Why should we need to be bidding on our own brand? This is a typical question that often gets asked by our clients when referring to paid search in one of their Google Adwords Campaigns. Many industry experts support the view that bidding on your own brand is the key to getting qualified leads and driving sales. According to Travelocity’s Jeffrey Glueck, brands still matter on the internet, most of your profits come from buying your own brand name.
A recent study by Travelocity found 96 percent of booked trips resulted from branded keywords, leaving just 4 percent of bookings coming from non-branded terms. To further back up his findings Glueck refers to other recent research findings such as 360i’s study concluding that while brand words account for just 5 percent of paid search spend, they generate 80 percent of profit from search alone.
The multiple exposures achieved from running paid listings alongside natural search listings not only enhance your credibility in the minds of the searcher, but this also means that you occupy more of the real estate of the page. After all the more spaces you occupy on the page, the less are occupied by your competitors!
Ignoring the fact that around 30 percent of clicks take place on ads themselves, you shouldn’t rely on natural search listings exclusively. Often, your natural search listings end up below two or three ads shown at the top of the search page anyway. Also when bidding on your own brand you have more control over copy content, placement, landing page and optimisation of ads than in natural listings. Improved conversion rates alone can often pay for ad costs.
Bidding on your own brand can also act as a defensive online marketing strategy against competitors too. Searchers who type in a branded name might be perfectly happy with a different brand or they might be somewhat committed to one brand, but willing to switch, given the right offers. These are two reasons why competitors bid on each others keywords, hoping to steal away customers and clients. (We do not advocate bidding on competitors brands as we consider this unethical, and can cause a flurry of ‘cease and desist’ letters from competitors lawyers!)
For small to medium sized businesses, brand searches are even more important. Your site may be new, or have low visibility in general, but there are still a handful of people searching your name or brand, and you want to be in front of them, even if it means paying a few pence extra for a click. The point is, it builds up brand recognition for smaller brands and can be very important to build up a level playing field with the larger players.
Overall, in nearly every scenario I’ve looked at, it makes financial sense for the brand owner to be bidding on their own brand.
For more information on bidding on your own brand, and how we can help you take up the top spot on Google contact us now.
