• By: Jon Monk - Head of Optimisation & Performance
• Date: 1st July 2025
• Estimated Read Time: 5–6 minutes
• Topics: SEO • PPC strategy • Event marketing budgets • PPC cost reduction • SEO for events • Website optimisation • Quality Score improvement • Year-round visibility for event websites

Based on insights from our live webinar with Tom McMahon, “Maximise Your Event Budget, SEO vs PPC, What Works and When?”

Watch the replay here

Executive Summary

Pay-per-click advertising is a powerful tool in any event marketer’s toolkit, especially when you need fast visibility or want to reach a specific audience. But it can become expensive if it is not managed correctly.

That is why in our recent webinar with PPC expert Tom McMahon, we explored how combining PPC with a solid SEO strategy can dramatically improve results. In fact, with the right foundation in place, SEO can effectively double the value of every pound you spend on paid advertising.

This article unpacks what we discussed, including:

• What Tom recommends as a starting budget for PPC campaigns
• Why SEO and PPC work better together than they do alone
• A practical step-by-step approach to using SEO to reduce your PPC spend
• Evidence from other experts and case studies that back this up
• The longer-term benefits of SEO, such as year-round visibility and new revenue opportunities

Introduction

We all know PPC is fast, flexible, and incredibly useful for time-sensitive campaigns. But it is also easy to overspend, especially in competitive event sectors where everyone is bidding on similar terms.

That is exactly why we brought in Tom McMahon, PPC specialist at MCM, for our latest live webinar, “Maximise Your Event Budget, SEO vs PPC, What Works and When?”

Tom broke down what realistic PPC budgets look like for event organisers, but also made a compelling case for how good SEO can dramatically improve PPC results. It is not just about running ads and hoping for clicks, it is about building a foundation that makes every pound work harder.

What Tom Shared on PPC Budgets and Performance

One of the most useful parts of the session was hearing Tom’s take on what event organisers should expect to spend on PPC to see meaningful results.

These numbers represent a starting point and are meant to serve as general guidance. Your actual PPC budget will very much depend on the type of event you are running, your sector, your target audience, and how competitive your market is.

What matters most is that your campaign is built on solid ground. You do not want to be spending thousands of pounds driving traffic to a website that is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or not clearly aligned with what users are searching for.

That is where SEO comes in.

Why SEO Makes PPC More Effective

While PPC gives you control and speed, it works best when the foundations are already in place. Tom was very clear on this:

By contrast, a well-optimised website that ranks for relevant search terms and delivers a great user experience helps your PPC campaigns achieve more.

Why? Because better landing pages improve your Quality Score, which in turn lowers your cost per click and improves ad placement.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Making It Work

Here is how to get started if you want to use SEO to make your paid media work harder.

1. Optimise your core website pages

Ensure your homepage, event information pages, speaker bios, and registration forms are all clear, fast-loading, and keyword-optimised. This helps both organic rankings and paid ad relevance.

2. Build out useful content for different audiences

Create evergreen blog posts, FAQs, or topic pages based on the key themes of your event. These give search engines more entry points and help build trust with visitors over time.

3. Strengthen your conversion journey

Make it easy for visitors to register or enquire. Use strong headlines, clear calls to action, and remove any unnecessary friction in your forms or navigation.

4. Use your SEO data to shape PPC strategy

Check which organic keywords and pages are already performing well. These insights can inform your ad targeting and landing page choices.

5. Run PPC campaigns on top of that solid base

When the SEO groundwork is done, your ads perform better. As Tom put it, you might get twice the impact from the same spend.

Other Experts Agree

This is not just one opinion. Plenty of respected industry sources confirm that SEO directly improves PPC performance.

“Focusing on SEO from the outset can support improved Google AdWords scores. This results in lower cost per click rates for paid search marketing.”

“Strong SEO improves landing page quality, lowering CPC and enhancing ad placement. Where PPC delivers immediate traffic, SEO strengthens the pages that clicks land on.”

In one Fortune 1000 case study, combining SEO with PPC reduced cost per conversion by 41 percent.

“SEO proved more cost-effective than PPC in the long run... cost per acquisition for PPC was found to be up to 50 times higher than SEO in some campaigns.”

By investing in SEO, Veolia saw an 84 percent increase in organic leads, reducing their dependence on paid media.

Bonus: Year-Round Benefits from SEO

There are also long-term advantages that PPC simply cannot match.

Once your content is live and ranking, it keeps working for you even when your paid ads are paused.

Continuous website traffic

You can attract interest before and after your campaign period, helping build momentum across the entire year.

Consistent email list growth

Even one new subscriber a day adds up to over 360 additional leads a year.

Monetisation opportunities

Once you have consistent organic traffic, you can consider adding banner ad placements, sponsored content, or affiliate links that generate additional revenue, especially relevant if you work with partners or exhibitors.

Final Thoughts

PPC and SEO are not rivals. They are partners. And when used together, they can produce far greater results than either would alone.

By getting your website optimised early, creating content that your audience actually searches for, and improving your user journey, you set the stage for more cost-effective paid campaigns.

In Tom’s words, SEO is not just an optional extra, it is the foundation that makes your entire marketing budget work harder.

Start with SEO, layer in PPC at the right time, and get better results without increasing your spend.

Ready to Optimise Your Event Website?

If your event website is not working hard enough to support your paid media spend, we can help.

We offer fast, tailored SEO support for events of all sizes, from quick wins like fixing heading tags and page titles, to full content optimisation and year-round traffic strategies.

Whether you are planning your next campaign or trying to reduce PPC waste, SEO can help you:

• Improve Google rankings for the right keywords
• Build pages that convert better from paid and organic traffic
• Increase newsletter sign-ups, speaker exposure, and exhibitor leads
• Make your site more discoverable in AI search results
• Reduce your reliance on paid ads in the long run

Get in touch for an SEO review, or ask us about our Event SEO Essentials package.

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