Paid vs. Natural Search – Where does the ROI lie?

Interactive marketing programmes are fuelled by measurable results but surprisingly many digital marketers still under invest in natural search due to difficulties measuring the impact of their SEO investments.

For all the promise of measurability that search marketing holds, and given that UK search spending is now measured in billions of pounds, it is remarkable that the 2007 eConsultancy UK Search Marketing Report found that 44 per cent of advertisers don’t understand the return on investment (ROI) from their Paid search activities, and 64 per cent don’t understand the ROI from Natural search activities. 

Yet the study also found that advertisers that did understand their ROI were achieving results of over 300 per cent for half of their Paid search activities, and 68 per cent of their Natural search activities.

So, how can advertisers spend copious amounts of money and still not use Paid and Natural search tracking services to better understand their campaign’s success?  It’s clear that those that are tracking their search activity effectively are making hay while the sun shines, at the expense of those that don’t.

Whether you’re an astute advertiser tracking both activities or are struggling to see the light at the end of the Search marketing tunnel, below are a few insights on how to ensure you get the most out of your paid and/or natural search campaigns:  

1. Understand how customers use Paid and Natural search as they progress through the purchase cycle (from searching keywords to clicking on banner ads).  Such data can only be accessed if a technology that tracks advertising exposures prior to the last possible exposure.  These prior ad exposures can show which terms customers searched for, whether they clicked on Paid or Natural ads, and how the nature of those terms changed. For example from generic to brand and product specific.  These ad exposures may highlight click paths patterns that can be exploited by appropriate optimization of either/both Paid and Natural terms. 
2. Find high performing Paid search keywords in paid search, then optimise for them in natural search.  If those Paid search terms are performing well then it’s likely that optimizing that keyword for Natural search will result in a higher share of clicks from the limited number of impressions available for that term.  Once a click is delivered to the site, it’s likely that it will enjoy the same high conversion metrics enjoyed by Paid search clicks.
3. And vice-versa: look for high traffic, high converting Natural search terms and add them to your Paid campaigns.  The insight of what customers are actually searching for (as opposed to just which search terms you are bidding on) may highlight terms that you haven’t already thought of and which turn into high-performing Paid search terms.
4. In a perfect world, you’d like to rank highly on both Paid and Natural results for all key terms, however with increased competition Paid search CPCs may rise to unsustainable levels.  Hence Paid spend on those terms can be dialed-down to maintain overall program efficiency, while still enjoying ranking and traffic from Natural search.  Dial-down Paid search presence for those terms that enjoy consistently high Natural search rankings, and drive consistently high traffic.  
5. And vice-versa: dial-up Paid search on terms that aren’t ranking well in Natural search results.  There may be some important terms that despite best-efforts you just can’t get first page rankings for.  Use Paid search to ensure coverage for such terms.

At the end of the day, tracking both paid and natural search terms effectively will maximize the return on your investment. The complexity of online ads and websites are only increasing, so why not understand and track what consumers are searching for now.

By

Jonty Kelt

Vice President – Search International

www.DoubleClick.com