It’s a known strategy in internet marketing to use pay-per-click advertising (PPC) with new campaigns, then stop it once organic SEO ranking is achieved.  However, PPC has advantages over SEO that can’t be replaced.  In the end, it’s all about ROI.

At Marketing 360®, we work with clients all the time who have the goal of getting the coveted “free” clicks of SEO.  They figure this is internet marketing Nirvana:  maximum traffic for the lowest cost.

There was a time when this was a viable strategy – at least for some verticals.  Organic tended to get more clicks than sponsored ads, so if you could gain those spots why bother with paid ads?

In this mindset, PPC’s main value was that it was quick.  You didn’t have to wait for months before your listings would finally show up organically.  After that time-frame, PPC could be stopped so SEO could to all the lifting.

Seems sensible.  But it’s also too simplistic.

There are now a number of reasons why you should maintain PPC even after you’re ranking on page 1 organically:

1. Mobile search.  The rise of mobile search may be the single biggest reason you’ll want to keep PPC ads running.  The screen real-estate on mobile devices is smaller, so on the SERP, the only results visible without scrolling down are paid, which always occupy the top spots.  You will get more attention and response from paid ads on mobile devices.
2. Advertising control.  PPC is a more controllable tool than SEO.  For important ads, you know they’ll show up.  Organic results can shift – suddenly.  You can geo-target and daypart PPC ads to better target your traffic.  Ad copy can be tied into specific landing pages so you can drive traffic for very specific campaigns. With organic, the results are up to the search engine.
3. Advertising intent.  This one doesn’t always get considered but it’s worth tracking data on.  PPC ads – because they are ads – tend to catch people not only with buying intent, but also who are farther along in the buying cycle.  SEO gets a lot of informational queries and you may find that your traffic doesn’t convert as well as PPC ads.  Sometimes it’s better to be apparent about the fact that you’re a business selling a service, particularly if your intent is to attract consumers.
4. Remarketing.  Remarketing is the banner ads that follow you around online after you visit a website.  Most people don’t make a purchase decision the first time they visit a website.  These ads stay with people and bring them back to your website.  Remarketing is a feature only of PPC.
5. Display advertising.  Depending on your goals, you may want to use display campaigns, which display banner ads based on contextual advertising.  This allows you to target different demographics based on gender, age, location, and interests.  Only PPC.
6. The Google (Ad)vantage.  Let’s be honest.  Google and Bing make their money off businesses who use their paid platform.  They want you to use PPC, and there are always going to be advantages to using these platforms.  For example, Google owns YouTube, so if you want to advertise on YouTube itself or do banner video ads, you have to run them through PPC.

You shouldn’t discontinue PPC just because you’ve gained high organic ranking for your keyword targets.

Rather, what you need to do is judge your PPC campaigns independently under the criteria of ROI.  If it’s making you money, by no means should you stop.  If it’s not, then that’s a reason to evaluate its usefulness for your marketing.

When you have SEO and PPC working profitably for your business, then you’ve built a competitive advantage.  Instead of pulling any part of it back, pour it on.  You’re in the position to take over market share and send the competition packing.