The document discusses co-optimization, which is integrating, measuring, and optimizing paid search and organic search keywords simultaneously to maximize their collective potential. It provides examples of companies that saved hundreds of thousands in PPC budgets or saw incremental SEO revenue by aligning their paid and organic keyword data and strategies. The document advocates assessing the current state of a company's keywords, analyzing proximity performance when keywords rank in both paid and organic, finding anomalies in high-converting keywords, and maximizing the search results page shelf space through collaboration between paid and organic listings.

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REAPING THE BENEFITS
OF CO-OPTIMIZATION
Bill Hunt, President, Back Azimuth Consulting

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CONTACTING ME
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Bill Hunt
@BillHunt
Back-azimuth.com & whunt.com
Facebook.com/BackAzimuthConsulting
bill@back-azimuth.com
President

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CO-OPTIMIZATION DEFINED
Integrating, measuring, and optimizing
simultaneously high ranking PPC & SEO keywords
to maximize their collective potential for traffic and
conversions.
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CO-OPTIMIZATION BUSINESS VALUE
• Identify missed opportunities for exposure due to irrelevant
snippets, lack of ranking, mixed messages and segment
cannibalization
• Maximizing PPC budgets by reducing cannibalization and
increasing share of voice for non-ranked keywords
• Maximizing SERP ShelfSpace
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CO-OPTIMIZATION SUCCESS
• $300k in PPC savings in 40 days (funded FT analysis)
• $250k in incremental SEO revenue in 60 days
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DATA ALIGNMENT

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IS YOUR DATA THIS FUNKY?
• Paid Search Spend $20 million US
• Critical/Important Keywords – 1,120
• SEO Team - 98 important keywords
• Active Paid Search Keywords – 187,252
• Omniture Keywords – 397,832 (>20 visits)
• SEO Tool – 298 keywords (allowance was 10k)
• 4,887 keywords in PPC are Top 3 Organic
• No coordination between teams

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AFTER COORDINATION
• 1 to 1 alignment of Tier 1 Keywords
• Found 2,783 PPC keywords cannibalizing SEO
• Shift saved $180k in first month
• Shift went to 1,016 important words not ranking
• SEO revenue Increased 67% w/no loss from PPC
• Weekly monitoring of Top 3/Top 3 keywords
• Weekly monitoring of new and expensive
• Co-Optimization Monitoring

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GOOGLE ADWORDS & ORGANIC
Google’s State Value of Co-Optimization
• Discover additional keywords.
• Optimize presence on high value queries.
• Measure changes holistically.

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Sources:
http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/03/impact-of-organic-ranking-on-ad-click.html
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/08/studies-show-search-ads-drive-89.html
89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not
replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused.

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81% of paid ad impressions DO NOT
have a Page 1 organic listing for that
advertiser

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66% of CLICKED ads don’t have a Page
1 organic listing for that advertiser

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GOOGLE RESEARCH DISCLAIMER
• “A low value for IAC may occur when the paid and organic results
are both similar and in close proximity to each other on the search
results page.”
Translation:
When you have top listings for BOTH
Paid and Organic AND messages are
similar – they click ORGANIC

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GOOGLE ADWORDS & ORGANIC
Google’s State Value of Co-Optimization
• Discover additional keywords.
• Optimize presence on high value queries.
• Measure changes holistically.

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DATA JUDO
Based on Screen Capture in article
• Organic listing improved paid click by 64%
• Paid was 14.95% w/organic jumped to 41.77%
• Organic listing increased total visits by 4x
• 23k paid + 5ok organic
• Organic click rate was 37% but dropped to 36.88%
when paid was added
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2290907/Google-Finally-Supports-Paid-and-Organic-Co-Optimization

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QUESTIONS YOU HAVE TO ASK
Q1: How many of my paid words do not have
corresponding organic words?
Q2: Are both paid and organic ranking well?
Q3: Are the messages collaborative?
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MORE CONFUSING FACTS & FIGURES

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Source: GroupM Aug 2012
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10586-ppc-accounts-for-just-6-of-total-search-clicks-infographic

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Source: Wordstream http://www.wordstream.com/articles/google-ads

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OPERATIONALIZE CO-OP

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WHY DON’T WE CO-OPTIMIZE?
• Search Programs are siloed
• Assume agencies are doing it
• Lack of Agency Collaboration
• No tools to do it
• Don’t have time or budget to manage
• It seems too complicated
• Data has brainwashed us not to do it

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CO-OPTIMIZATION WORKFLOW
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Keyword
Selection
• Identify
keywords
• Collect
performance
data
(PPC/SEO)
Model Data
• Integrate data
and model
collaborative
performance
• Isolate tests
and edits
Execute Test
• Test the
collaborative
impact
• Test
cannibalization
• Lock down
optimal
performance

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TIPS:
• Use a control and test group of words with paid and
organic both in top 3 positions
• Ensure both paid and organic are able to measure
conversions or actions
• Do your tests across devices since they may not be
able to take all actions across each device
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STEP 1 – CURRENT STATE ASSESSMENT

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QUESTION 1:
How many of my paid words do not have
corresponding organic words?
How many of my HIGH CPC paid words do not
have corresponding organic words?
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HIGHEST CPC COLLABORATION
• Only 6 of Top 30 CPC keywords have top 5 ranking natural search phrase
• Top 5 get less than 5% of of the clicks in organic
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HIGHEST CPC COLLABORATION
• 0 Top 20 Highest CPC keywords have top 5 rankings 0 visits
• 137 people have found same problem at their company

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TIPS:
• Ensure you have adequate PPC budgets for
newly ranking organic since click rate will
increase
• Once organic introduces, day part paid to see
cannibalization
• Monitor brand and non-brand performance
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STEP 2– PROXIMITY PERFORMANCE

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QUESTION 2:
When they are both ranking are they the right ones?
• Does the paid listing represent the “interest” of the
searcher?
• Is the organic listing the “PLP”
• Does the organic represent the interest of the
searcher?
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PROXIMITY MAXIMIZATION
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Review the simultaneous paid and organic performance – it may
actually surprise you!

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TIPS:
• Test matched/opposite paid and organic offers
• Change organic snippet & Fetch as Googlebot
• Change HTML titles on site links to match intent
• Find the best combination and lock it down!
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STEP 3 – FIND ANOMALIES

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QUESTION 3:
How to I maximize performance?
• When both rank, does one convert better than the
other?
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HIGH CONVERTING PAID LISTINGS
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HIGH CONVERTING SEO
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STEP 4 – MAXIMIZE THE SHELF

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ARE THEY SHARING DATA?

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MAXIMIZE THE SHELF!
• Have we maximized ShelfSpace?
• Are the “assets” collaborating?
• What is the “intent of the searcher?
• What is the device of the searcher?
• What is the location of the searcher?
• What price point is optimal for phrase and the location?

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WRAPPING UP

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KEY STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CO-OP
• Understand the “real” performance of keywords
• Understand the “intent” of the user queries
• Understand value of “proximity” of paid and organic
• Do anything other than just collecting in Excel

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Thank You