Will pausing my AdWords PPC campaigns impact my organic rankings?
-
Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search; less than 5% comes from AdWords PPC (all other sources account for about 1-2%).
My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero. It's negative if you include opportunity costs.
My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer?
This is really two questions. First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings? Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?
-
Hi Jono,
Yes, you have to check into Google Analytics for this. You can also try to change the model attribution of the conversion to see what's the part of the Adwords Ads into the process.
Regards,
Jonathan
-
I would be interested to see where in the conversion funnel the Adwords campaign targets as compared to the organic searches, before making a decision to shut down the Adwords campaign.
As an example, I've had clients who shut down or paused ad campaigns and saw a dip in their organic revenue, primarily because their customers were maybe hitting the ads at the start of the research process. By the time they were ready to make the order they came in organically. Multi-channel funnels in Analytics can provide some insight there.
-
Thanks for all of the responses - this forum is a great resource!
-
Hi Akira
PPC and Organic position in the SERPs are not related. But you should continue to use PPC. SEO and PPC are complementary. Using the two increase your visibility.
In the SERPs the CTR is about 20% for the ads and 80% for the organic results. But the most people, companies, use 80% of their budget for the ads and only 20% for their content. You see where is the problem???
Regards,
Jonathan
-
About the PPC:
There is psychological effect on being on both PPC and top organic ranking. Also, on searches for terms with high intention of purchase, PPC has significant more clicks than organic positions. Google is displaying more PPC now than ever so most people won´t just scroll down to see the organic results.
You should consider this before you really turn off the PPC. If you already did this, then good luck and congratulations for your results.
-
Akira, there really is no direct connection between AdWords and organic rankings. However, there have been studies that show that if you show up in AdWords and in organic search for a search query it will benefit your organic--the visitors will tend to click on your organic listings and on the PPC ads.
Organic is not affected by PPC.
You may be able to pause the low-converting ads while still keeping the higher-converting ones. Furthermore, there may be other keywords that you can bid on that you aren't showing up for. I would look at Google Search Console's Search Analytics report and look at the impressions for organic and see which keywords are getting impressions but not clicks. That may reveal some keywords that you may want to bid on.
All in all, though, if you want to totally pause your AdWords ads it won't affect your rankings.
-
Hi Akira,
I support EGOL on this one and would go further in saying that in my experience there has never been an association between organic rankings and Adwords. They operate on 2 very different systems and principles and you are not going to take a hit organically (algorithmically produced responses to search queries based on relevancy) due to a decrease in spending on PPC (basically an open house auction system where you receive placement for bids).
As EGOL mentioned, in several years I have never seen a drop in organic rankings on a mixed organic/PPC campaign if PPC funding has been cut off.
The one problem you might have is on the mobile side where PPC positioning is dominant and organic rankings may not cut it. Depends on if your target audience is mobile-oriented and whether that's where your returns are coming from. Even so, based on your numbers, my guess is this move will save you some money and not hurt you organically.
Cheers,
Rob
-
Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search
Yay! Nice work! You are one of the few remaining businesses who are able to do this.
My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero.
Me too. I just did yet another experiment to convince myself that it is almost impossible for a small biz, a retail reseller, to make good money, even any money, using Adwords.
My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer?
My opinion on this is "NO". I would turn them off with confidence. I think that you will still get some of the sales that are currently coming in through Adwords.
First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings?
I don't think that they will do this. I don't think that Google is vindictive in this way. Several years ago we used to run Adwords quite a bit. We would turn the ads on and off for employee vacations, sick days, and when our retail stock was low. Organic rankings never changed a bit.
Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?
I doubt it. I think that lots of searchers skip over the ads. Any searcher who runs ad blockers probably skips over the ads while cursing. I think that dropping Adwords might increase the profit margin of your business because it was probably depressing the profit margin while you were paying for the ads.
I think you are a smart guy because you have done the math to figure this out. Most people who run Adwords are blissfully losing their shirts and pants.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
100+ PPC Landing Pages Linking To Main URL... Hurting My SEO?
I started another thread around this question but don't think I was articulate enough. So, I have over 100 various landing pages that I use for targeted PPC. I don't really have any interest in these pages amassing their own SEO value; I simply use them for my PPC accounts. However, they all link back to my home page. Is this considered a link farm? And, if so, is the best option to simply add a nofollow attribute to all the links pointing to my home page? Would there be any reason to keep the links as follow? I don't think they're giving my site any SEO value but I'm concerned that they could be harming it instead. Any expert advice would be much appreciated.
Paid Search Marketing | | jfishe19880 -
Is there way to have several AdWords Ad for the same keyphrase?
Hi guys. Can I have 2-3-4 ads come up for the same keyphrase? The situation is: I'm bidding for client's company name, there is no other competition (nobody else bids for client's company name), I'm bidding only for exact match and phrase match. Is there way to have, let's say 4 ads come up when somebody searches for exact matched company name? P.S. I know it's weird question, all this is done under reputation management for this company, I'm trying to occupy as much space at the top of the 1st SERPs, so people don't see ROR article in organic position #4. If you have other suggestions - please feel free to put it here. (SEO is being done, not-index pages are being optimized to try to come up as several organic results, backlink building is in process, Social media profiles are being optimized as well). I'm just trying to have some temporary "fix".
Paid Search Marketing | | DmitriiK0 -
Disparities between AdWords clicks and Analytics sessions
Hi all, Have an Analytics account connected to my AdWords account which is showing HUGE gulfs in clicks and sessions for a CPM campaign. 500 clicks = 0 sessions. Does anyone have any idea why this could be the case? Auto-tagging is on and everything looks to be in place. The website itself is on a 303 so I was wondering could that be impacting things? The CPC is also just 1p so that's got me very suspicious. Thanks in advance.
Paid Search Marketing | | Whittie0 -
KeyWord Spy Expert Needed: Will Pay $100 For A Report
I need someone with a KeyWord Spy subscription and experience (or a similar tool that has Canadian data) to do a one time CPC report that answers these questions: (1) Who are my client's main competitors in paid search? (2) What is the estimated ad spend by the the five top competitors? (3) What keywords and ads are working best for the competitors? (4)) What is the CPC for the top 20 keywords in the niche. (5)) Any topline suggestions for my client re: next steps. That's it! I don't want to be overwhelmed with masses of extraneous detail. This should be an easy assignment for someone with required expertise. Possibility of more work to implement and/or optimize CPC campaign. Reply via PM with experience. Ideally, send a sample past report (okay to black out client names)
Paid Search Marketing | | DanielFreedman0 -
Potential problems with multiple users of an adwords MCC
Morning all, I have had a query regarding granting access to an MCC account for people using various platforms. Now this a pretty specific query for an area outside my expertise, and conveniently both our PPC guys are on holiday so thought i would reach out to the community. Full request is this: "On the mcc I am slightly concerned about that, from experience I have run into problems especially with granting access for usage of API’s on an account, so if for example we wanted to use marin they would need access then another wanted to use adobe they would need another and if they are all sat under the SSM teams mcc that could be problematic or we would have to set up another." Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom.
Paid Search Marketing | | Sarbs0 -
PPC for a music shop - advice
Hi, I'm pretty new to this but I'm doing my best, so I've created a few campaigns such as 'Guitars' and 'Drums' and started to add keywords to each one such as 'buy guitars online' etc would it also be wise to add brands to this campaign? or should I create a completely different campaign focusing solely on brands? What would you recommend? Thanks, Dan
Paid Search Marketing | | Sparkstone0 -
Adwords campaign and adgroup ideas
When it comes to SEO, I can do that. When it comes to adwords I tend to scratch my head. No idea why, I just do. Anyways I want to get some ideas of how I can setup a killer campaign and structure it and target relevant keywords. Here is my description of my business We are a private christian school providing preschool, elementary and highschool. We are located in Henderson, NV but service Las Vegas, NV as well. We have some of the highest scores and accolades in Nevada so we pride ourselves with those and feel we should target that. So far when it comes to structure I have come up with this setup Campaigns Henderson adgroups Preschool Top Keywords preschool Example Keywords preschools in henderson, nv preschools in henderson nevada preschool henderson nv preschool henderson nevada top rated Example Keywords top rated preschools in henderson nv top rates preschools in henderson nevada best Example Keywords best preschool in henderson nv best preschool in henderson nevada Elementary Top Keywords private school Example Keywords Elementary private schools in henderson nv Elementary private schools in henderson nevada Elementary private school in henderson nv Elementary private school in henderson nevada top rated Example Keywords top rated elementary private school in henderson nv top rated elementary private school in henderson nevada best Example Keywords best elementary private school in henderson nv High School Top Keywords private school top rated best Las Vegas adgroups Preschool Elementary High School I didn't finish the rest because you should get the point. I don't know if these are exact keywords, I just know that private school, top rated and best tend to be what people type. Then each adgroup will get a relevant ad pertaining to those keywords. Am I going overbaord? or is this a good start?
Paid Search Marketing | | cbielich0 -
Keyword Domains for PPC
I have a client who wants to buy a lot of long domains with keywords in them, for example, thesandiegopetstore.com (this is fictional) and then set up a PPC landing page for each. They think that when someone types in "san diego pet store" that their domain will be listed high and then they will get a lot of traffic. My concern is that they will own a lot of domains for their company and I thought Google is getting pretty adamant about companies not having a lot of domains, and I thought that keyword domains are not as effective as they used to be -- that branding is more important now. Also, I think the domains they've picked target very competitive keywords and that perhaps they will get a lot unqualified traffic and will still have to pay for the clicks. What do you think? What is the best way to set up PPC landing pages?
Paid Search Marketing | | klkirby0