Why Bidding on Branded Search Terms is a Best Practice
There are many reasons to bid on your branded search terms and we consistently get the question “Are you sure we need to?” Yes! Why should you spend money to bid on your branded terms? Consumers know your brand, right? And if someone is looking for your brand your information will show up regardless of if you pay for ads or not, right? Wrong! Read on to find out six reasons why Afflecto Media Marketing believes bidding on branded search is the right move for your PPC spend.
1. PROTECT YOUR BRAND:
It is important to always protect your branded terms if you are running any other type of advertising to ensure that your site is coming up first when consumers search for your brand after hearing/seeing another ad. When you pay for radio or TV advertising consumer’s path to conversion often includes a follow-up search online. You need to be the first in both paid and organic results, not your competitors. Otherwise, you are paying to drive exposure for your competitors. Even if you are a generous person, you probably don’t want competitors capitalizing on your investment.
2. OWN THE FIRST PAGE:
Well, we can’t guarantee this, but bidding on branded terms, combined with excellent SEO can make it possible. At the very least, dominate the SERP (search engine results page) with your paid and organic listings. Giving consumers more ways to click to your brand increases the likelihood that they will click. This works the same way that having more links in an email increases the chances of a higher click rate. Giving users multiple ways to click on your brand increases the likelihood they’ll click to your site. People like options, which leads us to our next point…
3. CREATE CONFIDENCE AND CREDIBILITY:
When your site appears in both paid and organic results it adds credibility to your site. It means you are for real. The more users see your brand on that SERP – paid and organically – increases their confidence in your brand. And bonus, this usually results in higher visits to the site organically as well.
4. PROTECT YOUR BRAND FROM COMPETITORS:
If any of your competitors are savvy marketers they are likely bidding on your branded terms. That means users searching for your company will likely be presented with an ad or two from your competitor(s). Translation: your competitors might be detouring your consumers to their website…and possibly winning them over. When bidding on branded terms search engines give you more authority and that factors into your result rank…often putting you ahead of your competitors even if they are bidding on your search terms.
5. EASY ON YOUR WALLET:
Looking for magical search terms that have high volume and don’t cost a ton? They’re right under your nose! Branded search terms tend to be the least expensive because of the authority they carry. Don’t just stick with your name – be sure to use products, services and even your own URL. These terms tend to have the highest click-thru rates and carry a very strong quality score.
6. CONTROL YOUR MESSAGE:
You can’t control what shows up in organic results, but you can control what you use in paid ads. Get clever and test a variety of options to see what works best.
At the end of the day, each search account is different and we encourage all of our clients to test, test, test. We think that supporting brand terms is a good practice, but not a rule. Find what works for your brand and go with that. Or, call us and we’ll figure it out for you!
