Why We Changed Our Agency Framework (And How It Brings Better Results)
We’re a content marketing agency that specialises in helping financial services companies generate leads with content.
We’re content first and content will always be fundamental to what we do.
But we’ve updated our framework, and now we also do Google Ads.
We believe that the best way to get results from content, SEO and PPC is for the three channels to be working closely together.
That’s why we’ve revisited our agency framework and in this article we want to explain what the new framework is, and how we came to incorporate Google Ads.
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Why we changed our framework
Previously, our framework was the following:
Create BOFU content
Create content targeting experts
Create content based on expert interviews
Track and report on leads and deals via content
It’s a framework that works very well and is what allows us to help clients get business results with content marketing. However, we decided to update this framework for two main reasons:
1. It takes often 6+ months to get results with content and SEO
As anyone who invests in SEO and content knows, it takes a while to see results via SEO. Especially if your website is newer, it can often take months or even years for pages to start ranking on Google.
The type of content we create for clients is also usually quite technical and in-depth: it involves interviews with experts and multiple rounds of reviews, often leading to more delays and therefore a situation where content can take even longer to rank.
Once SEO and content start working, the results are worth it. Unlike PPC, there is no ceiling on growth and often you can maintain the same spend while continuing to acquire customers at the same rate. But getting to that point can often take over 6 months, which is a big hurdle for companies that may not have enough budget to allocate to content marketing and SEO without seeing a sooner ROI.
2. With a young website, it can be hard to know which keywords will succeed
We work with a lot of fintech and financial services companies that haven’t invested much into SEO and content in the past and are looking to acquire customers with Bottom of the Funnel content – the framework we use to help clients generate leads with content.
With a new website, there isn’t often any historical data that shows us which topics and keywords are bringing in conversions and results. Which means that even though we interview salespeople and there is a lot of upfront research we do before putting together a strategy, the keywords we decide to target are often still hypotheses.
There are two main variables when deciding on a keyword topic to target:
How long will it take to rank?
Once ranking in the top 3 positions, will it convert well?
Even in situations where we know that a keyword will convert well, it may still take 3 months to rank well. And even if we are quite sure an article will rank high quite quickly, we can’t always predict whether it will convert well.
There may be issues with the UX of the website or it may be that conversion tracking isn’t correctly set up – these are all factors that mean it could be months before we know what topics and keywords are bringing the best results.
These additional factors can cause even more delays in getting SEO and content to work.
Enter: our new framework for Unified BOFU Search
Our new framework is now the following:
Create BOFU content
Test via Google Ads
Create content targeting experts and based on interviews
Track and report on leads and deals via content and Google Ads
It’s very similar to the previous framework, except that the big change is that step two now includes Google Ads, and that we’ve combined steps 2 and 3.
After testing the new framework with a few clients (with their permission and cooperation), we are now confident that the best way to make the most of Google Ads, content marketing and SEO is to have each responsible team / person working closely together.
It’s important to remember that Google Ads and SEO are channels that are still targeting the same kind of person: someone searching on Google for a specific solution to their problem. This is why from our perspective, it made sense to start doing Google Ads. We’ll explain how in the section below.
Why invest in Google Ads as well as content and SEO?
1. Get better guidance on keywords that are worth targeting
As mentioned above, one of our key challenges when we work with a client is that it can be hard to ascertain which topics and keywords will do best in terms of bringing conversions.
Sometimes they are obvious: we know comparison posts, for example, will nearly always perform well. But if we’re working with a young website, we pick the topics based on hypotheses from talking to salespeople and our research.
Google Ads acts as a bit of a shortcut and helps us increase the accuracy of our hypotheses. For example, if a client has invested quite a bit into Google Ads already, an audit of their Google Ad account will quickly tell us which non-branded keywords have been performing well. With that information, we then already have a list of keywords to target organically that we know will perform well.
For example, say a Google Ad account shows that the keywords “direct debit API” and “APAC payment processors” are bringing in the most conversions. With that information, we may decide to prioritise targeting those keywords via SEO and add those topics to our content calendar.
If a client has not invested much in Google Ads, that’s ok. As we’ll explain in the next section, we can still run Google Ad campaigns side by side with SEO and content. Based on the results we’re getting, we can use that information to tweak and improve our content strategy.
2. Test the conversion rate of a keyword with an “SEO Support” campaign
The second reason we now run Google Ad campaigns is that we can run specific campaigns designed to test keywords. This concept is called the “Alpha Beta Keyword Strategy” in the PPC world, where the Beta campaigns are designed to identify new, high-converting terms. We call it an “SEO Support” campaign.
The reason this SEO Support campaign is so useful is that we can use it to test our hypotheses and learn a lot more quickly whether a keyword is worth targeting as well.
Imagine that you’re a content marketer, and you believe that the keyword “Healthcare payment solution” will perform quite well organically and are confident it’ll bring in conversions. You’ll first have to write the article and publish, which could take about 2 - 3 weeks, then wait. Then, it could take 2 - 3 months to reach the top 3 positions. Only then, 3 - 4 months later, do you find out if your hypothesis is right.
With Google Ads, you can put together an ad group or campaign to test that keyword or topic to see if it performs. If the results are good (i.e. many conversions of high quality), then you may choose to target that keyword with content. On the contrary, if the results showed a high number of clicks but low conversion rate, then you may decide to not target that keyword.
Running SEO Support campaigns essentially gives you more data and a better understanding of what does and doesn’t work with keywords. As an agency, it allows us to prove our hypothesis and have more proof to support our strategy and therefore get better results more quickly for our clients.
3. Get better results from digital marketing sooner
As a content marketing agency, we are proud of the fact that we hold ourselves accountable for leads and deals every month for our clients. This is very different from other content marketing agencies that typically only track traffic and focus on creating thought leadership content, without focusing on generating new business.
By offering content marketing and Google Ads services together, we’re able to help clients make the most of search – hence the phrase “Unified Search” in our framework. And by doing Google Ads in conjunction with content – rather than content alone – our clients don’t have to wait 6+ months to start getting results from their digital marketing.
It’s a more cost-effective way to get results with digital marketing, and it doesn’t take as long to see traction.
We regularly use this metaphor adapted from Andy Crestodina to explain the relationship between paid and organic search:
Google Ads is the rudder, helping direct our marketing activity and giving us a better understanding of which keywords and topics performing best. With that information, we can better invest in content marketing and SEO, which are the sails. Content marketing and SEO are a much more cost-effective way to scale since you’re not having to pay for every click and conversion. There is also no ceiling and growth isn’t totally tied to your spend.
Content marketing and SEO are what ultimately allow us to help reach the highest goals in the most cost-effective way.
What if a client already works with an ad agency? That’s totally fine. We have a lot of experience working in conjunction with other agencies. While the agency can focus on the bulk of the spend, we can just focus on running SEO Support campaigns, which will still get us results and help guide our content marketing strategy.
What if a client doesn’t have an ad agency? In that case, we can run the Google Ad account ourselves, so our client can rest assured they are making the most of paid and organic search.
What type of results have we seen so far from incorporating Google Ads?
We’ve been doing Google Ads and content for quite a few months now for four of our clients, and we’re already seeing better results. Here are some examples of what the results look like in practice.
Generated quality opportunities within month two via Google Ads for two relatively young websites
We had two clients that had relatively young websites and had not invested in content and SEO. They really wanted to invest in content, but we informed them that it could take 6 months before they start seeing a meaningful number of conversions from SEO and content.
Alongside our content, we managed both of their full Google Ad accounts from day one. We already started generating high-quality leads and opportunities within month 2 of working together with both clients. This was thanks to:
The initial time we spent interviewing salespeople, allowing us to build a much better keyword strategy for PPC.
Our knowledge of the financial services and payment industry, which allowed us to know which keywords would perform best.
Implementing best practices for PPC, such as consolidating campaigns for smart bidding, not targeting too many keywords, implementing Offline Conversion Tracking and a lot more.
For the next few months, most of these clients’ leads will come from Google Ads. But, as we continue to invest in content marketing and SEO, the bulk of their conversions will eventually come via content. This makes for a much more sustainable way to grow their digital marketing and bring in customers.
2. Created a strategy and content calendar that we knew would perform a lot better
For one of our clients, their historical Google Ad data was fundamental to our content strategy. During our initial 2 week diagnostic (an initial project we do with most new clients where we assess the opportunity for content and SEO), we could see that they were performing very well with non-branded keywords. In fact, over half of their budget was going to non-branded keywords and over half of their revenue was also coming from non-branded keywords.
This presented a huge opportunity for content marketing and SEO: there were already 20+ keywords that we already knew were performing well for our client, and that we just had to target organically. By targeting them organically, our client can diversify the channels where they get their leads and scale performance without having to spend more on Google Ads.
We could see that the opportunity for content was above $1M in total business opportunity (and probably a lot more), so it was also a lot easier to make a business case for content marketing and Google Ads. We have just started working with this client and will update this article when more time has passed, but we’re confident we’ll be able to get better results sooner thanks to the insights from Google Ads.
3. Prioritised the right competitor keyword thanks to a Google Ad campaign
With another client, we knew that competitor posts would be a very high performing type of content that would do well. There were quite a few competitors in the space, so we weren’t sure which one to start with. If we knew the best performing one, we could start with that one and therefore get better results more quickly.
We ran a competitor campaign for our client, allocating one ad group per competitor. After a couple of months, we could see which ad group and therefore competitor worked best, and then created a comparison post targeting that competitor. It’s ranking already and we are confident it’ll start bringing in results soon as well – a great example of how Google Ads can help with prioritising certain keywords and topics.
Who is the Unified BOFU Search framework for?
Companies that want content marketing to bring in business results
Our main differentiator as an agency hasn’t changed: we create content that brings in leads, not just traffic.
We still create and publish BOFU content and use our process for producing content that has helped clients like Zai, Fintel Connect, Jeeves and many more get conversions with content.
Even if you are already investing in Google Ads and use an agency to manage it, we can use that data to make sure your content actually performs. We can also work alongside your current agency or freelancer and set up SEO Support campaigns.
Companies that want to make the most of search / digital marketing
Google Ads and content marketing are targeting the same keywords. So why silo those channels and their data? We know that not many content marketing teams are talking regularly to PPC / Google Ad teams – the data from Google Ads is invaluable for directing a content strategy. Both channels are targeting someone searching online, so the two teams should be talking to each other constantly.
If you know Google search would do very well for your company, or if you want to make sure you are making the most of online search, we may be a good fit. With our framework, you can ensure you’re getting the most of search via both paid and organic search.
Companies that don’t want to rely too much on Google Ads
The main issue with Google Ads is that it’s hard to scale effectively. Eventually, spending an additional $5k a month doesn’t equal to a proportional increase in leads.
This can get tricky, especially if one day your budget is cut but still have ambitious targets to meet. If you’re currently heavily reliant on Google Ads and want to diversify to a channel that is more scalable, like organic, then we may be a good fit. We know how to extract all the right data from Google Ads to help direct our content in a much more data-driven way that will get results sooner.
Unified BOFU Search: a more comprehensive way to get results via search
As an agency, we’re constantly staying on top of how the digital marketing landscape is changing. Although SEO and content are still the best ways to generate leads, we now believe that doing this in combination with Google Ads is even better.
We firmly believe that companies which want to stay relevant in today’s world need to be using both organic and paid search.
If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to us: