By tightening up your search results, you gain a leading position over your competitors, where you set the price! This is something most people are unaware of when it comes to search engine optimization, but it can be used as a weapon in the battle for market share!
Many companies today rely on AdWords to reach new customers, especially if they haven’t yet mastered search engine optimization (SEO). However, companies that succeed in SEO gain a significant advantage over their competitors and can capture a larger share of the market.
If your company holds the top position in the organic search results, you can, without question, drive up the customer acquisition costs for your competitors.
Let’s consider a concrete example: you sell acorns online and hold the top spot for the main keywords in your segment. This means you rank first organically for the terms “acorns” and “acorns online,” which are the two most frequently searched phrases. Meanwhile, your main competitor decides to invest fully in Google Ads instead of SEO.
When your company also begins using AdWords — which is a reasonable step — you now hold the baton and control the pace. Your competitor then has two options: either pay more than you (assuming your Quality Score is equal or better) or lose a significant portion of their sales. You, on the other hand, can lean on your top organic rankings. You’ll get the traffic anyway, even without investing heavily in AdWords.
If you then bid high enough to push your competitor out of the top ad position for the keywords “acorns” and “acorns online,” they will lose half of their traffic. To counter this, your competitor might choose to increase their bid to reclaim the top spot.
If that happens, unlike your competitor, you won’t lose half of your traffic — because you still hold the top organic position. In such a scenario, you could even raise the bid a bit more, even if it hurts financially. In fact, you could raise the price so much that your competitor can no longer afford to pay for customer acquisition — and just like that, the market share is yours!
Sure, this may not happen overnight, but if you’ve nailed your SEO, Google Ads becomes the perfect power play.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.