If you manage both SEO and PPC, striking the right balance is key to maximizing efficiency and ROI.
When paid search campaigns compete with high-performing organic listings, brands end up spending more while gaining little additional traffic.
Keyword cannibalization dilutes search performance, inflates costs, and reduces overall marketing effectiveness.
This guide will help you recognize the warning signs of PPC cannibalization, test its impact, and implement strategies to ensure both channels work together for optimal results.
Signs your PPC campaigns are cannibalizing your SEO rankings
Declining organic click-through rates
If your organic rankings remain stable but CTRs are dropping, your paid ads might be stealing traffic from your organic listings.
This is usually the result of branded or high-ranking keywords being simultaneously targeted in PPC campaigns.
It’s also important to note that additional SERP features, ad placements, and AI-driven search results have contributed to a general decline in organic CTRs across the board.
Increased PPC clicks with no overall traffic growth
If PPC campaigns drive more paid traffic, but total website visits remain unchanged, your ads may be diverting clicks that would have otherwise come from organic search.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)’s Traffic Acquisition Report makes identifying this issue easier. You can compare period-over-period traffic changes by channel side by side.
Organic conversions declining while paid conversions increase
If paid search conversions are rising but overall conversions remain flat or decline, PPC may be cannibalizing organic conversions rather than expanding your reach.
This is especially common with Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which often prioritize branded terms for their higher ROI. More on that later.
Dig deeper: How to maximize PPC and SEO data with co-optimization audits
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3 steps to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO
1. Audit PPC and SEO keyword overlap
Not all overlapping PPC and SEO keywords cause cannibalization.
However, to safeguard your top-ranking keywords, exclude them from your PPC campaigns.
To speed up your analysis, filter organic search terms where your website ranks position 4 or below – since most clicks go to pages ranking in positions 1-3.
Additionally, sort search terms by click volume to identify phrases most susceptible to cannibalization.
Then, cross-reference your organic search terms with your Google Ads Search Terms report to pinpoint where you’re paying for traffic you’d otherwise get for free.
2. Use negative keywords to exclude strong SEO performers
If certain terms already perform well organically, you can use negative keywords to prevent them from triggering paid ads.
By applying exact-match negative keywords, you avoid cannibalization while still targeting related peripheral phrases in your ads.
Dig deeper: How to use negative keywords in PPC to maximize targeting and optimize ad spend
3. Refine brand bidding strategies and implement brand exclusion lists
Bidding on branded terms is often unnecessary since users searching for a brand already intend to visit its website.
Paying for traffic that would otherwise be free is rarely a good investment.