Google Ads paid and organic report: find clicks SEO can win
Link Search Console to Google Ads, sort every query into ad only, organic only or both, and find the paid clicks a ranking page could win you.
The paid and organic report in Google Ads shows, query by query, whether a search triggered your ad, your organic listing, or both. Link Search Console to Google Ads and put that report next to your search terms. You get three working lists: queries you pay for that a page could win, queries where the ad may be buying clicks you'd get anyway, and rankings close enough to the top to be worth a push.
Paid search tells you which searches bring leads. SEO lets you keep winning those searches without a price on every click. This report puts both in one table, and switching it on costs nothing.
What the paid and organic report shows
Each row is a search query. A column called Search result type sorts it into one of three groups: Ad shown only, Organic shown only, or Both shown. Beside it you get the ad numbers (clicks, impressions, CTR, average CPC), the organic numbers (clicks, queries, clicks per query, listings per query) and a combined line, Ads and organic clicks.
Learn its limits before you lean on it. It counts text ads only, so Shopping stays out. It refreshes once a day. Your organic history begins on the day you link the accounts and never reaches further back. And the standard report shows neither conversions nor ranking position, so you'll bring both in from other exports.
Link Search Console to Google Ads today
The organic data starts on the day you link, so every week you wait is a week of history you can't recover. In Google Ads, open Tools, then Data manager, pick Search Console and link your site. You need admin access to the Ads account and owner status on the Search Console property. If your site answers on both the www and the bare domain, link both.
Give it a month. Then open Insights and reports, choose Report editor and pick Paid & organic from the predefined Basic reports. Set the date range to the days since you linked and download it.
Build one sheet from three exports
The report tells you where you show up. For what converted and where you rank, pull two more exports for the same dates:
- The search terms report from Google Ads, with cost, conversions and cost per conversion. That's the money side.
- The Search Console performance report, queries tab, with average position. That's the ranking side.
Paste all three into one spreadsheet and match the rows on the query text. Some rows won't match: Google hides low-volume terms in the search terms report and leaves rare queries out of Search Console. Work with the rows that match. They're the ones with enough volume to act on.
Three moves, one for each search result type
Ad shown only: the pages to write
Filter to Ad shown only, then sort by conversions and cost. The top rows are searches that bring you leads while your site is missing from the free results. Each one is a page waiting to be written.
Say a query costs $9 a click, brings 60 clicks a month and converts. That's $540 a month for visitors a ranking page could bring in without a price per click. Write the page that answers that search in the searcher's own words, which the search terms report gives you verbatim. Keep the ad live while the page climbs, and decide later whether to pull it. Our weekly routine for the search terms report covers how to read those rows.
Both shown: the bids to test
Filter to Both shown and add the Search Console position. Where you already rank in the top three, the ad may be paying for clicks your listing would win anyway. It may also be adding clicks the listing alone would miss. The report can't tell you which, so run a test.
Take a handful of these queries, lower the bid or pause the ad for three to four weeks, and watch Ads and organic clicks for that set. If the combined line holds, the ad was buying clicks you already had. If it drops, the ad was earning its keep. Treat your own brand name as a separate case: when a competitor bids on it, a paused ad can hand them the top of the page, so test it last and check it daily. We explained why that search deserves the care in why branded search is your best SEO bet.
Organic shown only: the rankings to push
Filter to Organic shown only and keep the queries where Search Console puts you between positions 4 and 15. Those pages already rank. A sharper title, a section that answers the query head-on and two or three internal links from related posts can be enough to lift them into the top three.
Google suggests reading the same list the other way: queries where you appear only organically are keyword ideas for your campaigns. Bid on the ones with buying intent, as long as their click price fits the bid ceiling that comes out of your target CPA, and leave the informational ones to the page.
Run it monthly and watch the combined line
Repeat the exports once a month. Each round gives you the same three lists: pages to write, bids to test, rankings to push. The number that shows it's working is Ads and organic clicks on the queries you worked, set against what you spend on them. When a new page starts ranking for a query you were paying for, combined clicks should hold while the ad spend on that query falls.
That's the reason to run both channels side by side. Paid search tells you within days which searches bring leads. SEO keeps those leads coming at a lower cost per lead, month after month.
If you want help turning your Google Ads data into an SEO plan that lowers what each lead costs, that's the kind of work we do.
