Uniting PPC and SEO for Long-Term Success (Plus Some Content Marketing)

Dallas Golf Company is a retail operation running out of Dallas, Texas, that sells pretty much anything their local customers need to pursue their passion on the green.

They carry the top brands, too. You name it, they have it. Fujikura Ventus. Autoflex Golf Shafts. Nike Golf Equipment. Check. Check. Check. 

They also happen to be running an eCommerce operation (link above) so they can better serve their golfing customers far and wide across the country. Expertise and inventory like theirs aren’t easy to come by. 

But reaching that broader market? That’s a bigger question. Fortunately for their customers (and for them) they partnered with us for PPC and SEO services for online growth. Here’s the short version. 

The Background 

It all started back in early 2020. Basically they, like so many others in their industry, were looking for effective ways to increase their reach online. 

They also sell the best golf equipment brands in the industry, inclusive of the most in-demand clubs, shafts, and golf bags, at competitive prices. Plus, they offer club fitting services, sell used gear, and a whole lot more. Their service is top tier.

It then became a question of what channels to target. For this project, we chose a bifurcated strategy inclusive of PPC and SEO.

Why PPC and SEO Work Well Together 

Starting from nothing, following a two-pronged approach that includes both PPC and SEO is a smart move. This is because the two work in very different ways and help drive a strategy forward over the long-term.

Here’s why. With search engine optimization (SEO), you need to make granular optimizations at the page level which not only take time themselves, it takes time for search engines like Google to recognize them and assign authority so the website ranks higher in the organic search results. You also need to develop a long-term content strategy as well as start sowing links. 

That all takes a long time. Most SEO efforts don’t bear real fruit for a year or more. In this instance, it just happens to be the case that we can take a long look backwards.

The thing here is, if you’re aiming to have SEO pay for itself, it usually takes a while. Clients that want to see results more quickly should also invest in PPC. 

In PPC, instead of organically improving positions, you bid for top ad spots in the paid search results by buying – literally- relevant keywords. This gives PPC marketers the ability to buy positions for higher visibility, effectively overnight. 

Paired with exceptional targeting – which will be covered in more detail below, PPC can start driving traffic and generating higher conversion rates and sales right out of the gate.

But it gets better, because as data associated with customer and purchasing behavior rolls in over the course of the campaign, PPC specialists can hone their strategy and improve targeting to improve both ROI and ROAS, boosting profitability. 

Then, as SEO efforts improve and organic impressions, clicks and sales start to generate steam, domain authority increases. Higher organic rankings improve the credibility of paid ads, which in turn makes it easier to develop a sensible bid strategy, lowering cost per click. 

Keyword Strategy, Targeting and Setting the Stage 

For success in both SEO and PPC, you need a cohesive keyword strategy, which in many cases will revolve around the same keywords.

That’s the secret sauce of a campaign which we won’t divulge here, but suffice it to say our SEO experts uncovered a bunch of mostly golf shaft and bag-related keywords that were attainable, had decent volume, and which were associated with intent to purchase. 

These we set the rest of the campaign around. For the purposes of SEO, the targeting is more or less inherent in the search intent of the keyword. For PPC, it required an additional layer of targeting by area, keyword, and a select group of demographic factors.

With this joint keyword strategy and targeting unfurled and in place, the stage was set. So what sorts of results have we gathered through the years?

Success with PPC and SEO Is a Long-Term Game: Results 

Success in PPC is measured directly through user actions, and ultimately in sales. The efficacy and profitability of the campaign can be measured in ROAS, or return on ad spend. Here we will take a look at conversions and conversion value.

These metrics are straightforward and the numbers about to be presented speak more or less for themselves. The following shows data for their PPC campaigns from Q1 of 2023: 

As you can see from the image which represents performance during that quarter, there was still a respectable volume of conversions and total conversion value. 

But part of our targeting was involved in looking for ways to further improve the campaign. We determined that by adding a Customer Match list, along with calls, store visits and directions to store in mid 2023, we could improve targeting, attract new customers, and improve conversions and overall conversion value.

As evidenced by data from Q4 2023:

And again by data from Q1 2024: 

I won’t beat a dead horse; the numbers speak for themselves. 

As for SEO, that’s a slow game, too. Here are some figures associated with target keyword standings up through the present time:

As you can see, as of the latest scan through one of our proprietary tools that tracks organic keyword rankings, Dallas Golf Company is on one page for most of the target keywords displayed in the image below. You can clearly see positions and search volume – but we blanked out keywords to protect the strategy:

But what about organic traffic? Impressions? Clicks? Sales? 

We can see some of this through Google Search Console. We can only go back 16 months, but you can see there is a clear upward trajectory, notwithstanding a little dip in the middle, which is customary due to natural search engine algorithm updates and fluctuations:

Still, the trend is overwhelmingly positive. 

We can see more through Google Analytics GA4, specifically with respect to event count. There were some minor drops in views and users which can be expected with a bump in traffic – but events are up substantially: 

This of course represents the bottom line – both organic and paid traffic have brought in a substantial amount of conversions and revenue for this client, but there’s more that should be exposed. 

The Soft Details: Content Marketing Success

In SEO, you may have heard the expression, “Content Is King.” This might mean different things to different people, but in this capacity, it’s important to understand that a huge amount of organic growth – SEO, that is – hinges directly on the quality of content a website publishes. 

Content creation could result in product page copy, category page copy, blog copy, CMS page copy, FAQ page copy – whatever – but it has to be attributable to your domain and it has to be both useful and convey authority at the same time. 

Therefore, a large portion of this eCommerce SEO campaign’s value came from optimizing category and page page content, and more directly, writing blog posts that were useful to the target market. These blogs brought in visitors and conveyed authority to the target pages that we wanted to get into ranking. 

How valuable does it need to be? Well, let’s take a look at the top performers. 

The image above shows only traffic to their blog since January 2023. The blog alone, for which our content production team was almost entirely responsible, brought in nearly 200,000 views during that time frame. 

What’s more is that average session duration among those 100,000+ sessions was over a minute – ludicrously high. People are actually reading these blogs and gaining something valuable from them. 

Even better? Every single page has a little bit of conversion value attached. This means that not only are these blogs ranking and pulling in traffic that actually reads them – many of them go on to make a purchase from their website. 

And that is why you can’t completely optimize your website without creating content that actually resonates with your users. No digital marketing strategy – especially SEO –  is complete without it and it is arguably the most impactful ranking factor that will affect your online presence. 

Get Your Marketing Off the Ground Today 

Results like these are, in a word, not necessarily common, and there’s some more insight here. They don’t happen overnight. This case study has been clear on that. 

What’s worse: You can’t begin your SEO marketing efforts in 2020, unfortunately. That proposition is off the table. 

But you can begin today, and there’s no time like the present. 

To start generating more traffic, sales, and to build a massive organic footprint and respectable domain authority, get in touch with us today at 888-982-8269.