#2 — Optimize or Create Brand Keyword Campaigns
A lot of companies don’t bid on their own brand terms and create branded ads. In some ways, I understand that… you’ve worked hard to build your brand recognition over the years, and you don’t think you should pay for traffic that is out there searching for you.
But here’s the counter argument:
Unless you absolutely own the market, have incredible brand loyalty, have no intention of generating revenue online, AND none of your competitors both bidding on your brand terms, you absolutely should be bidding on your own terms.
Coca Cola is probably a good example of a company that doesn’t need to bid on their own brand terms. They trust that their customers will find them. Plus, they own pretty much everything above the fold on the search results page. Last, but certainly not least, their core website is not focused on transactions and revenue as they rely mostly on other channels to sell their products.
Constant Contact, however, has plenty of companies lined up on the search results page, just waiting to take that first position should Constant Contact decide to not advertise on it’s own brand term.
The benefits of brand keywords is that – as the brand owner – they are usually FAR less expensive for you to bid on than your competitors. So for pennies a click, you can keep your competitors from diverting interested customers.
There are exceptions to this rule (as there are with most rules), but – generally – it’s one of the first things I look at when optimizing paid search campaigns is to make sure that space is well covered.