How should SEO and performance ads work together?

Short answer: Both channels serve the same search demand; working together means sharing data and coordinating budget. Ads should focus on valuable queries where organic visibility is weak; SEO should take over durable demand where clicks are expensive. Decisions happen per query, not per channel.

Concrete points of cooperation

• Match the Google Ads search terms report against Search Console queries; converting terms with no organic visibility are content priorities.
• Move winning ad messages into titles and meta descriptions; CTR learning works in both channels.
• For brand queries where you rank strongly, test reducing ads with a controlled experiment (such as a geo holdout), not with an assumption.
• Improve landing page speed together: LCP and INP gains feed both ad quality evaluation and organic performance.
• Use one conversion definition in GA4 and read incremental impact instead of last click.

TYS Digital Performance reports both channels in a single performance board; budget shifts to wherever the query-level evidence points.