If you are conducting a Google AdWords campaign then you have no doubt thought about bidding on your brand terms. This is a topic that tends to evoke strong reactions from search marketers and PPC management professionals, and the camp tends to become divided on this one. However, there are some very clear benefits to be gained from bidding on your brand terms when conducting PPC marketing such as the fact that they help build your brand awareness and encourage organic search results.
It can also be something that is very costly if not done properly either so you should approach it with care. There are five key questions you should ask yourself before you bid on your brand terms.
Keep reading.
1. I already have a strong brand presence organically so is it worth having my brand show up in paid results as well?
This is an important question to ask and one that is quite common among marketers. Here is the easiest way to approach this question. If you are already showing up organically for your brand then bidding on your brand terms through a PPC campaign isn’t going to lead to a massive impact for your business.
However, you still can bid on your brand terms if you want because it can create that “1-2” effect that shows the customer that you are relevant. Having exposure in the organic listing and paid ad space could show the customer that you 'own the space', marking you as an authority. Generally speaking though, if you are already showing up organically for your brand then you don’t need to bid on your brand terms as well.
2. What should I do when my competitors are bidding on my brand terms?
This is a tough one for many retailers because quite often competitors will bid on your brand terms and this leads to a bidding war. The last thing you want to do is get in a bidding war for your brand terms because it’s exhausting, wastes your own time, and that of your PPC budget.
There are some important things to consider when you are tackling this problem:
Are you running search on Bing? If so then you can use Bing’s new tool to analyse data that will help you determine if bidding on brand terms is cost-effective.
Have you segmented your brand keywords by channel? Segmenting your brand keywords by channel allows you to see what brand keywords are performing better than others. This also may allow you to see that bidding on certain terms is more beneficial rather than bidding on all of them.
You should also be bidding on more than just your brand name. Think of things like products, URLs, and phrases that include your brand name. Doing this can be relatively inexpensive and prove to be quite profitable for you.
3. How should I deal with partners bidding on my brand terms?
This is another common one faced by marketers. It can be a challenge when you have partner sites that are also bidding on your brand terms. The way you can sidestep this is by using geo-targeting in your PPC campaign so that your partners put their message out to their local area. This actually benefits them because they are not paying higher costs associated with bidding on a larger demographic.
4. How do I create brand awareness?
If you are a new business then the odds are that you aren’t going to show up in results organically. This is when you should try bidding on your brand because it will help people find you. Another good tip is to incorporate site links into your brand ads because it helps to provide more info to your customers about who you are and what you do. If you are a new business you need to get your brand out in front of people and paid search can help you do that.
5. How can I get in the top five organic results?
The easiest way is to increase visibility and you can do that by bidding on your brand terms. Bidding on your brand terms will give you visibility and the chance to show up higher in search results. Eventually, if your organic results start to improve over time you can re-evaluate bidding on your brand terms to see if it’s still profitable for you to do so.
Summary
Bidding on your brand terms is something that you need to give careful consideration to. It is not easy and needs to be well thought out. These five questions are some of the most commonly asked by marketers and perhaps you have even been asking yourself some of these questions recently. If you have then hopefully this will give you a bit more clarity about what you can do and where you stand in regards to bidding on your brand terms for any PPC marketing campaign.
What kind of struggles have you experienced with bidding on your brand terms? Have you had much success with it?