Any marketer who works within the digital realm understands the power of search and social, which is why most modern resumes within the industry make sure to highlight these necessary skills. For marketers who are competing to gain as much brand value as possible out of every decision there is a need to distinguish whether paid search or organic search is better for your campaign.
According to a recent report from MarketLive, paid search visits have a 35 percent higher conversion rate for e-commerce websites compared to visits from organic search. This may indicate that for e-commerce brands, paid search is a stronger investment. Data from more than 200 e-commerce websites with over $1.5 billion in combined annual sales were used to create the report. The researchers found that visitors arriving from paid search links had a 2.6 percent average conversion rate in the first six months in 2013, compared with a 1.9 percent conversion rate for organic search results.
Not only did paid search ads result in a higher number of conversion rates, but they also had a slightly higher average in order size and pages per visit. Marketing Profs reported that paid search visitors had an average order size of $113 – slightly higher than the average order amount of $109.66 for organic search. As for page views, paid search visitors on average clicked through 7.1 pages, while organic search visitors typically only clicked through 6.8 pages.
Marketers who are looking to boost the success of search and social strategies must consider implementing a combined strategy that uses both paid search and organic search to truly optimize and encourage both lead generation and sales.