At Media Two we often encounter the question, “Why would I pay for clicks on my brand own name [via paid search ads] when I come up organically in the first position?” For some, this strategy seems like a waste of ad spend that “doubles up” on SEO efforts. In reality, bidding on your brand name has several great benefits for businesses.
Protecting Your Brand From Competitors (as much as possible)
Your competitors are bidding on your brand terms, why let them control the conversation about your business?
In the below example, a search for Marketo pricing reveals a conquesting competitor encroaching on Marketo’s “brand plus” keywords, even showing an ad above Marketo’s in the results. Additionally, a second advertiser is bidding on the brand name with ad copy suggesting a lack of transparency in Marketo’s pricing model.
While still present in the paid listings, Marketo is likely losing a percentage of clicks to these advertisers.
Which brings us to benefit number 2…
Control The Conversation
By bidding on your own terms you ensure that, regardless of what your competition is saying (or suggesting) about your brand, you also have share of voice in the conversation.
Search engines will enforce a brand’s registered trademark restrictions in ad copy, but will stop short of preventing another advertiser from bidding on your name as a keyword. If you’re not bidding on your own terms, you’re ceding this SERP real estate to your competition and allowing your competitors an opportunity to control your narrative and steal your traffic.
Further, brand bidding gives you a much greater degree of control to highlight any special promotions, exclusive pricing, new products and their feature/benefits with the use of ad extensions that are not available for organic site listings. In the case of a limited-time sale, bidding on your brand name allows you to call out the sale to interested users in a way that SEO efforts won’t be able to match in time.
Cheaper CPCs, Higher Conversion Rates & ROAS
Media Two reviews Brand vs Non-brand keyword performance regularly. Below is a data summary across multiple Media Two clients during a 45-day period in 2019:
| CPC | ROAS | |
| Brand | $0.12 | 7,621% |
| Non-Brand | $5.51 | 614% |
| % Difference | +4,492% | -92% |
Generally, search engines will grade your brand terms with much higher relevancy compared to non-brand terms. Additionally, CTRs on your brand terms will typically be much higher. Higher relevancy and higher engagement will manifest as very inexpensive CPCs by comparison and, with proper conversion tracking applied, higher conversion rates and return on ad spend.
If your digital marketing strategy does not include bidding on your brand name via paid search, you’re quite likely losing out on engaged customers ready to convert, while providing an opportunity for others to re-write your story.
