There are arguments both for and against bidding on one’s own branded terms. Some say it cannibalizes your natural result traffic, others say there’s an incremental lift in traffic. Here are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to bid on one’s own branded terms:
- Branded terms convert much better than generic terms:
- Anyone familiar with the buying cycle will find this obvious. General terms are typically searched for by a consumer during the initial awareness and research phases. Once a consumer decides on a specific product or brand then that’s where being visible for ones own brand becomes important.
- Imagine if someone discovered your brand through a generic search during their research phase, then came back on a branded search only to find a better offer from a competitor…you’ve lost that sale.
- Anyone familiar with the buying cycle will find this obvious. General terms are typically searched for by a consumer during the initial awareness and research phases. Once a consumer decides on a specific product or brand then that’s where being visible for ones own brand becomes important.
- Better positioning:
- Your natural listing can appear to be fourth on a page that has sponsored listings taking the top three positions (Google allows up to three sponsored listings to be above the natural results based on the quality score of those pages)
- Your natural listing can appear to be fourth on a page that has sponsored listings taking the top three positions (Google allows up to three sponsored listings to be above the natural results based on the quality score of those pages)
- Perception of your brand is strengthened when appearing more than once (see pages 5 and 6 of attached PDF):
- With supplemental results (your site appearing more than once in the natural results) there’s a chance of appearing up to three times at the top of the page as opposed to twice or just once
- This is especially important given the visual map shown below which shows where this particular set of test participants (In a study performed by Enquiro) looked on a search results page. Notice the “golden triangle” as they refer to it…since the top three spots on the page (whether paid ads or natural results) received the vast majority of “eye time.”
- With supplemental results (your site appearing more than once in the natural results) there’s a chance of appearing up to three times at the top of the page as opposed to twice or just once
- Perception of your brand is weakened if not bidding (“The Brand Lift of Search”):
- Not appearing for one’s own branded terms allows your competitors to capitalize on your brand by putting themselves in front of your potential customers. This is also why bidding on one’s own competitors usually results in a higher conversion rate when compared to general terms.
- Not appearing for one’s own branded terms allows your competitors to capitalize on your brand by putting themselves in front of your potential customers. This is also why bidding on one’s own competitors usually results in a higher conversion rate when compared to general terms.
- Make it more expensive for competitors to bid on your brand:
- Bidding on one’s own branded terms makes it more expensive for anyone else to bid on those same keywords since your quality score will be very high
- Bidding on one’s own branded terms makes it more expensive for anyone else to bid on those same keywords since your quality score will be very high
- This results in VERY CHEAP TRAFFIC!
- Branded traffic is usually the cheapest traffic one can buy since Google rewards relevant ads with a lower Cost Per Click…and what can be more relevant than one’s own branded terms!
- Branded traffic is usually the cheapest traffic one can buy since Google rewards relevant ads with a lower Cost Per Click…and what can be more relevant than one’s own branded terms!
- Incremental lift in traffic
- Results may vary with regards to how much additional traffic a site receives by having pay per click ads up versus how much natural ranking traffic is being cannibalized by those PPC ads. There are many factors such as existing natural rankings, what industry you’re in and how much competition there is for branded terms that have an effect on how much incremental traffic there is.
- Results may vary with regards to how much additional traffic a site receives by having pay per click ads up versus how much natural ranking traffic is being cannibalized by those PPC ads. There are many factors such as existing natural rankings, what industry you’re in and how much competition there is for branded terms that have an effect on how much incremental traffic there is.
- Ability to control messaging
- This can be good when a need for damage control arises. If there’s ever bad press about your brand, PPC ads allow the opportunity to rebut and place messaging in front of those searching on your brand.
- This can be good when a need for damage control arises. If there’s ever bad press about your brand, PPC ads allow the opportunity to rebut and place messaging in front of those searching on your brand.
- Ability to test
- One of the hardest things to do when testing different ad copy or landing pages is getting a statistically relevant number of conversions to be able to draw solid conclusions regarding the variables of the test
- For brands that have a strong presence and decent amount of traffic, this provides an excellent platform for testing purposes
- One of the hardest things to do when testing different ad copy or landing pages is getting a statistically relevant number of conversions to be able to draw solid conclusions regarding the variables of the test
Here are some additional resources and varying explanations:
Omniture Article (Omniture is a leading tracking software company)
http://www.omniture.com/resources/articles/testing/buying_your_brand_on_search_up
Blog Post
http://ppc-outpost.blogspot.com/2007/05/bidding-on-branded-terms-why-youll-lose.html
Google’s “The Brand Lift of Search” Article
http://www.garance.fr/documents/the-brand-lift-search.pdf
Hopefully this will help you decide whether or not to bid on your own branded terms.
-Brian Renner
