During my career in Search Engine Marketing, one question that keeps popping up every now and again from clients is “should/why are we bidding on our branded keywords, we are at the top anyway”. Yes, I don’t disagree with the “at the top” statement one bit, however I fully disagree with not bidding on a company’s own branded phrases. Yes, you may be able to save some money by switching these off or never bidding on them in the first place but I believe there are far more advantages than disadvantages which I have explained below:
1. Page domination
The more you dominate the front page the less likely searcher will get distracted. As marketing is about being everywhere, this is the perfect opportunity. So instead of having 4 listings, why not have 5?
2. Direct traffic flow
Usually the page at the top of the organic listing will be your home page, and that’s perfect for the majority of situations, but what if you have a sale or an important company announcement? By bidding on your own keywords you can direct your traffic where to you want the traffic to go. So if you have a great competition or a new “something” to sell them why not send them through to the most appropriate page?
3. Act like a company
If you are really an established company than act like it. Bidding on your own phrases portraits a professional and established appearance. It says “Hey, we are here to stay, and we are here to help you!” If you are willing to pay money for your customers to click on your ads, it would, at some unconscious level, help strengthen the perceived commitment your brand has to that individual.
4. Making things effortless
In this day an age of Internet-A.D.D the greater ease you add to your customers life the better. Now I know what you are thinking, “what they can’t move their mouse 100 more pixels down the screen?” Well, the answer is “No, No they can’t!” Well they can, but they don’t want to. And if you can facilitate this picometer (one trillionth of a meter, or 0.000000000001m. (for those who didn’t know)) of reduced hassle from their lives they will love you just a few picometers more.
5. Oh no, it’s my competitor
As the AdWords system allows you to bid on almost any keyword you wish, then you can be damn sure that if your company is of any decent size your competitors will be bidding on your branded phrases. Now, If your competitor sees value then you would be crazy not to. This, in addition to your ads not being above theirs if you don’t, should be a big kick in the butt to start bidding. This moves me onto my next point.
6. Increase competitor spend
Anything you can to do to put pressure on your competitor is a win for you and your company, and bidding on your own branded terms can do just that. This is basically due to the fact that if your competitor is bidding on your branded keywords and you are too then you will always rank above them. This means a lower CTR for your competitor and higher cost per click.
Conclusion
So what are you waiting for? Go out there and create your branded keyword ad groups now and start bidding!
Very interesting, although I’m now confused by what you mean by “brand”. If my business name is “AAA Plumbing Services”, then that’s also my brand, right? I didn’t think it was legal for somebody else to advertise “AAA Plumbing Services” via Adwords. There was a case against Google just last year on this, wasn’t there? Google allowed a competitor to have “branded” ads which caused lots of confusion for Google users because it was deceiving.