Do I Need a Pay Per Click Branding Campaign?

MoreVisibility - August 1, 2007

Many advertisers dislike the idea of paying for their company name due to the fact that they already receive good natural positions in the search engine result pages (SERP’s). However, we recommend implementing a branding campaign within our Search Engine Marketing (SEM) programs. And here are the reasons why:

Setting up a branding campaign is always beneficial to gain exposure and recognition. Branding is not necessarily about traffic, clicks or conversions. Similar to offline advertising, the purpose of branding is being seen by as many eyes as possible. Think of it more as a traditional way of advertising, similar to newspapers and magazine advertising, only you can usually get it less expensively with search engines.

Branding will increase your online presence and help searchers associate relevant products and services with your name. Try to type in your company name and study the results. You will most likely find yourself organically in good positions, but you will probably notice that your competitor’s ads are located on the sponsored side. Your competitors are biding on your name and your product names. By placing your ads on the sponsored side you will be covering yourself and ensuring that nobody bites into your share of the search engine marketing pie.

Creating a branding campaign and bidding higher than your competitors on your own name will help you increase your positioning. Bid on your competitor’s names. Although it may seem odd, it is perfectly acceptable and will help you stay on top of the game. One strong advantage of a branding campaign is that the keywords are usually a bargain because they are very specific and have a low search volume. Another method is building a campaign using your domain name, common misspellings of your brand or company name, and navigational type searches for your name.

Remember, your goal is to strengthen your online presence and any term that is related to you may help.