I knew there was a reason why I preferred PPC over SEO! Actually I just enjoyed the shear science of it over search engine optimization – but isn’t this crazy!???
- For every 1 click on a paid search result, the organic results generate 8.5 clicks (this is on a keyword parity basis, not counting those search results that have no paid ads)
- Based on action/conversion tracking, paid search clicks convert, on average, at 1.5X the rate of organic clicks (no surprise, since that ad text and landing page is custom optimized by the advertiser)
- From the numbers above, we can see that the opportunity from organic search is 5.66X that of paid search
- Across the board ad spending (via SEMPO):
- 2004 was 85% PPC vs. 12% Organic
- 2005 was 87% PPC vs. 11% Organic
- 2006 was 87% PPC vs. 12% Organic
- 2007 was 88% PPC vs. 10% Organic
- Spend on SEO is 1/8th of PPC
- Paid Search Agencies earn, on average 10% of their clients’ PPC spend (this number may actually be low)
- By this logic, SEO Agencies earn 1/45th ( 1/5.66 x 8 ) as much as paid search agencies (from a direct keyword-to-conversion path perspective)