Are you thinking about buying your brand keyword for a search ad campaign? If you (or the digital marketing agency that manages your ads) is bidding on your brand keyword, you might want to consider if this is a good strategy for your business. What are the benefits of this strategy and are there any potential drawbacks? What is the reasoning as to why you think you should buy your brand keyword? Ok, wait. We’ll help you out! Just keep reading and we will guide you through 4 scenarios when buying your brand keyword might make sense. We will also point out things you should consider before moving forward with this strategy.
A Competitor Is Buying Your Keyword
Many business owners Google their own brand name (sometimes a little too often) to see how they appear in searches. This can be helpful when you have a lot of competition in your market, and it can also let you know if a competitor is bidding on your brand keyword in their search ad campaigns. Google does not allow the use of trademarked brand names in the ad copy of other brand accounts unless prior authorization for use is given by the trademark owner. However, anyone can include competitor brands as keywords in their digital ad campaigns. If a competitor is buying your brand keyword you should probably start to bid heavily on it as well as get a little creative with your ad copy so that your ad stands out above the rest when people search.
You Want to Own the Market
Perhaps competitors are NOT bidding on your brand name, your website has great SEO so it appears at the number one spot on search results pages, but you want to absolutely OWN all branded website traffic and don’t care what it might cost to do so. A brand with deep pockets might consider this an option. Brands on a budget might want to consider holding off on paying for branded clicks.
Your Brand is a New Business
New businesses might want to consider a few different options when trying to decide if paying for branded search traffic is a solid strategy. If your website is properly optimized for local searches, it will bring in branded traffic organically allowing you to focus on paid search keywords for the specific products or services your brand offers. Since all competitors will be bidding on these specific keywords, the average cost for each of them will be much higher and you will want every bit of your budget available to outperform the competition.
You Recently Rebranded
If your company recently went through a rebrand, especially one where the brand name changed, you might want to consider buying the related keywords for both the new and old brands. Similar to buying keywords for a new business, buying your brand keyword after changing the name of the brand can help supplement branded traffic while search engines “catch up” with the name changes across the internet. In a previous article we wrote about rebranding, we provided a checklist that helps to keep track of the various places across the internet where you will want to make name changes. It can take a few months for search engines to realize that your old brand is now your new brand and buying both keywords can ensure that there is no lapse in online lead generation.
Like any business decision, it’s good practice to consider the pros and cons before moving forward with a plan. Not every situation is the same and when trying to decide upon buying your brand keyword, the answer is, “It depends.” It is best to dive into the data and make educated decisions based on facts rather than emotion and gut feelings.
Choosing and tracking keyword performance during marketing campaigns is crucial for optimal performance. If you are questioning the strategy and performance of your brand’s search campaign, Brand Ranch Media can help by taking the guesswork out and providing data-driven decision-making. Give us a call at 713-309-6380 to discuss or shoot us a message via our contact form today.
