Paid and organic overlap report
also called Paid and organic reportSEM and SEO overlapPaid cannibalisation reportIncrementality reviewPaid plus SEO trends
The two channels on one keyword axis: where paid and organic both appear, where only one does, and what each is spending or earning on the overlap. It supports two decisions in the Thursday budget review, where to pull spend because organic already holds position one, and where to add it because organic will not get there this quarter. Brand terms are separated because the overlap argument works differently there.
Who it is for, and what it settles
- Audience
- PPC manager
- Job to be done
- Find the terms being bought that organic already wins, and the terms organic cannot reach that deserve budget.
- Cadence
- Monthly
The metrics, in three tiers
Headline numbers carry the story. Diagnostics explain a headline that moved. Guardrails stop a wrong conclusion. Every row links to the definition, the formula, the caveats and what the metric is not all live on the metric page.
Headline What you lead with 4
Diagnostic Reached for when a headline moves 8
- Paid clicks raw measure clicks
- Average cost per click monetary account currency per click
- Average position rank results-page position
- Organic impressions raw measure impressions
- Paid conversions raw measure conversions
- Conversions raw measure conversions
- Search impression share share share of available auction impressions
- Total search share derived metric percent of the segment's results-page presence
Guardrail Stops the wrong conclusion 4
Required data sources
Skills that produce or interpret it
Method rungs covered
- R1 Reachable , not covered
- R2 Retrieved , not covered
- R3 Referenced , not covered
- R4 Represented , not covered
- R5 Rewarded , covered
It reads the upper rungs only. If a lower rung is broken, fix that before you present this, a report that never checks whether pages can be reached will keep reporting movement that may not be yours.
Ask for it in one sentence
The prompt pack for this report, copy one, or watch it play in the simulator.
- "Which keywords are we paying for that we already rank for?" Simulate this → Prompt gallery →
- "Where should we cut ad spend because organic covers it?" Simulate this → Prompt gallery →
- "Which terms does organic not reach that we should buy?" Simulate this → Prompt gallery →
- "What is the paid and organic split on brand?" Simulate this → Prompt gallery →
What to say out loud when you present it
The join between the two channels runs two ways, search term to organic query, and bidded keyword to organic query, and the two produce different overlap sets; say which was used. Organic has no query-level conversion data, so a like-for-like conversion comparison at keyword grain is not available. Holding position one organically does not make paid spend wasted; incrementality needs a test, and this report sizes the candidates for one rather than settling it.
Related workflows and use cases
Watch a run that builds this report
All runs →
3 min 4 secThe fix shipped. Traffic rose. Now two teams want the credit.Lighthouse + Search Console + Rank tracking · Significance referee · Cross domain correlator◐Recreated from an anonymized session
2 min 3 secYou are buying clicks you already own. So cut them?Google Ads + Search Console · Paid organic balance◐Recreated from an anonymized session
How this entry was verified
Knowing the contents is step one.
Someone still has to assemble it, defend the numbers and present it. Here is the rest of the showcase.