PPC and SEO get treated like they're on separate islands - different teams, different budgets, different tools, different targets to hit. But the person searching on Google doesn't care which team's work got them to click. They care whether the experience is consistent and the result is actually useful to them.
We've sat in the room with both PPC and SEO leads during planning, and during the fire-fighting that follows when a campaign underperforms. Here's what actually gets the two working together instead of past each other, and why it drives more revenue than treating them as two separate scorecards.
1. Share the keyword data, and actually use it
PPC teams have real-time, high-intent keyword data - what people search for right before they buy. SEO teams have long-tail and trend data - what people search before they've even decided what they want. Most of the time, both data sets sit in separate spreadsheets and never talk to each other.
What works: use PPC data to decide which SEO targets to prioritise, based on conversion value rather than search volume alone. Use SEO rankings to pull PPC spend back from terms you already rank well for, and put it toward the gaps instead. Coordinate keyword targeting so neither team ends up bidding against its own organic listing, or confusing Google about what a page is actually for.
2. Align on landing pages and conversion
SEO tends to drive traffic to long, content-heavy pages. PPC needs pages built to convert. When the two don't agree on which page does what, you end up with duplicate content, an inconsistent user experience, and an internal argument about which team "owns" the conversion.
The fix is landing pages built to work for organic and paid traffic at the same time, rather than one page per channel. Share A/B test results too - PPC gets feedback fast, and SEO can use those same layout and copy lessons without waiting months to find out if a change actually worked. Let SEO get the page indexed and ranking, and let PPC stress-test it for conversion rate.
3. Coordinate on SERP space
Branded searches, sitelinks, local packs, shopping ads - there's only so much room on a results page. If PPC and SEO aren't talking, you're either paying twice for space you already own, or leaving it open for a competitor to take.
Defend branded terms as a team: run ads when a competitor is bidding on your name, and dial spend back when your organic listing already owns the top spot with sitelinks. Use PPC to test page titles and meta descriptions for click-through rate, then hand the winners over to SEO. Track paid impression share and organic visibility for the same terms side by side, and shift budget based on both together, not one in isolation.
4. Let PPC validate ideas before SEO builds them
SEO's biggest drawback is time. It can take months to know whether a new page or content format was worth building. PPC can answer that question in weeks. If a headline, offer, or page structure fails as a paid campaign, that's a strong signal the SEO investment wouldn't have paid off either.
Use PPC to test headlines, page structure, and offer positioning before SEO commits time to a build. Run paid search against the exact keyword an SEO idea is targeting, to see whether real demand exists behind it. Treat a failed PPC test as a warning sign, not a reason to try harder on the organic side.
5. Report on revenue together, not in silos
PPC reporting tends to focus on ROAS and cost per click. SEO reporting tends to focus on traffic and rankings. Nobody in finance or leadership cares about that split - they care about revenue, and how efficiently it was earned.
Build one shared dashboard with blended performance across both channels. Show assisted conversions and the full path a customer actually took, rather than crediting the last click to whichever channel happened to close it. A shared view like this makes it far easier to justify a shared budget, and shared headcount, going forward.
The bottom line
When PPC and SEO work in isolation, both underperform. When they align, not just on data but on tactics, the result is more demand at a lower cost to acquire it, and organic visibility that keeps compounding long after a paid campaign ends.
If your SEO and PPC work isn't speaking the same commercial language, that gap is worth closing before you spend more on either channel.
Syed Rabbani
Paid Media Lead, Whizz People
