I've created a sample Excel sheet for those concerned with click cannibalization between organic and paid search. This is an ideal tool if you already have a high PageRank for a keyword and still want to drive more traffic to your website but are concerned with your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns stealing clicks from your high organic ranking.
While some say you should never run a PPC campaign when already ranking high, others say driving more traffic to your site is always the best strategy. This Excel sheet will help you put this argument to rest.
In our example, your company already ranks high for a given keyword but wants to know what it takes to drive more traffic to your site. However, you want to ensure you're not stealing your clicks from organic searches.
So, how do you determine the benefit of paid search when you already rank high? Better yet, how do you determine whether click cannibalization is an issue?
First Month: Organic Search Only
First, we start by summarizing the first month with organic search alone, which, in our example, is 5,000 clicks for January. Second, we input our website conversion rate, the number of website visitors derived from the 5,000 clicks that place orders. In this case, it's 1.75 percent.
The third step defines the number of actual orders for the month, which is simply 5,000 multiplied by 1.75 percent, which gives us 87.50 orders for July. We then enter our value for each sale as $25.00. Finally, the total sales for January are 87.50 multiplied by the $25.00, which gives us $2,187.50.
Again, several people would be apprehensive about pursuing paid search when already ranking high. These people think you should build on that high ranking across multiple other keywords. However, the internet has well over 4.8 billion live web pages, growing daily. That's a lot of competition in organic search, so advertising is necessary.
Second Month: Organic Search and Paid Search
In the second month, you combine organic search with a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Now, click cannibalization is guaranteed to occur. However, your job is to define whether there is an added benefit to running a PPC campaign in conjunction with your existing high ranking.
First, you input the number of clicks generated through organic search. You immediately notice the decline as organic search only generated 4,250 clicks, a decrease of 750 clicks. Second, you input the number of clicks generated through your campaigns, which in our example is 3,250.
The total of both organic and paid searches equals 7,500 clicks. So, we have 2,500 more clicks in February than we did in January. The question remains whether there is a net benefit to having more clicks relative to the costs to get those clicks.
Next, we add our cost per click for the campaigns we ran, which is $0.15/click. The website conversion rate remains at 1.75 percent. However, our sales have increased to 131.25 orders as we are now multiplying our conversion rate of 1.75 percent against the 7,500 clicks.
We then add our value for each sale as $25.00 and then multiply this $25.00 by 131.25 clicks, which is $3,281.125. Therefore, we increased our revenue, but was the decision to run a PPC campaign when already ranking high worth it?
The only way to answer this question is to take the difference in revenue between February and January and then deduct the cost of the PPC campaign. We generated an additional $1,093.75 in February and spent $487.50 on paid search. The net benefit is $606.25. Therefore, while click cannibalization occurred, pursuing paid search was still a good idea when ranking high.
Steps to Using Excel Sheet: All the light blue highlighted areas need you to input values. The rest of the Excel sheet will perform all of the calculations.
- Input the number of organic clicks (first month)
- Input website conversion rate
- Input sales value
- Input organic clicks (second month)
- Input the number of clicks from PPC campaigns (Paid Search)
- Input PPC costs (per click)
- Input website conversion rate
- Input sales value
When I work with a customer looking to grow their online presence, I tend to stick to some fundamentals. First, I am not a search engine optimization (SEO) expert because I am not entirely sure such a thing exists. After all, nobody knows Google's algorithm but Google.
There are things we've learned over the years, but for the most part, it's a secret sauce and will remain as such. The most important approach is to do the proper keyword research and ensure those keywords are used within your content and PPC campaigns.
Second, I adopt a simple strategy of getting my customers to focus on a strong social media platform, one matched to their business model, market, and customers. B2C is for Facebook, but LinkedIn is for B2B. Try not to confuse the two.
Third, it's always best to focus on solid content creation. Produce well-written content and do your videos. Finally, if you want to combine your current high PageRank with a PPC campaign, use the attached Excel sheet to determine the benefit of the paid search when you already rank high. Driving more traffic to your website is always good if the additional revenue generated is higher than the cost of the paid search.
Here is the Excel sheet: Download Click Cannibalization Versus Organic Clicks Sample Excel Sheet.
