Is Your PPC Stealing from SEO? The Hidden Battle & How to Stop It!

Two digital marketing strategies, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC), are commonly used to achieve results in the digital world.

PPC is used for immediate attention, whereas SEO is used for long-term sustainable and organic traffic.

What if we say, these two most important strategies can cause you trouble if they do not complement each other?

Yes, you read it right. But the question is how can this happen? Let us tell you how…

If the combination of PPC and SEO is not used correctly, PPC can consume all your SEO efforts, meaning you might end up paying for traffic you could have gained organically using SEO for free.

So if you have implemented both PPC and SEO in your digital marketing strategy, ensuring harmony among them is essential for maximum return on investment (ROI).

In this blog, we will learn what PPC cannibalization is, how to find it, and how to keep your search engine safe from it.

What is PPC Cannibalization?

PPC cannibalization is a process where your organic campaign efforts get sabotaged by paid search campaigns as it causes a shift in traffic from free organic clicks to paid ones.

The result is an unnecessary waste of ad budget without gaining additional traffic or conversions.

Let’s understand this with an example: a website already ranking in the top three for a certain keyword and you are bidding again for the same keyword.

There is a high chance users will click on ads rather than organic results.

It will cause an increase in ad spending for traffic that could have been acquired for free.

Also read – Maximize Your Reach with Google Discovery Ads

Why Does PPC Cannibalization Happen?

Check out what factors contribute to PPC cannibalization. Here are they:

Overlapping keyword targeting: The most common way is to run a PPC campaign for the same keywords for which your site already ranks highly in organic search.

Aggressive brand bidding: Paying for branded search terms is a waste of the PPC budget, as SEO would have led to organic visits anyway.

Broad match keyword settings: If your PPC campaign is targeting a variation of organic keywords, you are just wasting your money.

Performance Max (PMax) campaigns: If you run an AI-driven PMax campaign, you might lead to unintended cannibalization because it automatically targets high-volume branded keywords.

Signs That PPC is Cannibalizing Your SEO

Identify warning signs to stop PPC from cannibalizing your organic traffic. Here are the common indicators:

1. Declining Organic Click-Through Rates (CTR)

If you are seeing stability in your organic rankings but a drop in CTR, beware! Your PPC is eating away at your organic clicks from a listing.

This normally happens when your PPC campaign targets high-ranking or branded keywords.

2. Increased PPC Clicks Without Overall Traffic Growth

If you are seeing a spike in paid traffic but total website traffic is still the same, this is an indication that your PPC ads are getting the attention of the organic crowd rather than reaching new customers.

3. Organic Conversions Declining While Paid Conversions Increase

The third case of PPC cannibalization is, that your organic results are declining and PPC is growing meaning it might be pulling users away from organic results rather than expanding your reach.

How to Prevent PPC from Cannibalizing SEO

Now that you have a sound understanding of how PPC cannibalization happens, here are three key steps to avoid it.

1. Conduct a PPC and SEO Keyword Overlap Audit

If you want to check if your PPC is interfering with organic traffic, you can conduct an audit or hire someone to conduct PPC audit services to check and find overlapping keywords.

Follow these steps:

• Analyze Organic Performance
• Compare with PPC Search Terms Report
• Sort by Clicking Volume

If your website is ranking well for high-ranking organic terms, you should pause PPC ads or lower the bids for the same to discover if your organic traffic and conversions increase.

2. Implement Negative Keywords to Exclude Strong Organic Performers

Use a negative keyword strategy to stop PPC ads from appearing in searches where you organically rank well.

Use Negative Keywords: Add exact terms where you have high rankings in the negative keywords section to avoid unnecessary ad spend.

Exclude Branded Keywords (With Caution): If your branded keywords push organic rankings, use them as negative keywords in PPC to avoid redundancy. However, if competitors start bidding on your brand terms, PPC brand bidding becomes necessary to maintain visibility.

3. Optimize Brand Bidding Strategies and Use Brand Exclusion Lists

Should You Bid on Branded Keywords?

The simple answer to this question is it depends on the situation. If your website is already visible, bidding on branded keywords can be a waste of time but at the same time, if competitors are bidding on your brand keywords, it becomes essential to bid.

Brand Exclusion Lists

Using Google Ads brand exclusion lists helps prevent ads from appearing for branded searches where organic listings are already performing. This helps in Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which tend to prioritize branded terms.

Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns and PPC Cannibalization

Performance max campaigns use Google’s AI to place ads across different channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. It can boost visibility, but it also presents challenges:

How PMax Can Cannibalize SEO Traffic

Broad Match Targeting: PMax automatically targets broad match keywords irrespective even whether they are performing well for organic rankings.

Limited Transparency on Search Terms: Google isn’t entirely transparent with detailed keyword reports of PMax, which makes it challenging to identify overlaps.

Competing with Organic Listings: PMax often competes with organic search results and keeps them down resulting in reduced organic visibility.

How to Prevent PMax from Cannibalizing SEO

Use Account-Level Negative Keywords: Use negative keywords for PMax campaigns to exclude high-performing organic keywords.

Optimize Asset Groups and Search Themes: Focus on the products or services in PMax that perform well organically.

Testing PPC’s Impact on SEO

If you see your PPC campaign cannibalizing SEO efforts, try these tests:

1. Run a PPC Pause Test
For the time being, stop using PPC ad groups for high-ranking organic keywords and analyze the impact on organic traffic, CTR, and conversions. If the SEO performance is improving meaning your PPC ads are cannibalizing SEO.

2. Compare Pre- and Post-Bid Adjustments
Reduce the bids for keywords that are ranking well organically and analyze the changes in paid and organic performance.

3. Analyze Assisted Conversions in Google Analytics
Check if your PPC ads have contributed to conversions that SEO couldn’t have achieved and if not then adjust your PPC strategy accordingly.

4. Monitor Organic CTR Changes
Use Google Search Console to find out how click-through rate changes for top organic keywords before and after PPC campaigns launch.

Aligning PPC and SEO for Maximum Efficiency

If you are looking to maximize your digital marketing or PPC marketing ROI, make sure that your PPC and SEO statagies complement each other. Here’s how you can do it:

Reduce PPC Spend on High-Ranking Organic Terms: Stop paying for the traffic that you would have gotten for free otherwise.

Use PPC to Supplement SEO, Not Replace It: Expand your PPC reach to areas with limited organic reach.

Leverage Negative Keywords and Exclusion Lists: Avoid unnecessary overlap between PPC and SEO efforts.

Monitor Performance and Adjust Strategies Regularly: Monitor your data from PPC and SEO campaigns to ensure that both channels are working effectively together.

If you successfully manage both PPC and SEO efforts, you can stop wasted ad spend, enhance efficiency, and maximize the overall impact of your marketing strategy.

If you find it time-consuming and challenging, don’t worry because Uvisible can do all of this optimally for you at your convenience.