Comments on: What is the Equivalent of #1 Ranking on Google for Paid Search? http://www.brandyeddings.com/2008/03/what-is-the-equivalent-of-1-ranking-on-google-for-paid-search/ another wordpress Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:09:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Brian Carter http://www.brandyeddings.com/2008/03/what-is-the-equivalent-of-1-ranking-on-google-for-paid-search/#comment-4 Brian Carter Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:53:31 +0000 http://www.brandyeddings.com/?p=33#comment-4 Great question! SEO and PPC are so different- you can hold them to the same KPI's in your analytics- but I'm never surprised when we get different results from each channel. I see them as two different tools in the toolkit- SEO is arguably superior for long term benefits, but then PPC can be a powerful and profitable channel as well, and you can get bigger results faster with PPC. Also, PPC gives you more control, if you can't get rankings and traffic for certain keywords. Recently we compared SEO and PPC for a client site that generates leads and found that SEO got leads that were half the cost as PPC... but that doesn't mean the client wants to stop getting the leads PPC generates, or that those leads are intolerably expensive. I guess you could back off even further and say: is a number one ranking really the measure of SEO success? ;-) I think the success of both SEO and PPC campaigns has to be judged by more than one keyword, by more than traffic, perhaps by the ultimate conversion goals and whether the cost per conversion or ROAS meet the client's criteria. At the end of the day, and I hate that phrase, clients will consider reallocating to another channel (even email marketing... ***shudder**) if they can get more results at better cost per result from another channel. Great question!

SEO and PPC are so different- you can hold them to the same KPI’s in your analytics- but I’m never surprised when we get different results from each channel. I see them as two different tools in the toolkit-

SEO is arguably superior for long term benefits, but then PPC can be a powerful and profitable channel as well, and you can get bigger results faster with PPC.

Also, PPC gives you more control, if you can’t get rankings and traffic for certain keywords.

Recently we compared SEO and PPC for a client site that generates leads and found that SEO got leads that were half the cost as PPC… but that doesn’t mean the client wants to stop getting the leads PPC generates, or that those leads are intolerably expensive.

I guess you could back off even further and say: is a number one ranking really the measure of SEO success? ;-)

I think the success of both SEO and PPC campaigns has to be judged by more than one keyword, by more than traffic, perhaps by the ultimate conversion goals and whether the cost per conversion or ROAS meet the client’s criteria.

At the end of the day, and I hate that phrase, clients will consider reallocating to another channel (even email marketing… ***shudder**) if they can get more results at better cost per result from another channel.

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