Should I Bid on My Own Brand Names in PPC?

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Written By Robert Dunford
I am a Marketing Consulting in the Great Toronto Area with over 25 years experience in building and implementing marketing plans for small business.

Though it may be easy to begin using and experimenting with Pay Per Click ads, there is a learning curve. According to Wordlead, PPC ads have a 200% average ROI, but some businesses are doing even better than that. To receive above average ROI when using PPC, your knowledge should extend beyond the basics of paid search.

One of the things to keep in mind is branding PPC – the practice of businesses bidding on their own brand name and keywords. Some marketers believe this shouldn’t be done, but others disagree. Let’s have a closer look at why businesses bid on their own brand names and whether or not that is a good practice for Pay Per Click ads:

Are Brands Automatically Ranking First for Branded Searches?

There’s an opinion among marketing circles about whether or not branding PPC makes sense. In theory, a brand should be able to always rank first for any branded searches, without having to bid on branded keywords. After all, any traffic coming from searching for a specific brand should, by definition, be theirs. But is that always the case?

Unfortunately, even though it technically is Google’s job to give people what they’re searching for, there’s the issue of PPC ads – and other people being able to bid on any keyword they can afford, including your branded keywords. This can create some interesting bidding wars, where a brand that doesn’t do branding PPC loses.

Bidding on Branded Keywords as a Defensive Move

Branded traffic should be organic, but if the competition is stiff, neglecting your branded keywords in PPC can cost you. As we know, today’s business arena is highly competitive, so the need for defensive tactics comes as no surprise. However, bidding on a competitor’s branded keywords isn’t new.  

Companies first began doing it over a decade ago, causing their competitors to lose a huge portion of their organic traffic. To stop competitors from doing this, businesses had no other choice but to start bidding on their branded keywords themselves. Google benefits from these bidding wars, which is likely why the practice has endured for so long.

Other Benefits of Bidding on Branded Keywords

However, bidding on your branded keywords isn’t only good as a defensive tactic. If you check whether other businesses are bidding on your keywords and find that they aren’t, it might still be beneficial for you to do it. PPC ads provide a great, effective funnel to drive traffic to optimized landing pages, which will certainly improve conversion.   Even if you aren’t losing organic traffic, you could gain some paid search traffic and conversions.

PPC ads are a great way to drive traffic to your website, but it takes some time to optimize them properly. If you wish to start enjoying good results for your business faster, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d love to discuss your marketing strategy and help in any way I can.

Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Greater Toronto Area with over 20 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.

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