SEO and PPC Services, Bought Together

Agencies with a verified published price

How to buy SEO and PPC as one engagement

1. Split the budget and the reporting from day one. Agree a separate fee line and a separate outcome for each channel before signing. A blended number hides which half is working, and it is almost always the half you would have cut that keeps the retainer alive when the other one stalls.
2. Make the ad account feed the content plan. The search terms report shows what real buyers typed and which of those converted. That is the strongest available input for deciding which organic pages to write. Ask the provider to show, in writing, how paid data will choose the content roadmap.
3. Set up conversion tracking once, for both. One measurement layer covering calls, forms and offline outcomes, with the source recorded, so both channels are judged against the same definition of an enquiry. Google Ads documents several conversion tracking approaches; pick the one matching where your sale is actually confirmed.
4. Verify each discipline separately. Ask for client evidence for each channel, not for the bundle. Many agencies are genuinely strong in one and passable in the other, and a combined case study hides that. Look at ranking pages for the organic claim and at live landing pages for the paid one.

Where the two channels genuinely help each other

The most valuable connection runs from paid to organic. Paid search reveals within weeks which queries convert, at what cost, and with what wording, information that organic work would otherwise take months to infer. Turning that into a content plan means writing pages against terms already proven to produce enquiries rather than against a keyword tool's volume estimates. The reverse direction matters too: a strong organic page makes a better landing page, and landing page experience is one of the components Google names in Quality Score, which affects what you pay per click.

There is also a defensive argument. Owning both the ad and the organic result for a term you depend on takes up more of the page and denies the position to a competitor, which matters most on brand terms and on the handful of commercial queries that produce most of your revenue. That is not an argument for bidding on everything you rank for, which wastes money on traffic you already have. It is an argument for deciding deliberately, term by term, and testing rather than assuming.

How combined engagements go wrong

The usual failure is invisible cross-subsidy. A combined fee covers both channels, one channel produces the results, and the underperforming half is never scrutinised because the overall number looks acceptable. The second failure is a percentage-of-spend fee model applied to the whole engagement, which quietly rewards moving budget into paid regardless of where the return is. The third is reporting that blends organic and paid conversions into one total, which makes it impossible to answer the only question that matters at renewal, which is what each channel returned.

The structural fix is simple and worth insisting on: separate fee lines, separate deliverables, separate reporting, one shared measurement layer. If a provider resists that, the reason is worth hearing. Some resist because splitting genuinely creates coordination overhead, and some resist because the split would show something. Google's guidance on hiring an SEO recommends asking for a technical audit and clear expectations before committing, which is a reasonable standard to apply to both halves of a bundled deal.

How we compare providers here

Listings are built from published evidence: a stated fee or minimum, the charging model for media management, the described scope for each discipline, and named clients where disclosed. Missing figures are recorded as missing rather than estimated. Nothing is ranked by payment, and no review scores are imported from elsewhere.

For a combined engagement, one comparison point is worth more than the rest: whether the provider publishes anything specific about how the two channels connect. Companies that have actually run integrated programmes tend to describe the mechanism, because it is the thing they are proud of. Companies that sell the bundle for convenience describe the bundle. That difference shows up in their own published words before you ever get on a call.

Questions people actually ask

Should I start with SEO or PPC?

If you need enquiries this quarter, start with paid, because it produces traffic immediately and generates the data that makes organic work smarter. If your budget is small and your market is not fiercely competitive, organic may be the only channel that clears its own threshold. Most businesses that can afford both should start paid, learn which searches convert, and let that decide the organic roadmap rather than the other way round.

Can one agency really do both well?

Some can, and the integration benefit is real when they do. But the disciplines use different people, and plenty of agencies are excellent at one and average at the other. Ask to meet the person running each channel, ask what else they work on, and ask for separate client evidence for each. If the same generalist runs both across a dozen accounts, you are buying coverage rather than depth.

Should I bid on keywords I already rank for?

Sometimes, and it should be tested rather than assumed. Bidding on a term where you hold the top organic position often buys clicks you would have got free. Bidding on terms where you rank fourth or lower, or where competitors are advertising against your brand, frequently pays. Pause and measure total enquiries rather than channel-level clicks, because the honest answer only shows up in the combined number.

How should the fee be structured?

A flat fee for the SEO scope tied to countable monthly output, and either a flat fee or a capped percentage for media management. Avoid a single blended retainer with no internal split, and avoid an uncapped percentage of spend, which makes budget growth the provider's most profitable recommendation. Put both lines and both sets of deliverables in the contract.

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