This was a question I came across recently with a colleague who had a boss that was questioning the use of Google Ads when their website already has a lot of high rankings in Google for their target keywords.

To his boss, it seemed like a big waste of money since he figured most of the people who click on the ads would end up clicking on their organic listings for free anyways, so why bother with the ad?

He brings up a great point right. So what should you do in this situation?

I would continue to run Google Ads because your competitors are likely advertising under the keywords you rank organically for, siphoning a good percentage of clicks from that search term. By advertising under terms you already rank well for, you increase the likelihood that searchers will land on your website instead of clicking on a competitor ad.

Don't forget advertising under your brand term since competitor ads are likely showing up when people are searching for your business. You want to make sure people are finding your business and not a competitors when they're searching for your brand. Using Google Ads you can ensure your ad shows up at the top for your branded term.

I'd also find out which search terms we aren't ranking for that we could still target via Google Ads. There's likely way more than you think.

The bottom line is Google Ads will allow you to maximize the traffic you're getting from search. No matter how great your organic rankings are.

‍