If you’re a business owner or marketing professional interested in boosting a business’s visibility on SERPs (search engine results pages), chances are you’ve heard of search engine marketing and search engine optimization. The main difference between organic vs paid search results is which of these two they’re connected to. There are also differences in terms of where organic search results and paid search results appear on SERPs.
This article covers the following points:
Let’s begin!
Paid search results are connected to search engine marketing (SEM), while organic search results are connected to search engine optimization (SEO). This seemingly small difference involving their last word is not a small difference at all. In fact, SEM and SEO are considered separate (yet synergistic) digital marketing pillars.
Whether a paid search result appears as a text ad or shopping ad, Google makes it clear that these are ads. You will find a label, typically on the upper left, stating “Ad” or “Ads.” Though these elements blend well—aesthetically and experience-wise—on the search engine results page, more discerning users will still know that they are paid ads rather than organic search results.
Paid search results can be text ads or shopping ads that look more like tiles. The paid results in text ads are typically shown at the top of the results page before the organic results. They can also appear at the bottom of the page.
Meanwhile, paid search results that take the form of shopping ads are usually at the top of the SERPs.
To display your website content on ad spaces on the search engine results page, you need to bid on keywords. Whoever has the highest bid wins the ad space for a search. This auction happens each time a user puts in a relevant search term on Google’s search bar.
Marketers use various SEO tactics to enhance a website’s ranking and thereby have their business’s page show up as an organic search result. This process takes time and requires a good strategy.
Though the ranking parameters are never fully divulged by Google, many experts agree that optimizing a website’s UX/UI, enriching content on the website, and targeting strategic keywords for the website’s content are helpful in securing top spots for organic search results.
If paid search results can take the form of text ads and shopping ads, organic search results can also take on different forms.
Aside from the traditional organic search result format that we’re all familiar with, organic search results can be featured as snippets. Featured snippets can be at the top of the page, on the right (usually only appears on desktop environments), or as answers in the section labelled currently as “People also ask.”
Paid search allows your company to appear at the top of the search engine results pages. This is the biggest benefit of including a paid search campaign in your digital marketing strategy.
Even though you can always improve your organic search strategy (in an effort to rank highly on SERPs), this could take time. Using paid search will allow you to gain visibility in a shorter amount of time, as long as you’re willing to put in the marketing budget for it.
After employing search engine optimization (SEO) improvement strategies, you will show up higher on the search engine results pages. Through time, your website’s content may also be featured in a top snippet, in queries, or on the side of the SERPs. After putting in the work to achieve and maintain great SEO (and thus, higher ranking organic search results), this all just happens by itself, like an ongoing free campaign.
In time, having higher-ranking organic search results for your business will increase user trust and drive high-quality traffic to your website. This then has the potential to increase sales, bring in new customers, and more. Organic SEO provides long-term and stable results.
Now you know the details of organic vs paid search results and the unique roles of SEM and SEO in improving your business’s online presence.
Ready to take your business’s search engine marketing and optimization to the next level? The experts from The Influence Agency with years of experience are here to help you achieve your brand goals. As a leading digital marketing agency in North America, we’ve helped a ton of brands gain immense visibility in online spaces. Contact our team today to get started!
2Stay up to date with the latest marketing, social media tips, guides and news.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us
© 2024 The Influence Agency. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
Please do not solicit.
No junk mail.
Thank you
For the latest tips, growth hacks, and news in digital marketing
Do you follow an influencer that you absolutely adore and think they deserve to be recognized for all the great work that they do? Click below to nominate your favourite North American influencers for The Influence Awards!
Are you aiming to increase web traffic or grow your social media presence? Figure out why you’re leveraging paid media in the first place and build your strategy from there. Having clearly defined goals in mind will help you focus on your brand’s key priorities.
Designing strategies that cater to all three stages of the buyer journey ensures that you’re maximizing your brand’s reach. Every user at every stage is valuable—and you have to make sure you’re creating paid media content that speaks to each audience type.
Effective paid media is tied to targeting the right keywords. If you’re leveraging paid search ads to appear on SERPs (search engine results pages), then in-depth research is necessary. Bid on the keywords that are most relevant to your business to trigger only the most effective ad appearances.
Gather your team—because it’s time to start coming up with ad copy that wins attention. The key is to resonate with your audience and inspire engagement. Be real. Be relatable. And most importantly, don’t underestimate the power of creativity.
Do the landing pages on your website effectively push visitors further down the sales funnel? If not, you’re letting potential customers slip through your fingers. Optimize each of your landing pages so that they nudge users towards converting.
The options are plenty when it comes to paid advertising, including Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Pinterest among others. Analyze who your target demographic is, research where it’s best to connect with them, and then target the platforms where you wish to build awareness.
If you’re ready to build your paid media ad campaign, you’ll find that it will be further broken down into “ad groups” to ensure more effective pay-per-click advertising. These ad groups house one or more ads that have similar targets or categories. Let’s say your brand’s website features categories such as clothing, shoes, and accessories. Creating ad groups according to keywords that fall under these categories will help the PPC system decide when to show ads for these products.
Retargeting ads are bound to succeed because it’s a second shot at a conversion. Visitors have shown interest in the product/service once before, and sometimes all it takes is a little reminder to push them to the checkout page. So don’t forget to retarget and aim better this time.
In the world of paid media, what works and what doesn’t? You’ll have to run A/B tests to find out! Whether you’re testing which keywords bring more traffic or which social platforms earn more ad engagement, you won’t find out what really works for your brand until you test it.
Revisit your initial goals. Did your efforts bring about the results you expected? Tracking results is an essential step in your brand’s paid advertising campaigns. The data you collect from currently running ads will help lay the foundation for your future campaigns.
After tracking your results, you’ll be able to see where adjustments are necessary. There’s always room for improvement, so keep striving to consistently resonate and build trust with your audience—it’s how to create paid ads that pay off.
213 Sterling Rd. Unit 214 
Call Us:
info@theinfluenceagency.com
