Bidding on the Brand

In a recent client meeting, we were asked the question of whether we should bid on the company’s brand terms in a paid search campaign.  As one might expect, the clickthrough and conversion rates for brand terms were higher than some of the non-branded phrases, but there was a concern over the opportunity cost of spending ad dollars on keyword phrases associated with the brand in lieu of other relevant phrases that could possibly generate new customers.  For a variety of reasons, we will continue to run the brand terms in this particular campaign.  However, this isn’t always the case - we have several campaigns for which we do not utilize branded keywords.

I don’t really think there is a blanket policy for this decision, nor should there be.  Each campaign is different, and as much as we hate saying this - “it really depends.”  Here’s a list of things to consider when making this important judgment call that can greatly impact paid search campaign budgets and performance.

Why Not?

“I Shouldn’t Have To”
“We’ll Rely on Natural Results”
“We’re Probably Getting Those Clicks Without PPC”

Many marketers and business people feel that bidding on brand terms is not necessary due to the fact that, well, this is their brand.  Anyone searching for their company name is likely to click on a natural listing anyway.  The thought is, “we’re going to get those clicks anyway”.  Careful review of search volume vs. search analytics (or traffic and activity for specific keywords) will tell you whether this is true.  Find out how many people are searching for a keyword term on a daily basis vs. how many are actually coming to your site for that term and you should be able to get a decent understanding of your clickthrough rate on the search results page.

Why You Should

Poor Natural Placement
As is the case with many online marketing companies, we promote a number of sites that we didn’t build.  While we have a team of excellent developers in-house and some fantastic Web development partners, we can’t control the build process.  Thus, control on how easily the site can be optimized is lost as well.  For some sites, natural placement is not that easy.  There could be some design issues like flash, frames or complicated/dynamic URL structure.  Or there could be just some less than stellar optimization tactics.  Whatever the reason, some sites just don’t rank well in natural search results initially.  In these cases it is imperative to bid on the brand until natural results mature.

Protect Your Brand from Competitors & Affiliates
It’s your brand and if your identity has even a modicum of popularity, you should obviously protect it.  Sometimes you’ll find that others bid on your term only to place their ad in paid search results.  Google’s trademark policy disallows any other advertiser from giving the perception that they represent your company.  Thus, they can try and bid on your brand phrases, but they can’t use those terms in their ad.  If someone is using your brand name in their paid search advertisements, go here.  If you find that others are bidding on various derivations of your brand terms, whether they are competitors or affiliates, make sure you are on top.

Better Clickthrough Rates with SEO & Paid Together
We’ve run several campaigns in which we own the top natural result and the top paid search result.  In every case, whether it’s a branded or non-branded phrase, clickthrough rates for each are much higher than they would be if the placements were not run in tandem.  These placements seem to have an overwhelming effect on search behavior, and their synergy conveys absolute relevance to a search topic.  Our friends at iCrossing conducted a study on this behavior last year.

Use Broad Match as a “Catch All”
Opportunities arise unexpectedly, news is released, things happen.  One strategy to ensure your PPC ad appears any time anything remotely related to your brand is searched is to run your brand name in broad match.  Broad match allows you to appear for a host of keyword combinations just as long as they include one or two words.  For example, using the term “proctor and gamble” in broad match will allow your ad to appear for other phrases that include “proctor and gamble” such as “proctor and gamble products”, “proctor and gamble coupons”, “proctor and gamble careers”, “proctor and gamble detergent” or even “proctor and gamble recall”.  Owning placement for every combination of brand keywords allows you to have greater control over your brand message no matter what situation may arise.

written at May 21st, 2008 and is filed under Marketing, Paid Search, Web site best practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.