We've covered here numerous times that Google Ads (formerly AdWords) spend has no impact on your Google organic web search rankings. In fact, we just covered that a search engineer said he has personally launched organic features that negatively impact ad revenues for the company.
I'll get into the history of Google's comments on ads and organic search. But first, the latest is from Danny Sullivan of Google who defended Google, again, when someone said buying ads improves your organic rankings.
Melinda Byerley, the CEO/Founder of a digital marketing consultancy firm, said on Twitter "I'm not sure yet how to process the fact that Google just did a shakedown of one of our clients. In essence, they were told to spend more on paid ads in order to improve organic search *for their brand name.*" "for a long time, those of us active in SEO knew that Google would do this, but Google always denied it. It really hit differently to see them say it out loud," she added.
Here are those tweets:
for a long time, those of us active in SEO knew that Google would do this, but Google always denied it.
— Melinda Byerley (@MJB_SF) January 7, 2021
It really hit differently to see them say it out loud.
Here is more:
I need to ask you to trust me when I say it was blatant quid pro quo. I prefer not to be more specific in public right now while I wait to see if this is news or not.
— Melinda Byerley (@MJB_SF) January 7, 2021
This was in email from an employee at Google.
— Melinda Byerley (@MJB_SF) January 7, 2021
So Danny Sullivan responded that this is not correct, Google Ads and how much you spend on Google Ads how no impact your your organic search rankings. He said "ad spend will not increase your SEO." He added, "if you want to DM me the info, I'll follow up with the @GoogleAds team to track down why this got said. Because it should never be said, because it absolutely doesn't work that way."
Not only that, Danny said if a Google Ad rep said this they would get a "very firm reminder" that this is not true and should not be said. "If any of our ad reps are saying that, I would expect they'll get a very firm reminder they should never say that. I also expect they've already been told to never say something like that, as all Googlers are told," Danny said.
Here are those tweets:
Ad spend will not increase your SEO. At all. And if you want to DM me the info, I'll follow up with the @GoogleAds team to track down why this got said. Because it should never be said, because it absolutely doesn't work that way.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 7, 2021
It's very easy to solve. If any of our ad reps are saying that, I would expect they'll get a very firm reminder they should never say that. I also expect they've already been told to never say something like that, as all Googlers are told.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 7, 2021
I don't recall the study, and I don't work on the ad side. But I'm hoping it might be they just weren't clear on explaining this. Regardless, we'll make sure there's a reminder to be very clear there's no connection with ad spend and appearing in Search.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 7, 2021
I believe the study Danny mentioned is this one Impact of Organic Ranking on Ad Click Incrementality.
Now, I have no doubt that this Google Ad representative said that or implied it strongly. They want to make the sale and it might be a new rep that has little experience. It is dangerous and something needs to be done to make sure this doesn't happen.
In 2014, we reported something similar where someone said they got in a fight with their ad rep and his rankings dropped. But in 2015, a Google Ads rep said it doesn't work like that and in 2012, Matt Cutts said nope in this video as well:
Like I said, I have no doubt that the ad rep said it and something needs to be done to make sure this doesn't happen again. I am sure they all go through training not to say these things because honestly, this doesn't come up every other day. But when it does come up, it gets a lot of attention. Not only that, it is a super common myth that you hear from people who do not have any SEO experience. Most feel that spending money with Google Ads does lead to better organic search rankings.
So Google does need a better way to deal with this, some how...
Google does have a micro page devoted to this topic. It reads "Search listings are free, and no one can pay for a better ranking." "PPC ads like Google Ads are paid online advertisements which appear next to relevant searches and other content on the web. Running a Google Ads campaign does not help your SEO rankings, despite some myths and claims," Google added there. "Why Won't Google Ads PPC marketing help my SEO?" Google writes "Google’s first responsibility is to provide Search users with the most relevant possible results. If businesses were able to pay for higher rankings in the search results, users wouldn’t be getting the information they’re looking for." The page goes on and on and it ranks for a lot of these queries such as [do google ads improve organic rankings].
What would you propose?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
