13 Marketing Tips SEOs Can Learn From PPC Managers

Author: Neil Patel / Source: Quick Sprout

As an SEO expert, you know what it takes to get your content ranked high in search engine results.

Depending on how good you are at SEO, sometimes the only results displayed higher than yours are those from PPC campaigns.

SEO and PPC are considered to be two very different marketing approaches. But these strategies are more similar than you think.

The biggest difference between SEO and PPC is you’re paying for your PPC campaigns, as the name implies. Driving organic traffic to your website with SEO is free.

While keywords are obviously important to PPC managers, they don’t need to focus on search engine optimization as much because they’re bidding on those keywords.

If they’re willing to pay enough, their search engine ads can generate hits and clicks, even if their headlines aren’t extremely SEO friendly.

Using SEO to drive website traffic is much more competitive. To gain an advantage over your competitors, you can use PPC principles to improve your SEO strategy.

After all, your search ranking is useless if it doesn’t generate clicks.

These are the top 13 marketing tips SEOs can learn from PPC managers. By combining principles from these two strategies, you’ll be able to drive more traffic to your website.

1. Write headlines that generate clicks

As I said before, the basic principle behind SEO is getting a high search ranking. This is obviously very important for your traffic.

But is that high ranking translating to clicks and traffic? It should.

The first page of search engine results generates 75% of all clicks.

If you’re getting ranked high but not seeing a spike in traffic, there is likely a problem with your headlines. You need to learn how to increase clicks by mastering your headlines.

There are common elements in titles that encourage clicks.

Even if your headline has SEO friendly keywords, it doesn’t mean people will click on it.

PPC managers are masters at writing great ad copy. This helps improve their click-through rates and increases their quality scores.

But with SEO, you don’t need to pay for ads to generate clicks.

You just need to make slight adjustments to your SEO headlines that will make them more enticing.

For example, add a number to your headline. You may not think this is good for SEO because people probably aren’t searching for numbers. But this strategy generates clicks.

Headlines containing numbers are 36% more likely to get clicked. Using odd numbers improves CTR by 20% compared to even numbers.

2. Come up with new keywords

Don’t be broad with your keyword research.

Get specific. Use long-tail keywords to generate more relevant search results.

Using long-tail keywords will also make the search results less competitive. For example, let’s say your company sells backpacks.

If that’s the only keyword you’re using, it’ll be tough to get ranked high and generate clicks.

But if you’re using long-tail keywords, e.g., “red waterproof hiking backpack,” you’re appealing to a very specific audience.

Yes, the search volume for those words will definitely be lower. However, you won’t be competing with as many websites.

Now you’ll get ranked higher and increase your chances of getting more clicks.

It’s also important to use new keywords based on seasons, promotions, or the audiences you’re trying to target with specific campaigns. Don’t use the same keywords over and over again expecting to get great results, especially if the keywords are highly competitive.

3. Monitor keywords from your competitors

Your keyword research shouldn’t be conducted in a vacuum. You need to know what your competition is doing.

PPC managers use this strategy to help them see which keywords are the most competitive. It allows them to adjust their bids accordingly.

But it’s important for you to implement this strategy when you’re focusing on search engine optimization as well.

Try using tools such as SpyFu to help you with your keyword monitoring:

With SpyFu, you can search for specific competitors, and the platform will analyze their websites’ content.

You’ll be able to identify exact keywords they’re using.

Based on this information, you can make the necessary adjustments. If one of your competitors is always getting ranked higher than you, maybe it’s time for you to start using some of their keywords.

You can make those keywords even better by turning them into long-tail keywords, which I’ve already talked about.

4. Track your leads with UTM parameters

Where are your leads coming from?

I’m hoping you’re not relying solely on organic search traffic to get more visitors to your website. You should be running other campaigns as well.

If you see a spike in website traffic, you can’t assume it’s coming from your improved SEO efforts. But how can you know for sure?

By creating custom links with UTM parameters, you’ll be able to distinguish your search engine traffic from the traffic generated by other campaigns.

For example, you can set up a unique link for each one of your email marketing newsletters. Have a different link for all your social media posts.

If you’re running ads on other websites or getting affiliate links, those should each have a custom URL as well.

Now you’ll be able to identify the sources of your traffic. You’ll see which headlines, ads, platforms, and promotions are yielding the highest results.

PPC managers do this to see if it’s worth it to continue paying for specific ads on websites. But you can use it to figure out if your SEO strategy and keywords are working.

5. Optimize keywords for mobile searches

When it comes to your keyword research, you need to keep different devices in mind.

That’s because more than half of all website traffic comes from smartphones and tablets.

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