Welcome to the Best SEO Podcast! Ep. 546
The Best SEO Podcast by Bestseopodcast.com Having 1st aired in 2009, with over 3.6 million downloads in 100+ counties, “SEO Podcast, The Best SEO…
Paid Search & Ads
The Unknown of Secrets of Internet Marketing with Chris Burres and Matthew Bertram #457
PPC works best after you have a good website and active SEO; use it for remarketing and high-difficulty keywords, but SEO should be the core budget because it builds lasting online assets.
Key takeaways
- Build a good converting website first, then do SEO, then add PPC on top.
- When PPC stops, phone calls stop. SEO builds an asset that outlasts the ad spend.
- Remarketing is a high-value PPC use case, but platforms restrict it for sensitive categories like DWI attorneys.
- Do not run PPC for low-ticket items unless the customer has strong recurring lifetime value above roughly $500.
when you stop spending on PPC, the phone stops ringing
About this episode
The Unknown of Secrets of Internet Marketing with Chris Burres and Matt BertramAnother thrilling episode with BestSEOPodcast hosts Chris Burres and Matthew Bertram as they talk about when you should and when you definitely should not do a PPC campaign., Having 1st aired in 2009, with over 3.6 million downloads in 100+ counties, “SEO Podcast, The Best SEO Podcast has become one of the longest-running and most…
Questions this episode answers
When should a business do PPC instead of SEO?
According to this episode, PPC makes sense first when target keywords have very high difficulty scores in tools like SEMrush, in the 70s or 80s, or when there is no existing search demand for the product. Otherwise, SEO should come first as the core budget, with PPC added later.
What is the recommended order for digital marketing investment?
The hosts recommend a three-step method: first build a good website or high-converting landing page, then invest in SEO as the core ongoing budget, and then add PPC after that. They say doing them in tandem is fine if budget allows.
Is PPC worth it for low-cost products?
The hosts advise against PPC for products under roughly $500 unless there is strong recurring revenue. If a customer buys many times, the lifetime value can justify the ad spend even on a low-ticket item. Without recurring revenue, getting a positive return on PPC is very difficult.
What are the risks of relying only on PPC and not doing SEO?
PPC is compared to a drug injection: it generates leads while active, but the moment spend stops, all phone calls and leads stop too. SEO builds a lasting online asset. A client example in the episode showed their rankings held for over a year after the SEO campaign ended.
In their words
the only reason I would probably do them first is if all the keywords that you're going after have a very high keyword difficulty ranking in something like SEMrush. So anything that's 70s, 80s is going to take a while.
Matt Bertram
when you stop spending on PPC, the phone stops ringing. And when you're doing an SEO campaign, this is a long cultivated effort to get you to those first positions.
Chris Burres
I like to bring people in through SEO, okay, and then I like to chase them, right, bring back the window shoppers, spin in say 10%, 15% of their PPC budget
Matt Bertram
Terms defined in this episode
- Remarketing
- A PPC tactic where ads follow people who already visited your site. Platforms require a minimum audience size for anonymity and restrict it for sensitive categories like DWI attorneys.
- Keyword Difficulty
- A score in tools like SEMrush that indicates how hard it is to rank organically for a keyword. Scores in the 70s and 80s signal it will take a long time to rank through SEO alone.
- Lifetime Value (LTV)
- The total revenue a single customer is expected to generate over time, used to decide whether PPC spend is justified even for lower-priced products.
- Geofencing
- A targeting method that serves ads based on a specific IP address or geographic area, used in the episode to target oil and gas companies with tailored messages.
Full transcript is being added.
This episode answers
Matthew Bertram
AI keynote speaker · Owner & CEO, EWR Digital · President, ModalPoint
Matthew Bertram is an AI keynote speaker, creator of DIG™ (Digital Information Governance), and owner and CEO of EWR Digital. He helps energy and industrial leaders win visibility in AI search (GEO and AEO), is President of ModalPoint and CMO of the Oil & Gas Global Network, hosts The Best SEO Podcast, and has authored eight books including LLM Visibility. More about Matthew Bertram.
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