Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Will pausing my AdWords PPC campaigns impact my organic rankings?
-
Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search; less than 5% comes from AdWords PPC (all other sources account for about 1-2%).
My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero. It's negative if you include opportunity costs.
My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer?
This is really two questions. First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings? Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?
-
Hi Jono,
Yes, you have to check into Google Analytics for this. You can also try to change the model attribution of the conversion to see what's the part of the Adwords Ads into the process.
Regards,
Jonathan
-
I would be interested to see where in the conversion funnel the Adwords campaign targets as compared to the organic searches, before making a decision to shut down the Adwords campaign.
As an example, I've had clients who shut down or paused ad campaigns and saw a dip in their organic revenue, primarily because their customers were maybe hitting the ads at the start of the research process. By the time they were ready to make the order they came in organically. Multi-channel funnels in Analytics can provide some insight there.
-
Thanks for all of the responses - this forum is a great resource!
-
Hi Akira
PPC and Organic position in the SERPs are not related. But you should continue to use PPC. SEO and PPC are complementary. Using the two increase your visibility.
In the SERPs the CTR is about 20% for the ads and 80% for the organic results. But the most people, companies, use 80% of their budget for the ads and only 20% for their content. You see where is the problem???
Regards,
Jonathan
-
About the PPC:
There is psychological effect on being on both PPC and top organic ranking. Also, on searches for terms with high intention of purchase, PPC has significant more clicks than organic positions. Google is displaying more PPC now than ever so most people won´t just scroll down to see the organic results.
You should consider this before you really turn off the PPC. If you already did this, then good luck and congratulations for your results.
-
Akira, there really is no direct connection between AdWords and organic rankings. However, there have been studies that show that if you show up in AdWords and in organic search for a search query it will benefit your organic--the visitors will tend to click on your organic listings and on the PPC ads.
Organic is not affected by PPC.
You may be able to pause the low-converting ads while still keeping the higher-converting ones. Furthermore, there may be other keywords that you can bid on that you aren't showing up for. I would look at Google Search Console's Search Analytics report and look at the impressions for organic and see which keywords are getting impressions but not clicks. That may reveal some keywords that you may want to bid on.
All in all, though, if you want to totally pause your AdWords ads it won't affect your rankings.
-
Hi Akira,
I support EGOL on this one and would go further in saying that in my experience there has never been an association between organic rankings and Adwords. They operate on 2 very different systems and principles and you are not going to take a hit organically (algorithmically produced responses to search queries based on relevancy) due to a decrease in spending on PPC (basically an open house auction system where you receive placement for bids).
As EGOL mentioned, in several years I have never seen a drop in organic rankings on a mixed organic/PPC campaign if PPC funding has been cut off.
The one problem you might have is on the mobile side where PPC positioning is dominant and organic rankings may not cut it. Depends on if your target audience is mobile-oriented and whether that's where your returns are coming from. Even so, based on your numbers, my guess is this move will save you some money and not hurt you organically.
Cheers,
Rob
-
Over 95% of my revenue comes from organic search
Yay! Nice work! You are one of the few remaining businesses who are able to do this.
My ROI on AdWords is roughly zero.
Me too. I just did yet another experiment to convince myself that it is almost impossible for a small biz, a retail reseller, to make good money, even any money, using Adwords.
My question is: if I pause all of my AdWords campaigns, is there ANY chance that my organic rankings (and organic click-through rates) will suffer?
My opinion on this is "NO". I would turn them off with confidence. I think that you will still get some of the sales that are currently coming in through Adwords.
First, could Google retaliate to my reduced ad spending by dropping my rankings?
I don't think that they will do this. I don't think that Google is vindictive in this way. Several years ago we used to run Adwords quite a bit. We would turn the ads on and off for employee vacations, sick days, and when our retail stock was low. Organic rankings never changed a bit.
Second, will searchers think differently about my organic link if they don't also see the accompanying paid link on the SERP?
I doubt it. I think that lots of searchers skip over the ads. Any searcher who runs ad blockers probably skips over the ads while cursing. I think that dropping Adwords might increase the profit margin of your business because it was probably depressing the profit margin while you were paying for the ads.
I think you are a smart guy because you have done the math to figure this out. Most people who run Adwords are blissfully losing their shirts and pants.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
PPC: how to get rid of an ad appearing on a keyword we don't want?
Hi, Our ad on Google Ads is appearing for a search we don't want. it isn't in our search keywords and when i try and ad it to our negative ones, we get the error " You cannot exclude keywords that are targeted " which i assume means that google thinks we are bidding on it? We have a selection of broad phrase matches so i can only think that this is where it's coming from? Do you have any tips on tracking down which keyword is generating this ad and how we can turn it off? (we don't want to pay for clicks on this search if possible!) Btw - i have turned off each keyword in turn to test it = nothing. have then paused the whole campaign = gets rid of the ad (but this is our most successful campaign so i can't just turn it off). Any advice super super welcome. thank you!
Paid Search Marketing | | Fubra1 -
Adwords Duplicate Keywords with Different Match Types - Good or Bad?
If you have the following keywords in an Ad Group advertising for a product, let's for example call it "target" product [target product] "target product" +target +product I've found that the exact match keyword has the highest conversion rate in almost all circumstances. So it would make sense to have a higher max bid on the exact match then phrase or broad batch. Even with lots of negative search terms to maximize conversion on the broader matches, if the bid is the same as exact match, the cost per conversion will be much higher (too high.) However in chatting with an Adwords Support Rep (on a different matter) they stated after looking through my account at the end of the chat: " duplicate keywords will impact on quality score. your all keywords will compete with each other" However many of the ad groups in question these duplicate keywords have quality score of 9 and 10. So obviously if there is an effect it seems it may be minimal. I thought it was pretty common for people to bid higher on more exact match and lower on more broad match. What's the real story here? Was this support rep not seeing the big picture?
Paid Search Marketing | | JCCMoz1 -
What is the best way to update Adwords final URLs if I'm moving to a new CMS?
Hi there - One of my clients is redeveloping its website. That means, the domain is remaining the same, but the whole site is being rebuilt in wordpress so all the adwords final URLs need to change OR be redirected. There are 550 live adgroups and 3400 ads. We haven't set up tracking. I can't find anywhere what the best thing to do is in this case. The key issues seem to be: 1. 301 redirects - given we have to do these anyway as part of migration, this seems to be the easiest path as Google is ok about redirects as long as they don't go to a different domain. From what I'm hearing, you don't get adversely impacted in terms of quality score etc. This has the huge advantage that you don't have to edit the ad therefore no loss of statistical history or risk of downtime whilst you wait for approval. HOWEVER, there is some concern that if you then redirected again IN THE FUTURE, the redirect might not work (in some browsers) or cause a loop. I'm also concerned that it's messy to leave it like that (ie: with the wrong URLs throughout). 2. Buik updating ads - I don't think this is an option as if you bulk download and then reupload, Google will see this as a new ad, and delete all the statistical history - I'm also concerned that that WOULD impact quality score as you'd be starting from scratch! 3. Changing each ad individually - as far as I understand you'd have to create copies of all the ads (so that you keep the history of the old ones) and effectively create new ones with the correct URL - one by one. You end up with a messy account (a lot of paused ads) but you keep the history? This is obviously the most time consuming and I can't see a way of avoiding ads having to go in for approval again, given the urls are all different, so you'd have to do this a an ad level, not an adgroup/campaign level etc. People redevelop their websites (without changing domains) all the time. It seems strange that no one is mentioning this problem! Any ideas?! Many thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | catalystmdc0 -
Moving from old GTM to New Version of GTM - Analytic & Adwords transaction and revenue stop refelecting
Hi Guys, I am moving from old version of tag manager to new version of tag manager. But when i do so at that time in my google analytic 1) my adwords transaction, revenue and ecommerce conversion rate stop showing. 2) In ecommerce -overview also transaction, revenenue and ecommermce conversion rate stop showing. Can any one tell me what is the issue? I am sharing with you the details configuration of my old tag manager and new version of tag manager - I am using google analytic having id - UA-12345678-9 I am using old version of google tag manager in that i have configure 5 tags - a) google adwords conversion tracking
Paid Search Marketing | | devdan
b) GA pageview tracking
c) google remarketing
d) GA conversion tracking
e) twitter conversion tracking I did following configuration for all - Tag Name - google adwords conversion tracking
tag type - Adwords conversion tracking
conversion id - 123123123 ( from adwords)
conversion lable - sdfsnfs-sfsf ( from adowrds) Firing rule -{{url}} contains ordersuccessful.aspx
{{event}} equals gtm.dom save Google Analytic PageView Tracking
Tag Type - classic Google Analytic
web properid id - UA-12345678-9
track type - page view Firing rule - all pages save GA conversion Tracking
tag type - classic google analytics
web property id - UA-12345678-9
track type - transaction Firing rule -{{url}} contains ordersuccessful.aspx
{{event}} equals gtm.dom By above configuration everything work fine with google analytic. In New versoin of tag mananger following configuration i did - Adwords conversion tracking
Choose Product - Google Adwords
choose tag type - adwords conversion tracking
configure tag - conversion id - taken from adwords
conversion label - taken from adwords
conversion value - {{google_conversion_value}}
Fire on - Name - order successful page
type - custom event
Filter- Page url contains ordersuccessful.aspx
event equals gtm.dom save Choose Product - Google Analytic,
choose tag type - universal analytic
configure tag - tracking id - UA-12345678-9, track type - page view Fire on - All pages save GA conversion tracking Choose Product - Google Analytic,
choose tag type - universal analytic
configure tag - tracking id - UA-12345678-9, track type - transaction Fire on - Name - order successful page
type - custom event
Filter- Page url contains ordersuccessful.aspx
event equals gtm.dom save By above configuration my analytic stop reflecting transaction, revenue, ecommerce conversion rate for adwords and ecommerce overview. Thanks!0 -
Changing Domains - Will a 301 redirect be looked unfavourably for my Ads?
Hey All, So over the next few weeks we are switching over a clients domain to a new one. Each of the old pages on the old domain will have a 301 redirect to it's new contextual page (with the same content). My question is this, we currently have multiple PPC campaigns running for this client and the ads are pointed towards the old domain so the ads will redirect over to the new domain. My question is this, will Adwords look at this redirection unfavourably? If so, then I will have to duplicate each ad (100's of ads) with a new destination URL (since if I edit the current ads they will lose all past performance history). Obviously for branding I'm going to have to probably change the display URL eventually but for now I'm looking at the BIG issues that could occur. I would normally call Google and ask this question but I don't want them to flag anything in my account just in case this is looked unfavourably. Thanks! Jon
Paid Search Marketing | | EvansHunt0 -
Google URL Builder / Campaign Tracking on two Different Domain using the Same Analytics Code
Hey Everyone, I think I know the answer to this but I'd like to get some confirmation. I currently have a landing page at "www.xyz.com", it's a separate domain in which only the landing page exists and not a vanity URL which redirects. However, the navigation and all the links on "www.xyz.com" actually link out to "www.abc.com". The domain / landing page "xyz" has the same analytics tracking code as domain "www.abc.com". My question is this, if I use Google URL builder to create custom URL's to track for each ad that I'm running in Adwords, will this data show up in the analytics of "abc" even though it's a separate domain because it has the same analytics code? In other words, does campaign data show only if the domain and the google analytics code line up, or does the domain not matter and as long as you have the same analytics code (despite two separate domains) that campaign data (built through Google URL builder) will show? My hunch and best guess it that as long as the analytics code is the same (regardless of a separate domain) that the data in campaign will show with the custom URL's I build. I'm aware that I can test this and I will but I'd like to get an idea from the community first to make things easier. Anybody have experience with this? Answers greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | EvansHunt0 -
Broad vs. Exact in Brand Campaign
Hey guys, I was looking through my "Brand" campaign, and I noticed that my costs are running a little higher than I'd like to be spending. I've got my brand search term (Strutta) set on broad, since I just recently started the brand campaign about 2-weeks ago. However, I've noticed that I'm spending around $1 on most clicks even though my QS is at 9/10. In my previous experience, I've been able to pay pennies on brand search terms. I know that I have a competitor that's trying to snipe my brand searches, but I don't really want to be paying this much for branded clicks. Would it be a good idea to check my search terms, build out a larger list of exact match terms, and just go with exact match? Do you guys usually use broad in your Brand campaigns, or exact?
Paid Search Marketing | | danny.wood0 -
Using the same landing page for seo and ppc
When does it make sense to create one landing page for both seo and ppc?
Paid Search Marketing | | melen0