AdWords has done it again with the release of another amazing new report that will allow online marketers to analyze and optimize your paid & organic search traffic directly in AdWords. The data is pulled via Webmaster tools and populated in your AdWords account so you don’t have to be using Google Analytics to view the paid & organic traffic. The PPC and SEO gloves can come off and start to work together with this valuable insight to help improve overall online marketing performance.
Here’s the motivation from the AdWords release:
Previously, most search reports showed paid and organic performance separately, without any insights on user behavior when they overlap. The new paid & organic report is the first to let you see and compare your performance for a query when you have either an ad, an organic listing, or both appearing on the search results page.
Google has a few suggestions for using this new report:
Discover additional keywords. Use the report to discover potential keywords to add to your AdWords accounts by looking for queries where you only appear in organic search with no associated ads.
Optimize presence on high value queries. Use the report to improve your presence in paid results and monitor your high value queries for organic results.
Measure changes holistically. As you test website improvements or AdWords changes to bids, budgets, or keywords, you can more easily report the impact across paid, organic, and combined traffic.
In order to start using this new report you will have to link your Webmaster Tools account with your AdWords account.
How To Link Your AdWords Account To Webmaster Tools Account:
1. My Account > Linked Accounts
2. Webmaster Tools > Details
3. Enter your domain
4. Click “Continue”
5. It will offer you a couple options to verify your domain. Select one option and then check “Verify”
6. If accounts link successfully, you’ll get a “Congratulations” message. Click Done.
Once you get your accounts linked correctly, here’s how you’ll be able to locate this report:
- Head to the Dimensions tab
- Paid & Organic
- Customize Columns by adding Keyword, Ad Group or Campaign. Columns > Customize Columns > Ad Stats
*Organic traffic will only populate data from the time the Webmaster account has been linked
The age-old question of “should I bid on these terms via search, or assume we will rank for organic?” can be put to rest with this new transparency available in AdWords. It should allow online marketers to optimize for maximum conversions across both channels.
I tried to run this report myself to do a little case study but since I had just linked the Webmaster Tools account, I didn’t have enough data (boo). As we start to gather more data you can expect more case studies and information regarding this report. So link up your Webmaster Tools accounts to AdWords, try out the Paid & Organic report and share your findings or thoughts with us!
