Don’t Turn Off Branded Search!

Branded search, or using branded terms for your pay-per-click marketing, means bidding on terms that are unique to your specific brand. Your company name, any proprietary product names, the names of your business leaders, etc. You SHOULD already rank well for these terms (through organic search), so what’s the point of investing in PPC marketing for them? In theory, brand search seems like a waste of time, but — surprisingly enough — that couldn’t be further from the truth. Today we'll talk about why it’s imperative that you don’t turn off branded search with Google Ads and other SEM campaigns.

Swiping Leads With Brand Keywords

One of the most important reasons you shouldn’t turn off brand search is that doing so gives your competitors a huge opportunity to steal your leads. If you aren’t bidding on your brand names, one of your competitors certainly will be. In those cases, someone could conduct a search for your company name directly. While you’ll be the first organic result, a competitor who bids on your branded keyword might still show up at the top of the page with a paid ad. Even though users can see that the search result containing your competitor is an ad, they still may click on it rather than the first organic result if the ad is appealing enough.Swiping leads like this was once considered bad practice, but times have changed. In the Wild West of search engine marketing, you have to take every advantage you can get and not allow other companies to steal your leads for pennies on the dollar. Another consideration is that branded terms are typically affordable, so your competitors are often more than willing to front the money for those potential clicks. More and more consumers are clicking on paid ads as well, so you have to leverage those ads in your favor with branded search.

Branded Search Ads Kick Your Offers Up a Notch

Putting together a press release, a collection of social media posts, or an email blast can take quite a bit of time and effort. Even then, it may only reach a limited audience on your email list or among your social media followers.You want your message to reach EVERYONE interested in what your business has to offer, right? Fortunately, branded search can be used as an effective way to communicate with your audience, especially if you’re running a limited-time promotion.Imagine you’re holding a special promotional discount for a holiday or simply putting on a weekend flash sale. You can use social media and email blasts to alert a portion of your audience, but there is a significant amount of potential customers who don’t follow you on Facebook and aren’t subscribed to your newsletter. They may search your brand keywords, however, and that can open up doors of opportunity. A paid search ad showcasing your special promotion can draw people in because it offers additional incentive. With the added convenience of the ad taking the user directly to the relevant page, a simple paid search campaign can boost engagement and conversions with little effort required.

image courtesy of Blue Corona

Your Brand Terms Deliver Low CPAs

A CPA, or cost per action, is an advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay for specific actions that users make. These actions can include things like making a purchase, clicking a link, signing up for a newsletter, and more.Because of the low risk and high reward, CPA has become one of the most popular pricing models in online advertising.When it comes to branded search keywords, CPA is notably low. This is because CPA pricing is determined by quality score, or how useful the link will be to a potential user. Branded search requires users to search for your branded terms to begin with, and being matched up with your brand boosts the quality score virtually as high as it can go since your brand is the best possible result users can get for that search. That lowers costs for your campaign and increases returns from users clicking on your paid search ads.

Symphonic Will Amplify Your Brand Online

If you want to optimize your search engine marketing strategy with branded search, Symphonic Digital is happy to help. We use performance-driven data analysis to ensure your campaign is not only effective but also sustainable. Remember, don’t turn off brand search if you want to keep competitors away from your branded keywords. Contact us today to learn more about how you can take advantage of brand-specific keywords.