Budget cuts might force many marketers to stop bidding on their brand terms, but this can be the biggest mistake that they make. Undoubtedly, such a strategy would be a quick and easy way to limit the spending of resources; however, the negative impact of this step on the performance of a search engine marketing (SEO) campaign can be quite drastic. One can identify as many as seven reasons for brand owners to continue bidding on their brands and trademark terms even during recession to ensure the greatest returns from their SEO campaigns.
Control the marketing message: You can control the marketing message that the visitors see by entering the auction for your brand and trademark terms. If you are not a part of the auctioning process, the way your brand is represented in search engine results would be controlled by the resellers and affiliates. More often than not, this would not be aligned with the branding objectives that you have in mind. The dynamic quality of a paid search ad would obviously be missing in a top natural listing. On the contrary, you can engage your customer using the latest promotion or customer focused messaging in a paid search.
Go with the policy changes: Google’s trademark policy has been updated since June 15th and now the advertisers can buy trademark terms that they do not own and also use then in their ad copy, even without the explicit permission of the trademark owners. This change has made it imperative for brand owners to display ad copy on their trademark terms. The fact that you are not bidding on your trademark terms does not mean that your competitors would also follow your example. Other advertisers, and sometimes even your competition, can display relevant ad copy capturing the searcher’s attention, and stay ahead in the market dynamics.
Check out what affiliates are doing: Many a times, your affiliates would not hesitate in making a quick buck by bidding your brand name in paid search. They could go for geo-targeting on your live brand ads, or sometimes even try and out bid you. The affiliates could be bidding with your permission; and you would have to decide whether it is in your interests to allow them to own these terms in the present moment. You would also have to think about the time when you would want to join the auction process in the future.
Drive conversions the right way: Bidding on trademark terms can drive conversions for one. It would also provide you with avenues to conduct research on the marketing messages that go well with your customers. You could check out whether your target customers respond better when you appeal to their emotions, their judgment, or their spending capabilities. If promotional messaging is working wonders, does free shipping or a discount ensure the maximum number of conversions? You can set up a simple ad copy test using your brand terms. Once you have an idea on the messages that have the maximum appeal amongst customers, half the battle is won. You can then apply these messages in other online marketing channels such as email marketing, affiliate marketing, and display advertising.
Align your marketing message across channels to capture maximum traffic: PPC brand ads complement other types of marketing efforts such as display advertising. According to a recent study being conducted by iProspect on the integration of display and search advertising, around 27% of people responding to online display ads also search for the product or service featured in the advertisements. When you are not advertising on your brand terms in a paid search auction, you could miss out the benefits of display advertising.
Assess your cost advantages: You could be saving incrementally by pausing your brand terms; this might not however offset the loss of revenue – more so when the average CPC for brand terms is low. The brand with a top organic position might not always get a click and the overall site traffic including SEO revenue could be adversely affected, when you pause your brand terms.
Assess your long term objectives: If you are abandoning your auction due to budgetary constraints, you might have to pay higher CPCs in the future, when you decide to enter the auction again. Your competitors, sellers, and affiliates can take advantage of your absence and bid on your brand and trademark terms to improve their quality scores. In the future, auctioning on your brand and trademark terms could be a more expensive proposition.
The bottom line is that eliminating paid search on trademark terms could work out in the short term for most brands. On the long run though, the brands can enhance their overall campaign performance to a significant extent by advertising on these terms. Smart marketers would be bidding on them, even when the marketing budgets are tight.
