3 reasons why a Google campaign without SEO should be illegal

You want to be seen? You want more clicks, more leads, more followers? Then it is an obvious goal to achieve these KPIs with a well thought-out Google campaign. Because about 90% of all users click on one of the results on the first page on Google. Here, over 55% of the clicks are distributed on the first three search results.

So what are the options for ranking well on Google and possibly even appearing in the top 3?

1. You give Google money so that users click more on your ads for a few weeks
2. You roll up your sleeves and think about a long-term strategy for lasting success. In short: SEO (of course you can also outsource this service, but not to Google but to a professional SEO consulting).

In the following, we would like to show you why the first option will not work. There are three key reasons why a Google campaign based only on paid ads is doomed to fail.

1. endurance run beats sprint for Google campaigns

If you like to run fast, you're probably ahead of the rest for a while. But what happens then? You get tired, lose your breath. Translated, that means: the budget is used up. And as soon as that happens, all the results you've achieved quickly collapse again. Traffic drops again and your website disappears from page 1 on Google.

Google places your website at the top of the search results for money. So you will be seen, even if the page is not SEO optimized. This is a quick and cheap solution in the short term. You don't need SEO consulting and you can track the results directly. But what happens when you end the campaign? The answer is simple. You slip in the search results to where you were before. With a mediocre website, you disappear into the back pages of Google.

So you see: Google Ads are not a long-term solution. At most, they can be used as a transition. If you decide to optimize your website for SEO, it may take a few weeks or months before you see results. So, if quick results are needed, Google Ads can be a good transitional solution. For example, this may be true if you're launching a new product. You don't want to wait for SEO consulting to take effect. Or you're planning an event and want to run effective ads for it right away. In these cases, Google Ads are acceptable and sometimes even advisable. But in the end, you will not achieve lasting success with a Google campaign without SEO consulting.

2. high bounce rates due to Google Ads campaign

From many years of experience we can say: 1st place is useless if users don't want to stay on your site. In addition to an appealing design, you must also offer added value. It has been shown that SEO-optimized websites not only rank well. They also increase dwell time. After all, the central goal of SEO is to provide searchers with an answer to their question.

During an SEO consultation, we analyze the needs of your target group. On this basis, pages can be built or optimized. So the user will always find what he is looking for.

How do you best engage with your target audience? Ask yourself: What does the user want from me? How can I give it to them as quickly and easily as possible? This is where the customer journey comes into play. Because depending on which phase of the search your target group is in, you have to answer different questions. The concept of trust building blocks is also an important basis for success with SEO. Because without trust, users won't become customers.

In Google Ads campaigns without appropriate SEO optimization, the bounce rate is often very high. Most users click on the search result, but do not find what they are looking for. For this reason, SEO must always be the basis for search engine optimization or marketing. As described above, with SEO consulting as a basis, Google Ads is also a possibility. Before that, however, the corresponding pages must be optimized for the target group.

It clearly shows that content without a precise analysis of the target group can only lead nowhere. We as SEO consultants support you to better understand the wishes of your users. We show you how to respond to your target group in order to reduce your bounce rate in the long term.

3. only 6.8% of all clicks go to Google Ads ads

A study by Sistrix from 2017 shows astonishing results. Only a small fraction of clicks on Google go to paid ads. And this despite the fact that up to four ads appear on Google per search. These hardly differ from organic search results. The study evaluated more than one billion clicks over the course of a year.

In total, over 93% of users click on organic search results. However, not all keywords generate ads at all. So often only organic results appear. However, this circumstance hardly changes anything in the results. For keywords with at least one paid ad, only 13.6% of users clicked on a Google Ad. This clearly shows that an effective Google campaign cannot do without SEO. It can be clearly said at this point that Google Ads are often just burned money. The research of Sistrix shows this clearly. It leads to more sustainable success if you use the organic search. 

Why do we need SEO for a good Google campaign?

For some criteria, the advantages of search engine optimization compared to Ads campaign are particularly clear.

1. Long-term success: Google Ads only work as long as you pump money into them. SEO, on the other hand, works in the long term.
2. User dwell time and bounce rate: With SEO, you improve the quality of your content. And that leads to longer dwell times and lower bounce rates. You respond directly to the wishes of your target group and turn clicks into leads.

So it turns out that there is no way around SEO. If you want to have success with your website, you can't be satisfied with just Google Ads. Long-term success can only be achieved with search engine optimization. SEO leads to more clicks, longer dwell time and satisfied users.

Of course, SEO is the more costly method. But this effort is worth it. It pays off permanently and sustainably through more clicks, lower bounce rates and more leads.

So: Don't throw your money away. Rather invest it wisely in a comprehensive SEO Strategy. Not only you will be happy in the long run. Your target group will also benefit. Because in the future, your users will find exactly what they are looking for.