Digital marketing advice – Should I bid on my brand name in AdWords?
This is a question asked by marketers and business owners all the time. Whether you should bid on your brand name in paid search (Google AdWords or Bing Ads for example) depends on a number of things:
- The brand in question
- How well known the brand is
- What the brand’s competitors are doing
- How costly the brand terms are
It’s quite common to see large brands bidding on their own brand keywords when they are already ranking as the top result in the organic search listings. You might ask why the brand would spend money paying for a click on an ad when they are already sitting in the top spot on the page?
Boots.com is a good example of this. A huge UK brand with so much presence online that they are pretty much guaranteed a no.1 spot in the organic search results. They consistently bid on the brand term ‘boots’ to ensure they have a Google search ad in the number 1 spot at all times. What Boots are achieving here is complete ownership of the search results page. They ensure that you see them in the top ad position and the top organic search position. To support this they also rank on the top Google Places position as well as having a brand listing alongside the search results.
This might seem a bit overkill but let’s imagine that Superdrug were bidding on the AdWords brand term ‘boots’ and Boots weren’t. If a user enters ‘boots’ into Google search and Superdrug appear at the top of their search results screen, there is a chance the user might then visit the Superdrug website instead of the Boots site. Depending on their conversion rates and average transaction value, we can assume that Boots might potentially miss out on thousands of pounds worth of business, or even hundreds of thousands of pounds worth. Of course, it helps to be sure that bidding on branded terms will yield a decent return on investment but for a big brand, it makes sense to own the brand terms as much as possible to keep the competitors out of the customers’ view.
Take a look at some of the major UK high street or online retail brands. Many of them bid on their own brand keywords*; ASOS, Clarks, Go Outdoors, Net a Porter, Harrods. By contrast, many don’t and their competitors ads don’t often show; Topshop, Waterstones, Halfords. It’s hard to tell whether the brands who do bid on their brand keywords really need to but we can assume they’ve done the analysis!
AdWords for e-commerce clients
At Slightly Different we have a number of e-commerce clients. The online retail landscape here in the UK is hugely competitive. Bidding on branded terms is always something we are testing and analysing. Most challengingly, the need to bid on branded terms can actually change daily.
One of our health and beauty clients relies on the website we built for them to generate millions of pounds worth of revenue per year.
As we are responsible for their AdWords budget, we are constantly watching the daily spend and keyword costs. Through successful SEO we ensure that our client is number one on Google organic search 100% of the time but we also know that bidding on brand keywords generates high click through rates as well as high conversion rates. If we stop bidding on brand terms, powerful competitors such as Amazon will sit at the number one spot and could drive traffic to their site rather than our clients’- not good.
For really popular brands, problems can arise when multiple large competitors bid heavily on the brand terms. The cost of the branded keywords can go sky high and impact the available budget. It’s an ongoing and ever-changing battle, that’s for sure.
The ROI figures show that it is well worth bidding on branded terms for this particular client but this rule doesn’t apply to all of our clients. Conversion rates for one .org client for example, were no higher when we bid on branded keywords – their AdWords budget was better spent when not bidding on expensive brand terms.
So, should you bid on brand terms or not?
Yes if:
- Your competitors are capturing your traffic with their search ads
- You are in a highly competitive e-commerce market
- You know users are searching for your brand terms but you don’t rank number one or two on Google, Yahoo and Bing
- You test it and it works. Run a brand term campaign in AdWords for two to four weeks and then turn it off for the next two to four weeks. Compare click through rate (CTR), conversion rate, average transaction value and revenue (taking into account any other seasonal or market variations where possible). The results will speak for themselves.
No if:
- You have a little-known brand that is not frequently searched in Google (although this is likely to mean your brand keywords will be fairly cheap anyway)
- You have tested it and you see a negative impact on ROI or conversions
- Your organic rankings are good, you don’t have any online competitors and no other brands are bidding on your brand search terms (this is often true for .gov or established .org businesses)
How do I know if people are searching for my brand term?
There are two simple ways to identify how many users search for your brand term.
- Look in your Google Analytics account. In the left navigation, click on Acquisition > Keywords > Organic. This will bring up the list of available organic keyword data for the selected date range (choose three or six months if you have a low-traffic site). If your brand name appears in this list, you will be able to see how many users arrived at your site by typing your brand name into a search engine. It should be noted that keyword data in Google Analytics is now limited and most organic keywords are now shown as ‘not provided’ so this option won’t give you a complete picture.
- Use the Keyword planner tool in Google AdWords. If you have a Google AdWords account, the keyword planner tool can be one of the most useful weapons in your arsenal (more about that in another blog post). In your AdWords account, select Tools in the top nav > Keyword planner. Select Search for new keyword and ad group ideas in the list and then put your brand terms into the first field. You don’t need to enter any landing page or product category info. Just ensure you have your target location and language set to match the market you are analysing. Click Get Ideas, and AdWords will show you search volume trends for the past few months. The main window will show you a list of Ad group ideas. Click the tab next to this called keyword ideas to get the average number of monthly searches for your brand terms. You will also see the level of competition in the AdWords marketplace and suggested bid. All very useful!
AdWords can be a challenge and it’s not always clear what the best course of action can be for keywords and ad groups. Unless you are looking at the search engine results every day, monitoring competitors and managing your keyword bids, you can never be sure that you are getting the highest possible return for your investment. Using an agency obviously has associated costs but can often save people money in the long term. If you would like help with your Google or Bing ad campaigns, we are happy to advise, manage campaigns or provide training. Give us a call for a friendly chat.
