve your website's performance: 215-900-9398.
"In recent years," writes Brandon Verblow, a Forrester forecast analyst, "search has been the important but sleepy mainstay of the digital advertising market. Even though it garners the most digital advertising dollars, the attention paid to search has faded as growth has matured and novel channels like social and video have emerged."
Forrester actually predicts that paid search's share of all digital advertising will decline over the next five years--but the renaissance "will make the slope of that decline...more gradual."
Read: "Search Advertising Enters 2018 On The Cusp Of A Renaissance"
Although the Organic SEO Blog focuses on organic SEO, a "free" form of online advertising, we do acknowledge the value of paid advertisements, when applicable to a website's goals.
Read: "What is Organic SEO?"
Like organic SEO, paid search advertising (also referred to as PPC or pay-per-click) targets keywords. The keywords are chosen by the advertiser--and tools can help businesses select good short and long-term keywords.
For any given search, up to seven paid ads will appear on the SERP (search engine results page), four above the "organic" results and three below.
Paid ads are also often placed on websites with other (often incidental) content. We all know the creepy feeling of visiting Facebook only to see an ad for the product we Googled yesterday. In essence, as Wikipedia's page on "search advertising" notes, paid ads "offer highly relevant search results which are based on the consumer’s own queries."
The viability of paid ads, however, is questionable. Are paid ads right for you?
Organic SEO vs Paid Search
The Wikipedia page on paid search claims that "the opportunity to present consumers with advertisements tailored to their immediate buying interests encourages consumers to click on search ads instead of unpaid search results, which are often less relevant."
This is simply not true. Many SEO practitioners argue that organic traffic is far superior to paid search. Barry Adams, a prominent SEO writer, believes "organic traffic beats paid traffic for every single metric."
Many SEO practitioners agree with Adams' assessment. And certain metrics do prove the primacy of organic results. A 2016 Similar Web Search Report, for example, noted that organic search accounts for 95% of all clicks.
However, as Search Engine Land notes in a response to Adam's tweet, "Google has been steadily making changes that directly harm organic search and help to keep paid search click growth strong."
The value of paid advertising for any brand, Andy Taylor writes for Search Engine Land, is more nuanced: "Declaring [good] results apply to every brand in existence is just ridiculous."
The Cost of Paid Ads
For many brands a combination of organic SEO and paid search may be the best approach. But cost is a huge factor--especially for smaller brands.
Google's AdWords works on bids: "AdWords runs an auction every single time it has an ad space available -- on a search result, or on a blog, news site, or some other page. Each auction decides which AdWords ads will show at that moment in that space. Your bid puts you in the auction."
With recent changes to the SERP, Google is placing fewer ads on any given page, which means that the cost of each ad may increase over time. The increase of top-of-the-page ads (from three to four), for example, may decrease bids at the top--and potentially increase bids for bottom ads, which may make ads for smaller businesses more costly.
Talk of costs, however, are entirely incidental to the effectiveness of a campaign: a $50 investment, if performed with the right keywords, can be more profitable than a $500 investment.
The Value of Organic SEO
A few years ago, a research study revealed that 40% of consumers did not distinguish the difference between paid ads and organic results. As Econsultancy reported: "41 out of the 100 individuals tested did not know that Adwords were paid-for adverts, believing them instead to be the most authoritative links."
Still, even the findings of this study reveal that a majority of consumers do understand the difference. And even more comprehensive research, cited by Econsultancy in 2011, revealed that most browsers prefer organic results:
"Paid search only accounts for 6% of total clicks from search engines versus natural search at 94% of clicks."
For those browsers who understand the difference between ads and organic results, organic results will likely always be the top choice.
In any case, the higher your website appears on the rankings the more visibility you will have. This is the reason some websites pay for visibility. But a paid result is the opposite of organic, and despite what Wikipedia says, it is often not what a browser is looking for--even though it appears on the first page of a search engine's results.
Like Barry Adams, we believe, in the end, that the most tried and true digital marketing approach will always be organic SEO. Other approaches can only supplement organic SEO.
The Renaissance SEO Company: Stepman's SEO
To build an effective, fully-optimized website, you'll need the help of many experienced professionals to perform different tasks. Or you can call one multifaceted company. Stepman's SEO is the rare company that offers a host of SEO and marketing professionals to optimize your website. Contact Stepman's SEO today to learn how you can improve your website's performance: 215-900-9398.