One aspect of running a Google Ads campaign is choosing the proper keywords. Depending on your campaign, this process could be one of the most important steps in creating your campaign. When we speak about branded keywords, we’re discussing keywords that include your brand name, or a variation of your brand name within the phrase.
A branded search is a search engine query that includes your name or branded keyword. This ultimately produces results involving your name or brand.
The questions that remain are: is it important to bid on your branded search term? What difference does it make if you use branded keywords or non-branded keywords?
In this article, we’ll explain why it’s important to bid on branded search terms and how to do it like a pro.
Let’s get started.
As we briefly mentioned above, a branded search is any query made through a search engine that includes the name of your business or brand. For instance, the search term “Rise Up” may involve other words such as “Rise Up Marketing,” “Rise Up New York,” or “Rise Up Agency.” Whatever the combination of words is a branded search term always includes your brand name.
There can be a variety of different branded keyword term variations you may use for your own campaign.
With these combinations in mind, it’s easy to get lost in your own brand, which could be a problem. After all, unless a user already knows your brand, how would they find you through branded keywords? Let’s take a look at how branded terms relate to search intent.
When a user includes your brand name within a search query, this shows he or she either has already heard of your brand, or knows who you are, and is searching specifically for your company or business.
This tells you that they want to head to our website directly from your advertisement, which highlights the importance of including branded terms in your campaigns. This will directly meet user intent.
For instance, a user searching for “swim gear” could simply be performing a broad research search or comparison shop. However, searchers looking for “Adidas swim gear” are looking for options from Adidas, the brand, specifically, thereby signaling greater intent.
The continuous battle between Quality Score, Conversion Rates, and Clickthrough rates isn’t an old one. The better Quality Score you have, the less you’ll need to pay per each click on your ad. The more visibility your advertisements receive, the more likely you’ll experience more clicks. On top of that, the better your Clickthrough rate becomes, the better your Quality Score will be.
For this advancement in Quality Score, you need to bid on your branded keywords or terms.
PPC brand bidding is the process of bidding on your own branded keywords or terms. This allows your ads to appear in SERPs (search engine results pages) once a user enters the related keywords in a Google search bar.
Why would someone spend money positioning specific terms that already show up organically on top of SERPs? Doesn’t it seem like a significant waste of energy, time, and money?
However, the truth is, there are many good reasons to do this:
Anyone could potentially bid on your branded terms. The reason why someone would do this is to take advantage of your matured reputation and boost their own visibility in the process. This is why it’s vital to protect your branded terms from the competition by being the first to bid on them. This will allow you to maintain control over your identity and reputation.
If you want more control around the brand messaging for your eCommerce store, leveraging branded keywords will help your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Even if your online shop appears on the first page of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), placing bids on your branded terms gives you greater control. You can become crafty with your messaging to drive a higher Clickthrough rate (CTR) on your promotion or product pages.
PPC ads that contain branded searches enable you to link out to more landing pages. This allows you to direct customers who are already interested in your brand, towards certain pages. This, therefore, increases the amount of control you have on traffic management, boosting traffic towards specific promotions, deals, or community participation.
As we’ve discussed, your competitors can bid on your branded keywords to help trigger his ads with help from your reputation against your keyword which he can get the benefit of advertising online.
If your competitors have already begun to bid on your brand keywords, you’ll start driving up the bid price on those branded terms once you start bidding as well. Furthermore, your ads will receive an increased quality score, due to the fact that your brand using your brand keyword will make your ads more relevant. This increase in quality score generates higher CTRs, better ad positions, and ultimately, forces your competitors to react. Typically, competitors can respond in one of two ways:
However, even if competitors are hitching a ride by using your brand name in their keywords, they’re using only a small percentage of the options which are available to you. This is because branded keyword phrases or terms, specifically for new or smaller eCommerce businesses, cost a lot less to bid on. For you, this guarantees a lot more exposure for every dollar you spend, which therefore leads to a higher return on investment (ROI).
A professional SEO strategy demands consistency, time, and a whole lot of patience. That means bidding on your own branded keywords stands as a faster way to highlight yourself online. The only aim you should have here is building a successful Google Ads campaign with your branded keywords as your foundation.
Many advertisers have services or products that don’t perform as well as planned. When this happens, you can help increase the products’ visibility by brand bidding.
Brand terms are typically cheaper than other keywords and tend to come with a lower CPC (cost-per-click), compared to non-brand keywords. If you’ve already lost money on a service or product, this tactic is worth a shot. You may even notice a revenue lift through bidding on these specific keyword terms.
Your competitors might have damaged your online brand reputation. With advertisements, you are equipped with the option to present your brand to users who search for it by using the message and language you believe represents your brand the best.
This is particularly useful if you’re experiencing negative SERP results that have been damaging your brand reputation. Bidding on your branded keywords may help you overcome this negative cycle.
Particularly, if you’re facing a reputation-based crisis, brand ads can bring audiences to a particular landing page that provides the most appropriate and relevant message currently for the business.
Your online store visibility is a core pillar to eCommerce success. By placing bids on branded phrases and keywords, you not only increase your online visibility but the number of links you share with your customers.
Google has limited space on its first page and search ads. However, by using branded keywords, you can protect your space in these areas. For mobile phone searches, that offer even less screen space, branded keyword bids are especially crucial for visibility.
Users searching for your products or store name are dedicated shoppers. They already know your brand and are looking to make a purchase. This means you’re more likely to win clicks through branded campaign keywords. By placing bids on your branded terms and showcasing your brand in front of this audience, they become high-quality leads – instantly.
High-quality leads result in highly targeted traffic and, therefore, higher conversions.
As branded keywords tend to have high search volume and low competition, they come with the added bonus of a relatively low CPC. This makes bidding on your branded terms an easy way to gain more leads. Make sure you don’t just use your company name, however you can bid on your product names as well.
These terms won’t only be wallet-friendly, but they’ll also generate your highest Quality Scores and clickthrough rates.
Users who have searched for your brand through a SERP is well aware of your brand. So, by bidding on your brand terms, you’ll be increasing your brand awareness in a way that encourages potential customers who have engages with you in the past to revisit your site for more purchases in the future. You can explore on key metrics to measure brand awareness in PPC Advertising.
Branded searches are done for different reasons. Many of these queries come from users who have previously interacted with your services or products in the past and are searching for customer service.
That means bidding on branded keyword terms such as “[your brand name] + support” or “contact details [your brand name] make these queries highly intentional. This is the same guideline for informational branded queries. Always keep in mind that customers may need to search for instructional and how-to queries involving your brand, and they should always be able to find useful information – with ease.
There are many different types of brand searches. From transactional searches to informational branded ones, purchase-oriented to research-driven searches, the options are vast. Make sure to segment your branded terms before you bid on them. This will allow you to cover different types of queries, along with services and products that are popular with customers.
You must have essential knowledge for effective keyword research and make sure bidding on branded keywords as opposed to non-branded keywords can not only be more cost-effective but may also lead loyal, authentic customers directly to your landing page. These customers are valuable because they’re specifically looking for your product or service. Having an audience that includes more dedicated, engaged customers not only leads to higher conversion rates for your company in the short-term but also improves customer lifetime value (CLTV) in the long-term.
The best way to ensure your campaign succeeds with branded keywords is by pairing our Branded Keyword Guide with a professional campaign builder.
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