Every year brings a lot of changes in digital marketing. In each of my 10 years in the industry, I’ve noticed that the start of the year can mark an increase in calls for SEO and PPC to work together.
The difference in 2024? There is an elephant in the room: AI.
Both the organic and paid sides of Google are rushing to embrace AI. From Search Generative Experience (SGE) to Gemini (formerly Bard), both paid and organic SERP results are evolving almost daily.
This is causing discomfort for paid and organic marketers alike, and putting an even greater emphasis on paid and organic teamwork, as I discussed in my recent presentation at the MarTech Spring Conference (registration required).
I’ve already covered the important reports SEO and PPC teams need to run (and share) to help each other succeed, so I won’t delve into them here. However, there are other key payment initiatives and organic teams need to incorporate them into their joint 2024 strategies to help everyone navigate the early days of AI. They are:
Let’s take a look at each, and why it’s important to get them right.
1. Collaboration
Collaboration, which includes its close cousin communication, has a lot at stake in 2024.
Along with the usual benefits of collaboration—shared learnings, strategic alignment, covering gaps, and discovering anomalies or new patterns—SEO and PPC teams can mitigate the risks of isolation and face rapid change with different agendas.
One of the trends we’ve seen develop over the past year (and it’s a trend that Google is pushing) is to focus on proprietary perspectives.
With AI sure to flock to SERPs (both organic and paid) as time goes on, it will be important to use EEAT principles on the organic side and reinforce product reviews, testimonials and case studies to support landing pages.
Sharing information between teams about what resonates can help keep messaging and branding current and cohesive.
Another component of collaboration as the SERP evolves is communication about algorithm changes.
PPC can help cover any organic declines when new algorithms are developed. SEO teams can continue to bolster PPC efforts when new competitors enter the auction and/or when participation costs exceed the point of viable ROI.
2. Funnel Intent Alignment
Now more than ever, thinking about a complete funnel strategy is crucial.
Your customers don’t think about individual channels or tactics, but will respond if they’re presented with the right message at the right time. Ensuring alignment at each stage of the funnel is crucial to building your marketing program in 2024.
Here’s a chart we use at my agency to make sure we’re mapping (and covering) the entire buying journey:
Without a unified approach agreed upon by all relevant teams, you won’t have visibility into your funnel coverage.
Whatever your preferred format is, you need to create a touchstone that your teams can share and monitor to reduce gaps or redundancies in the funnel.
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3. Education and awareness about the changing SERPs
Let’s get into specifics. There are many considerations for 2024:
On the payment side, we’re all watching the rollout of ads on SGE closely because we can bet Google will find a way to monetize them. Since little is known about what this will look like, it is important to:
Stay in close touch with your SEO counterparts. Stay tuned for industry updates. Monitor click-through rates
Seeing how the ad algorithm and the SGE algorithm collide and what types of campaigns will include it (are we all assuming it will be Performance Max?) and evaluating the impacts on ad inventory makes SEO efforts and col collaboration are more critical.
On the organic SGE side, we could see an even bigger shift. No SEO can confidently say that they can optimize content for SGE because it is even more of a black box than the traditional search algorithm.
As SGE rolls out, some brands will win and some will lose on the organic front. PPC teams must be prepared to pick up the slack or (at best) shift budget to other initiatives where organic earnings allow.
Continuing to optimize for the user and focusing on top-of-funnel content is a good place to start while monitoring SGE impacts.
4. Shared learning outside of Google
In 2024, organic and paid collaboration must expand to platforms beyond search engines as search behavior becomes more fragmented.
Forums like Quora and Reddit are gaining traction (even in the SERPs) on the B2B side, and organic social results from LinkedIn, X and beyond also continue to creep into query results (and that’s not even mentioning TikTok, which it’s a big part). of the younger users they now use as their primary search platform).
This opens up opportunities for collaboration beyond search engines. Say your founder has a viral organic post on LinkedIn, or your brand dominates a juicy topic on Quora.
Both present the paid team with testing options, perhaps a thought leader ad on LinkedIn or a contextual campaign on Quora.
On the other hand, paid campaigns that target certain interests or locations on social platforms well can inform SEO teams that they should lean on “hidden gems” that cover the same topics.
Future-proof your search marketing efforts
When change is fast and furious, it can be easy to put your head down and focus on what’s in front of you (ie, what you can control). But now is also the time to be a great teammate.
Whatever changes lie ahead in 2024, your team will be stronger if the organic and paid sides of the house are on the same page about how to manage them.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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