AdWords vs. SEO: Using Rank Checking Tools to Help with AdWords – Session #4 of AdWords MOOC / Tutorial
AdWords costs a lot of money, and – let’s face it – many consumers ignore ads. We are all trained to believe that ads are generally to be mistrusted, and therefore many of us ignore the top ads on Google and ads on the right. Indeed, Google has never released comprehensive data comparing clicks to ads vs. clicks to the organic results. There’s a reason: organic results dramatically outperform AdWords results. In this class, let’s learn how to compare / contrast our organic results and create some strategies to turn on / off our AdWords ads and become more cost-effective with our AdWords spend. Let’s get started!
Links Used in ‘AdWords vs. SEO: Using Rank Checking Tools to Help with AdWords’
- AdWords
- Where there’s (no) smoke, there’s fire. Lack of Google data comparing organic clicks vs. AdWords clicks.
- Slingshot Study, August, 2011, A Tale of Two Studies: Establishing Google & Bing Click-Through Rates.
- Position #1 – 36.4% of clicks
- Position #2 – 12.5% of clicks
- Position #3 – 9.5% of clicks
- Neil Walker, 2012 article, Google Organic Click Through Rate (CTR) (also references AdWords ad CTRs). About 65% of total clicks go to organic, vs. 35% to AdWords.
- Avinash Kaushik, 2008, 14% of clicks from paid links, 86% from organic links, here.
- Slingshot Study, August, 2011, A Tale of Two Studies: Establishing Google & Bing Click-Through Rates.
- Rank Checking Tools
- Basic Strategies
- Simple: turn OFF my ad if I am on page 1 (< 11) for free!
- Simple: turn OFF my ad if I am on page 1, positions 1, 2, or 3 (< 4) for free!
- Complex: run on both natural and organic because I have a large budget, or do not know my keywords, or there is a lot of keyword confusion, long-tail searches. etc.
Free Resources for ‘AdWords vs. SEO: Using Rank Checking Tools to Help with AdWords’
- Sitemap Doc Rank Checker
- Rank Checker for Firefox
- AdWords Toolbook: register to get our comprehensive list of the most important free learning resources for AdWords as well as the best free tools for AdWords.
