Do Paid ads Help SEO?

[AhFreshMeat]

I'm a part of a Facebook Groups where "SEO veterans of 10+ years" (or so they claim) say that Paid ads help improve related keywords of the title of the page you are advertising.

Examples include google ads, facebook ads, pinterest ads.
Has anyone ran ads and saw an increase in rankings, specifically regarding related keywords across the site?

I'm curious of everyones experience with this or their theory behind why this could be true. Also, I'm aware big G has officially stated there is no correlation. note: I also tried to search for this type of discussion elsewhere, but couldn't find much on it that felt credible.

 

[bernard]

I've never heard this.

I would assume that if you spend a ton on Google Ads, then you could probably talk to your rep and ask for them to remove a penalty or something like that, but it would have to be serious agency money at least. No guarantee, but I've heard stories like this from big brands.

 

[zelch]

It could possibly help CTR because of brand recognition, which in turn could increase rankings.

 

[Broland]

Let’s just kill this thread

 

[Ryuzaki]

I'd file this one in the conspiracy theory drawer. There's a close relation between this idea and the "Google destroys the SERPs to force us to buy ads" theory. I think it's more likely that they're serving two masters in that regard: 1) User satisfaction 2) Increased CTR on ads.

But can paid ads help with SEO directly? I really doubt it. It's counterproductive for the ad seller unless you want to really get into the weeds and say that they only give you more traffic for non-converting keywords. Otherwise, you're choking out your own ad supply by helping your advertisers not need to buy ads.

Indirectly, I'm sure it can help some. More traffic from any source is very likely a ranking factor. More brand traffic means more sales and thus reviews, which is an EEAT variable. You'll get more social signals probably, leading to more traffic from more sources. Probably pick up a bit more links. I'd say that if it did result in more organic traffic, it's an indirect consequence of doing actual marketing.

You can look at Ahrefs' paid ads chart overlaid on organic traffic and look for patters. I've never seen them.

 

[AhFreshMeat]

I'd file this one in the conspiracy theory drawer. There's a close relation between this idea and the "Google destroys the SERPs to force us to buy ads" theory. I think it's more likely that they're serving two masters in that regard: 1) User satisfaction 2) Increased CTR on ads.

But can paid ads help with SEO directly? I really doubt it. It's counterproductive for the ad seller unless you want to really get into the weeds and say that they only give you more traffic for non-converting keywords. Otherwise, you're choking out your own ad supply by helping your advertisers not need to buy ads.

Indirectly, I'm sure it can help some. More traffic from any source is very likely a ranking factor. More brand traffic means more sales and thus reviews, which is an EEAT variable. You'll get more social signals probably, leading to more traffic from more sources. Probably pick up a bit more links. I'd say that if it did result in more organic traffic, it's an indirect consequence of doing actual marketing.

You can look at Ahrefs' paid ads chart overlaid on organic traffic and look for patters. I've never seen them.

Thats a super helpful observation, looking at ahrefs paid traffic and checking for a correlation.

I believe what was fueling this conspiracy theory from the self proclaimed seo vets was exactly what you mentioned… that indirectly more traffic was supposed to provide more user metrics. Which in turn was something they believed helped the page be deemed as more “relevant and useful” in the eyes of google.

I’d bet that above theory could possibly speed up the hypothetical sandbox for a new site, but a real correlation would probably require a ton of cash, I would think

 

[wikibum]

It could possibly help CTR because of brand recognition, which in turn could increase rankings

Indirectly, I'm sure it can help some. More traffic from any source is very likely a ranking factor. More brand traffic means more sales and thus reviews, which is an EEAT variable. You'll get more social signals probably, leading to more traffic from more sources. Probably pick up a bit more links. I'd say that if it did result in more organic traffic, it's an indirect consequence of doing actual marketing.

Indirectly it will, just like @zelch and @Ryuzaki said, but don't forget about the hefty amount (depending on your niche) you will need to pay Google.

 

[eliquid]

It helps, but not in the way you are thinking most likely. It's not a 1x1 correlation