Paid and Organic Search | Five Ways to Take More Holistic Approach

 

What is a holistic search? Approach to Paid & Organic Search

A holistic search aims to give your website a better ranking in search results. By combining the intelligence gained from both paid and organic search channels, it helps to increase the relative effectiveness of both.

A combination of paid and organic search results in more qualified traffic. The use of paid and organic data is used to improve visibility for highly competitive or expensive keywords. Based on this data, organic targeting can be optimized to improve cost efficiency in paid search budgets.

The use of SEO tactics such as page optimization can improve the paid search Google Quality Score. Paid search can be used to see if the messaging works for SEO content. 

In digital marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) or search engine marketing (SEM) has been a staple for years due to its benefits, such as efficiency, scalability, and targeting options. 

A search engine marketing campaign can target specific audiences with keyword targeting, collect mountains of data on multiple platforms, and increase online exposure using channel-specific tools. No matter how capable a process may be, there is always room to improve it with uncreative novel strategies.

In paid search, there are many ways to implement a holistic strategy. This article will discuss five different ways to develop a comprehensive marketing plan. With this technique, your SEM plan and all of your marketing will be put on a whole new level.

1. Make SEO a part of your SEM strategy

It is not a bad idea to incorporate an organic search strategy (SEO) into your paid search plan. You will gain more insight into the search landscape, such as search trends and search interest.

When you give your target market a lot of options, you will be closer to capturing the market as much as possible.

2. Segregate your key performance indicators (KPIs) based on your audience.

There are some marketing goals aimed at a specific audience or demographic. A variety of people or multiple groups can form other types of groups, which need to be targeted differently.

It's vital to differentiate your audiences tactically when designing your marketing plan. In the healthcare industry, companies might market to both medical professionals and patients/caregivers, both of whom might require the same materials or services. But they would discuss it differently. This kind of specificity allows you to target searchers with considerable accuracy.

3. Keep your budget in sync with seasonal trends.

The above strategies will paint a very substantial picture, but there is always more you can do to make sure your brand is getting the maximum amount of visibility.

In addition to asking yourself: 

Is there a seasonal trend to my data or general patterns throughout the year or week that we could benefit from? The spring and fall are great times to sell certain products and services (i.e., school, agriculture, etc.), but the holidays are a convenient time to gain momentum. 

Getting a deeper understanding of your business's most valuable times can be gained from pulling year-over-year data. When you know these times, you can adjust your budget so that it increases during these valuable times and decreases during the quieter ones.

You can take advantage of paid search if you understand what your brand is trying to achieve. The budget can be shaped around your seasonal trends in a variety of ways. However, it usually involves looking at the marketing budgets throughout a year and adding or subtracting a percent to mimic the patterns found in the data.

4. Use more than one tool to collect data.

A multitude of valuable information can be gathered from the more obvious PPC tools, such as Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. But these platforms are far more valuable when the data they collect is cross-examined with other tools. As a result, your metrics may become more meaningful and you may be able to detect holes in your story.

Moreover, when compiling lists of search keywords and learning the market's interest, a tool like Google Ads keyword planner is useful for providing detailed and thorough keyword lists. You might also consider adding any existing leads to that list.

Additionally, web-based services such as Answer the Public and Also Asked to compile a list of search queries surrounding any given topic. Alternatively, you can use tools that can access web crawlers as a data source. These tools can give you a snapshot of your competitors' metrics, including organic search data, bounce rate, pages/session, and more. 

5. Get a full picture of the user journey from start to finish.

In short, the most successful marketing strategy would make use of all available resources to develop a holistic plan that incorporates them all. This plan will set them up so that they follow the path users take from their first interaction with a brand to their last. You can visualize it as a funnel with three parts.

Initially, there is awareness, which involves spreading the word about the brand. Rather than relying on the brand name to capture attention, companies should avoid using generalized terms surrounding their industry when targeting this group.

Instead, well-established brands, such as Nike, focus on differentiating themselves from their competitors. The consideration phase begins at this point. In this state, you target searchers who are comparing brands across an industry or just gathering information that they deem useful before they make an investment or purchase.

Conversion or acquisition is the last phase of the funnel. Companies usually have different KPIs for conversion and acquisition. Various types of sign-up forms may be used by different people, such as joining a newsletter or making a purchase. Before implementing a half-baked marketing strategy, it's vital to understand where your ideal audience falls.

There are many ways to improve and expand your paid search marketing strategy. You may find these five suggestions helpful as a starting point for improving it. This article should leave you with one key idea: Be creative with your resources, and cover as many bases as you can.