Should You Be Bidding on Branded Keywords?

So, your Marketing Manager has told you that your company is bidding on Brand terms in their AdWords account and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘have my staff gone mad? Don’t we rank organically for our brand?’

When working in PPC, it is easy to see why this might seem a step in the wrong direction, especially if your company comes up on top of your desired search engine results page. It brings about the question, is there any point in paying for traffic that you’re more than likely to have received organically? Well, here are a few reasons why you should try bidding on branded terms:

Better Control Over the Landing Page People Get to

Within search campaigns, you are able to select specific landing page URLs. For the most part, people would like this to be their homepage when using brand keywords, however running a brand campaign allows you to split test which landing page works best. You could also set up specific PPC landing pages that are highly optimised for converting, which may not have necessarily come up organically – the choice is yours!

Deterrent to Competitor Bidding

Have you noticed your competitors bidding on your keywords? Their PPC ads can show above your organic listings. The best way to overcome this? Bid on your own terms too. It’ll likely cost you less than it will cost your competitor as your quality score for brand terms will likely be better than someone else’s (unless they use your brand terms on their own website).

Take Up More Space in the SERP

AdWords Search offers some pretty nifty ad features called Ad Extensions that not only support your ads, but will ensure your ads take up more space in the SERP and increase your presence. These include:

• Review extensions
• Callout extensions
• Structured snippets
• Sitelink extensions

… and many more options.

Measure Brand Awareness Over Time

Do you know exactly how much brand awareness you have and how much it’s changed over time? Bidding on your brand terms means you can see how many people are searching for you. This can be used to keep track of brand awareness and monitor dips and peaks, which will go some way to help measure your brand-awareness efforts, such as offline marketing.

Highlight Positive Reviews

Do you have excellent reviews? Do you have amazing customer service that people are shouting and screaming about? Showcase your reviews with ad extensions and make it one of the first things people see when searching for you.

One of our clients, Benefit Cosmetics, sees its high quality rating top the search results for its branded keywords:

USPs in Callout Extensions

As mentioned above, highlight what you’re doing well. Show off by including USPs in the callout extensions. Putting all your good features in your ads means these are the first thing people are seeing when they search for you. This could do wonders for your brand image.

Good If Your Brand Doesn’t Rank Organically

Many brands are easy to find simply by “Googling it”, but what if you’re not there yet? A new site is unlikely to rank highly organically straight away. Maybe you haven’t started any SEO optimisation yet? PPC ads are a ‘quick-win’ that will bring you up to the top right away.

Brand Terms Are Cheaper Than Other Keywords

Still not convinced that brand terms are the right thing to bid on? Try it out for yourself. Brand terms on average are a lot cheaper than other keywords as the competition is generally a lot lower. They might not be for you, but PPC works best when you never stop testing.

Need Help with Your PPC Marketing?

If you need a little help and guidance when it comes to which keywords to bid on, how much to spend or just digital marketing in general we can help. Contact our online experts here or tweet us @_libertydigital.

Learn more about our PPC services and what we can do for you by getting in touch today.