Organic search results get 90 - 94% of the clicks. And furthermore organic search results get 10 - 20X the click through rate compared to search ads. Where should you be spending your ad dollars?

1. Augustine Fou- 1 -
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
June 2014
Organic vs Paid
Search CTRs

2. Augustine Fou- 2 -
Author’s Commentary
Most of the clicks occur on the natural search
results (90-94%) AND the highest click
through rates are on the top 1 – 3 results (30-
78%). This speaks to advertisers spending
more time and money on content creation and
search engine optimization, rather than paid
search ads to drive highly efficient ‘inbound’.”
-- Dr Augustine Fou

3. Augustine Fou- 3 -
94% of clicks go to natural search results
6% of clicks go to paid search results
Share of Clicks
Source: Search Engine Watch, August 2012

4. Augustine Fou- 4 -
Organic CTRs by position on page 1 of results
CTRs by Page 1 Position
Medical Device Company
Source: Google Webmaster Tools 2014

5. Augustine Fou- 5 -
Organic CTRs by position on page 1 of results
CTRs by Page 1 Position
High Tech Company
Source: Google Webmaster Tools 2014

6. Augustine Fou- 6 -
Organic CTRs by position on page 1 of results
CTRs by Page 1 Position
Celebrity Site
Source: Google Webmaster Tools 2014

7. Augustine Fou- 7 -
Traffic Share by Position
Source: Chitika June 2013

8. Augustine Fou- 8 -
Natural CTR by Industry
Source: Search Engine Watch, August 2012
Airlines 78% 11% 4%
Broadcast 64% 9% 9%
Financial 64% 12% 5%
Online Games 61% 12% 8%
Auto Manuf 60% 19% 6%
Apparel/Beauty 58% 11% 4%
Cellular 56% 15% 7%
Government 55% 15% 10%
Mass Merch 55% 8% 7%
Corporate 53% 12% 8%
Hardware 51% 17% 8%
Current Events 50% 10% 8%
Food/Cooking 46% 17% 9%
Software 44% 20% 8%
Home/Garden 42% 9% 9%
Consumer Electr 39% 9% 8%
Top 3 organic results

9. Augustine Fou- 9 -
Search Benchmarks
Paid/ SEM Organic
$0.51 FREE
Shift budget to organic to get more clicks at lower cost
For long tail,
descriptive
keywords
For brand terms
and expensive
keywords
CPC
4.8% 13 - 78%CTR
Source: SlingShot SEO
6 - 10% 90 - 94%share of clicks
1-2 words
5.1%
3-4 words
5.6%
5-6 words
$0.54 $0.60

10. Augustine Fou- 10 -
Search Click Share vs Budget
Source: SEMPO
Clicks from organic search (SEO) account for 90% of all
clicks; yet budgets for SEO only account for 10% of the
search spending.
SEO
89.5%
PPC
10.5%
Distribution of Search Clicks
SEO
10.8%
$1.4B
PPC
88.8%
$11.9B
Distribution of Marketing Spend

11. Augustine Fou- 11 -
Dr. Augustine Fou – Digital Consigliere
“I advise clients on optimizing
advertising across all channels. One
main area of focus is reducing the
dependence on paid ads (both search and
display); this example shows the great
CTRs of organic results (content).”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
@acfou
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/augustinefou

12. Augustine Fou- 12 -
Related Articles
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/effectiveness-of-
digital-ads-by-augustine-fou
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/search-ad-fraud-
101-by-augustine-fou-technical-forensics
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/search-and-
display-work-better-together-augustine-fou-2014
http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/digital-
advertising-benchmarks-2014-by-augustine-fou
Augustine Fou- 12 -

13. Augustine Fou- 13 -
APPENDIX

14. Augustine Fou- 14 -
Share of clicks for organic vs paid
Click through rates for organic vs paid search
Organic vs Paid
75-90% of clicks
13-21% avg CTRs
10-25% of clicks
1-9% avg CTRs
Most users
click on
natural search
results
Natural results
have 10x the
click through
rate of paid ads
Source: go-Digital Blog, July 2012