Bidding on Your Own Company Name in AdWords

One PPC strategy that often causes some trepidation amongst advertisers is the decision about whether or not to bid on their own company name and other related brand terms.  It is a common argument that if a user is typing in a specific company name, then they will already be able to find this business at the top of the organic search results.

So why do you need to advertise on these terms as well?

Consider this – What if by relying solely on your organic search listing, you may in fact be turning some of your potential customers away?

Below are our top 8 reasons why bidding on your company name is an effective search engine marketing strategy that can help increase conversions, ROI and your brand presence on the web.

1. Attention, Interest, Desire, AdWords

It is important to remember that Google AdWords clickers are different to Google Organic Search Result clickers as they are generally at a different stage of the consumer decision making process. We have found that, in many cases, users who click on the organic search results are more likely to be in the research or ‘interest’ stage of the buying process, whereas users who click on sponsored links (like Google AdWords), are more likely to be purchase ready customers.  If you don’t have an active ad catching these purchase ready consumers, your competitors may be winning customers who are in fact searching for you!

2. Because Your Competitors Are

Under most circumstances, your competitors are allowed to bid on your branded keywords. You can submit a copyright infringement request to Google for some more specific brand terms but there is no guarantee this will go through. Depending upon local advertising regulations, competitors are generally allowed to use your brand name in their ads (through ‘comparative advertising’) so it is important that you compete in this advertising space if your competitors already are. Do a Google search now and check if there is anyone else advertising on your brand terms!

3. It’s Cheap

A common misconception is that bidding on your company name is a waste of your PPC advertising budget because your website is already in the organic search results for free. This is simply not true. Using your company name as a keyword is actually a cost effective method to ensure you maintain a very high click through rate at a very low cost per click. Brand terms are generally much cheaper than other keywords in your industry vertical (depending on how competitive your industry and how specific your brand terms are). The benefits of running a brand terms campaign often outweigh the  extremely small costs involved in doing so.

4. Increases Campaign Quality Score

The high click through rate that advertising on your brand terms receives will help boost the position of your ads in your other ad groups by increasing the overall click through rate of your account and, therefore, increasing your overall quality score.

5. Control Your Message

AdWords ads offer personality for your brand where you can feature your latest products, promotions or brand messages. The personalised ad text gives you the opportunity to control the message so you can communicate directly with your customer. This engages the customer by offering more relevant information and landing pages. Your ads may even attract more clicks than your organic results. For example, if you are an ice cream store running an offline advertising campaign that promotes a free ice cream for all customers who download a special online coupon in the month of June, an integrated AdWords strategy would allow you to capture users searching on your brand terms and send them directly to your coupon landing page or micro-site whilst reinforcing the offline advertising messages in the AdWords ads themselves.

6. Website Relevance

AdWords can boost sales for your business by capturing the market segment in ‘buying mode’ and ensuring these users are quickly directed to the most relevant page in your website, bypassing your home or other irrelevant pages that may frustrate or confuse buyers.

7. Misspelling Your Company Name

If your business name is not well known or difficult to spell, bidding on likely misspellings ensures your company name, and the users intended search, is listed.

8. Increase Your Online Branding and Search Engine Real Estate

If your business has an organic search listing (or listings) and an AdWords ad when a user types in your company name, then your business occupies more physical space on the Google search page. The more physical space you occupy, the more visible your website.

All these factors are why we generally recommend bidding on your own company name in AdWords.

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