organic vs paid ctrs, ctr benchmarking,

1. Organic Search CTRs
vs
Paid Search CTRs
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
March 2013
-1- Augustine Fou

2. Users click on organic results
Most users
click on
natural search
results
10-25% of clicks Natural results
1-9% avg CTRs have 10x the
click through
rate of paid ads
75-90% of clicks
13-21% avg CTRs
Source: go-Digital Blog, July 2012
-2- Augustine Fou

3. Search – Paid vs Organic
• 90% of users click on organic side • Cost per click on SEO is under
• Less than 10% click on paid ads $0.10 per click
• CPC on paid side is more than 7x
higher, greater than $0.60 per click
http://blog.triphp.com/marketing/organic-vs-ppc-search-engine-marketing.html Feb 2009
-3- Augustine Fou

4. Marketing Spend is Out of Whack
Distribution of Search Clicks Distribution of Marketing Spend
SEO PPC SEO PPC
89.5% 10.5% 10.8% 88.8%
$1.4B $11.9B
Clicks from organic search (SEO) account for 90% of all
clicks; yet budgets for SEO only account for 10% of the
search spending.
Source: SEMPO
-4- Augustine Fou

5. Optimizing Search
Paid/ SEM Organic
For long tail, For brand terms
descriptive and expensive
keywords keywords
CTR 1 - 5% 13 - 21%
CPC $1 - $10 FREE
Source: SlingShot SEO
Shift allocation to get more clicks at lower cost
-5- Augustine Fou

6. So What?
“As users get more savvy in their search
and as advertisers get more savvy and
focused on returns, search investment
should shift from paid search to organic
optimization, which also leads to longer
term payoff.”
- Dr. Augustine Fou
-6- Augustine Fou

7. Dr. Augustine Fou – Chief Digital Strategist
“I advise clients on benchmarking
and then optimizing their digital
marketing activities, with a focus
on search optimization.”
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
ClickZ Articles: http://www.clickz.com/author/1151/augustine-fou
Slideshares: http://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/augustinefou
-7- Augustine Fou

8. APPENDIX
-8- Augustine Fou

9. Advertisers still overspend
on paid search ads
89% of ad dollars spent on paid 89% of clicks come from
search SEO/organic search
Source: http://www.torontoseofirm.com/ppc-vs-seo-payoff/ Feb 2010
-9- Augustine Fou

10. Focus on longer search terms
• Users are searching longer terms
• Users click more on ads related to
longer terms
Source: Chitika, June 2010 Source: Chitika, Jan 2012
- 10 - Augustine Fou

11. Users are very savvy
The more
specific the
search (longer
query length,
in # of words)
the higher the
click through
rate (CTR) on
first search
result.
Source: Just Search, May 2010
- 11 - Augustine Fou