SEO and PPC as one plan: what changes when the channels share data

7 min read

SEO and PPC as one plan: what changes when the channels share data

7 min read

Most mid-market brands buy SEO and PPC from different teams, sometimes from different agencies, each with its own targets and its own report. Both reports claim the same customers, and nobody is asked whether the business paid twice to win them.

Running SEO and PPC as one plan fixes that at the source. One keyword map decides which channel owns each search, paid search data chooses the content topics, and a monthly review moves budget to wherever the next customer is cheapest.

This article sets out how we run that plan, what it changes in your cost per acquisition, and when keeping the channels apart is the better call. If you want the basics of how the two channels differ first, our guide to SEO vs SEM covers them.

Why one plan changes the cost of a customer

When paid and organic are planned apart, three costs build up quietly. Paid budget goes on searches where your organic listing already wins the click. Content budget goes on topics nobody converts on. And because each channel reports its own conversions, the combined total is higher than the orders in your finance system.

Google's own research shows why the overlap matters. A 2012 meta-analysis of 390 search ads pause studies found that when an advertiser's organic result ranked first, 50% of ad clicks were incremental, rising to 82% at organic positions 2 to 4 and 96% below that (Google Research). Put simply, half the paid clicks on searches where you already rank first may have arrived anyway.

Those figures are averages of clicks, not conversions, from studies more than a decade old, and Google itself says results vary by advertiser. They are a reason to test your own terms, not a rule to apply.

The benefit of getting it right is a lower blended cost per acquisition: total search cost divided by total new customers from search, whichever channel takes the credit. That is the number a board understands, and it falls when the two halves of your search engine marketing stop competing for the same customers. The paid and organic overlap is where most of the saving sits.

How we run SEO and PPC as one plan

The method has six steps. The first three are set-up work, done once and refreshed each quarter. The last three run every month.

Build one keyword map for both channels. We combine Google Ads search terms, Search Console queries and keyword research into one sheet, grouped by topic and intent, with one row per search theme. Each row records organic position, paid impression share, cost, conversions and the page that should own it. Two separate lists always disagree; one list forces a decision.
Give every search theme an owner. Each theme is marked organic-led, paid-led or both. Themes where we hold a strong first-page organic position become candidates for reduced paid cover, high-value themes where organic is weak stay paid-led while content is built, and contested money terms where competitors bid hard get both. The owner decides who spends, not who reports.
Connect the data. We link Search Console to Google Ads so the paid and organic report shows ad clicks and organic clicks for the same queries, and link Search Console to GA4 for landing page data. The paid and organic report covers text ads only, not Shopping, so we match Shopping search terms against Search Console ourselves.
Let converting search terms choose content topics. Each month we export the paid search terms that converted, remove those the site already ranks well for, and turn the rest into briefs for the SEO team. Neither source is complete: Search Console leaves out anonymised queries (Google Search Central) and the search terms report leaves out low-volume terms, so we treat them as two partial views of the same demand.
Release paid budget when organic earns the position. When a theme holds a top organic position for several weeks, we propose reducing paid cover on it, test the reduction in a set of regions or for a fixed period, and watch total clicks and conversions for the theme rather than ad clicks. If the total holds, the budget moves. If it drops, the cover goes back on.
Hold one monthly budget review across both channels. One meeting and one report: blended cost per acquisition, spend by theme, organic movements and the tests in progress. Budget moves between paid themes, and effort moves between paid and organic, against rules agreed in advance (for example, any theme whose blended cost per acquisition has risen for two months running is reviewed). Money can cross the line between channels within the month, not only at contract renewal.

What changes for the teams

The biggest change is in the questions people ask. The PPC specialist starts asking whether a term needs paid cover at all, and the SEO specialist starts asking which topics convert before writing about them.

Shared work is done once. Keyword research, competitor analysis, conversion tracking and landing page testing serve both channels, and a landing page test that lifts conversion rate in paid becomes a change to the organic page too.

Reporting changes most. Instead of two decks that each claim the same sale, there is one view that starts with blended results and shows channel detail underneath.

This is how our integrated search programme runs paid and organic: one plan, one target and one report. If paid or organic sits with a separate team, our pay per click and organic search teams can work to the same keyword map.

How to measure a combined SEO and PPC plan

Measure the programme on blended numbers first, then channel detail underneath. What to report upwards is short: blended cost per acquisition against target, the budget moved this quarter and why, and what each test found.

A board does not need channel click-through rates. It needs to see that search spend now buys fewer duplicate customers. Underneath that summary, we track five things.

Blended cost per acquisition: total search cost (media, fees and content) divided by new customers from search. It should fall, or hold while volume grows.
Total clicks and conversions for each search theme, paid plus organic, from the shared keyword map. A theme where paid cost falls and total conversions hold is the result you want.
Paid spend on organic-led themes as a share of total paid spend, which should fall over time.
Content built from paid data: the number of pages launched from converting search terms, and their organic conversions three and six months after launch.
Deduplicated conversions: orders or leads from the CRM or back end, compared with what each platform claims. The gap is the double counting the plan removes.

When it does not fit, and the mistakes we see most

One plan earns its keep when both channels run at enough scale for the overlap to cost real money. Elsewhere, separate management can be the right answer.

Paid spend is small or experimental. If paid is a few hundred pounds a month, the overlap is not worth the extra reporting.
One channel sits with an in-house team you are happy with but cannot share data. Integration without shared data is two reports in one deck.
Cutting paid on every term you rank for without testing. Competitors bidding on your terms change the maths, and a pause that loses customers costs more than it saves.
Treating Google's averages as your number. They describe clicks, not sales, and your own test is the only figure that counts.
Letting each platform's conversions stand as the total. Google Ads and GA4 attribute differently, so the blended view needs one source of truth, usually the CRM.
Moving large budgets on one month of data. Seasonality and ranking volatility make a single month noisy, so we look for two or three months of direction first.
Planning paid and organic together but keeping separate targets. If the PPC team is judged on paid conversions alone, it has no reason to give budget back.

Questions to ask your team or agency

Do we have one keyword list that shows organic position and paid spend for the same searches?
How much did we spend last quarter on paid clicks for searches where we already rank first, and have we tested whether we need that cover?
Which content published this year came from converting paid search terms?
What is our blended cost per acquisition from search, and which source of conversions does it use?
When did budget last move between paid and organic, and what triggered it?

Frequently asked questions

Should SEO and PPC be run by the same agency?

Not always. When both channels run at scale, one agency or team can trade budget between them, test paid cover on terms you already rank for, and share query data, which separate contracts rarely do. If you invest seriously in only one channel, or paid sits with an in-house team you trust, separate management works well, provided both sides share their search data.

Does running PPC improve SEO rankings?

No. Google states that it does not accept payment to rank pages higher and that ranking is done programmatically, so ad spend has no direct effect on organic positions. What paid search gives SEO is data: which searches convert, the phrasing buyers use and which landing pages work. Used in content planning, that data is the real link between the two channels.

How should you split budget between SEO and PPC?

Start from search themes, not channels. Map each theme to the channel that wins it most cheaply, fund paid where organic is weak and demand is proven, and shift budget as organic positions improve. Review the split monthly against blended cost per acquisition, rather than fixing an annual percentage that cannot respond to rankings, competitors or seasonal peaks.