How Branding and Search Marketing Work Hand in Hand
“Why do I need to pay for clicks on my brand name?”
Does this question sound familiar? The reasoning for asking this question usually follows shortly after and sounds something like, “If they’re already searching for me, won’t they just click my natural search listing?” Clients ask this question far too often, and as tough economic times continue, I’m sure it will be asked with more and more frequency.
This week at SMX West, my typical response to this question was further vindicated by a Search and Branding panel of industry experts. I heard a lot of interesting viewpoints, some familiar to me and others new.
On the familiar side, Michael Kahn kicked off the panel by stating that not purchasing branded paid search keywords increases the likeliness that your competitors will profit from your name. This is not a new concept. In 2006 Hitwise released a study announcing that 85% of branded searches land on your site while 15% of that traffic goes to your competitors. Without even reading that particular study, I am able to confirm that statement based solely on the fact that some of my clients’ best performing keywords are their competitors’ names.
Michael and Scott Edwards made the other obvious but still very important point that if you fail to capture traffic from searches on your branded terms, you’re losing money on all your other marketing efforts. This boggles my mind when clients don’t get it — you’ve spent thousands (maybe tens of thousands or even millions) of dollars on print ads, TV commercials, attending trade shows all year, etc., but you’re not willing to spend a few dollars on a click to convert the interest you generated into a potential sale? Pepsi apparently missed out when they spent oodles promoting their Super Bowl ad on YouTube, but didn’t purchase any paid search ads.
Other notable points mentioned on this panel include:
- Receive a better return on non-branded terms when you have paid and natural search visibility on branded terms.
- One panelist stated that 39% of searchers rely on Google results to identify the industry leaders. Subsequently, it makes sense that if someone sees your company name appear more than once on Google, then that reinforces the user’s impression that you have a brand that can be trusted.
- Reinforcement of using branded search terms as a barometer for marketing efforts across platforms. The number of branded search clicks you receive can give you insight into the evolution of your brand and market share.
- MTV uses search query research to determine how their brand is evolving. By the nature of their product, MTV has learned the other important thing I tell my clients: the best keywords don’t project your marketing message, but rather reflect what the user calls your product. Where better to get that information than from search queries?
The most interesting part of the panel for me was hearing Stuart Meyler talk about increasing brand messaging awareness in traditional brand metrics by using paid and natural search. General Electric has partnered with Google on a soon-to-be-released case study revealing that top PPC and SEO positions increased the brand recognition of GE’s ties to renewable energy by 70%. Meyler’s hypothesis on the reason for the growth was that paid and natural search increases the frequency of exposure to a concept, and consequently have a direct impact on awareness.
Overall, the panelists gave insightful presentations. Thanks to SMX West and the Search and Branding panelists for providing significant material to help win the ongoing “why do I have to pay for my own name” battle with clients.
