Why Buy “Branded® Terms” as Advertising Keywords? Three Good Reasons
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Written By Reprise Media | February 3, 2006 | Share This
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It is common for advertisers who are unfamiliar with search engine marketing to question the use of branded terms in their campaign. The perception is that buying branded terms is superfluous because users who search for a particular brand have already acknowledged its existence, and therefore would more likely make an online purchase on their own through the organic search listings.
Such arguments may be sound but untrue; furthermore, advertisers will miss a significant number of sales opportunities if no branded terms are purchased. Here are three reasons why:
1. Clickz summarizes a study conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings, which reported that there is a significant difference on core brand metrics movement depending on the placement of text ads. And in a separate Marketing Metrics Guide study by MarketingSherpa, click-thru rates increased by as much as 500% when an advertiser appeared in both paid and organic listings. Numbers like those are nothing to sneeze at.
2. Relying on organic listings alone can be insufficient. An organic listing may not appear for every branded term, nor will it necessarily appear as the highest ranked listing on the first page. In addition, competitors may take advantage of your inaction by buying your branded terms out from under you and having their ads appear at top positions in searches for your brand. Statistics from this Pew Internet & American Life Project study say that 62% of web-users cannot tell the difference between paid and organic listings; therefore, it is likely that savvy competitors are taking potential customers away from you. Alleviating these concerns is simple: beat the competition to the punch by purchasing branded terms.
3. As Google and Yahoo now require paid listings to be more relevant than ever, my experience is that using paid listings simplifies my quest when making an online purchase. For instance: in the past, if I was purchasing a DVD, I would search for “dvd” and read through all the organic and paid listings to view my options. Today, if I know I want to purchase from Amazon.com, I simply type in “dvd amazon” and click on the first paid listing, which happens to be Amazon’s since they’ve purchased their branded terms; I then proceed directly to their landing page for DVDs. By purchasing their brand, they have allowed me to bypass multiple steps and made it easier to find my movies. As user behavior has changed over time, paid listings in search engines have become a short cut, allowing those “ready-to-buy” customers a quick and easy way to your site.
If you ask me, buying branded terms for your campaign is a no-brainer.
Topics: SEM: Paid Search |