The Ladder of Accountability
This Infographic Can Truly Empower You Do you ever feel powerless? The first step to empowerment is to have accountability for yourself. At War Room, The Ladder of Accountability is the foundation of our company culture, which allows us to embrace a culture of self-leadership. We know the tasks we are responsible for and also take ownership of the results. It encourages autonomy, problem-solving, collaborating and builds trust amongst the team. We work efficiently and well together because everyone holds each other and themselves accountable. It’s an excellent tool for any company to improve self-leadership amongst their team. We created this infographic as it is an excellent resource for encouraging anyone and everyone to hold themselves accountable, professionally and personally. It comes especially handy when you’re trying to achieve a goal or overcome a challenge. Find out some of its benefits below! How You Can Use It The infographic lets you identify which stage of accountability you’re at. There are a total of eight stages: The bottom four are “Victim Behaviors,” where you do nothing, complain or wait for a miracle — all of which aren’t productive or illicit change. The top four are “Accountable Behaviors,” where you are actively finding solutions and making things happen, in which there are limitless potential and hope. The goal for everyone is to get to the top of the ladder and control our own lives. Accountability is what holds a team together and makes it thrive. Imagine everyone coming together and making it to the top of the Accountability Ladder: that would deliver impactful results for the business. The same framework can be applied in your personal life, too: your relationships improve, your energy is fueled, and you’re ready to take on any challenge. Accountability makes life better, both at work and home. The Ladder of Accountability Download Now
PPC Tips for Travel & Tourism Marketers
These Tips Can Supercharge Your PPC Ad Campaign Strategy COVID-19 has significantly impacted the global tourism industry. As we navigate the pandemic to rebuild the “new normal”, one fact that doesn’t change is having a strong marketing strategy. Being prepared ahead of time helps you bounce back sooner! Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is the best way to capture those who dream of traveling again (trust us; almost everyone is craving a vacation). At War Room, many of our clients are in the travel and tourism industry, and we decided to share some first-hand insights and tips for effective PPC campaigns. The travel industry is competitive, so this resource will show you how to cut through the noise and capture your target audience. Why You Need It Tips For Optimizations Each PPC campaign is unique and requires finessing. Find out how you can optimize your campaign and landing page for better Return On Investment (ROI). Low-Hanging Fruit By learning how to identify the low-hanging fruit from your campaign, you can make the most cost-effective adjustments to drive quality conversions! Savvy Stats We highlight a few consumer statistics that travel and tourism professionals like yourself should keep in mind when building your strategy. 10 PPC Tips For Travel & Tourism Marketers Download Now
7 Metrics to Measure When Running Programmatic Ads
Your programmatic ads are performing well – or are they? The only way to really know is to look at your analytics, and the key ad metrics that help you make better strategic campaign decisions. There may be a lot of metrics to measure, but some are more valuable than others. Too often advertisers focus on the wrong metrics that lead them astray! That’s why today’s post is about 7 extremely important and relevant metrics that will help you make clearer, stronger and better decisions for your next big programmatic campaign. Here is the list of ad metrics we will cover today: Impressions Clicks Conversions Cost Revenue Reach Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) At the end of our blog, we also have a TL;DR version summary if you’re short on time! Impressions Impressions are an important baseline metric, because they help you understand how many times your ad media was displayed in your inventory. They answer the question: How many times has my programmatic creative been displayed? Impressions are not about who has seen your ad. Instead, they‘re about the potential that your ad has to be seen. So you can’t really assign a reliable, quantitative weight to these metrics. This metric isn’t based on an action, but instead acts as a valuable part of calculating other critical metrics that will lead to better campaign performance. The two types of ad impression are: #1: Served – when served content is transmitted it counts as an impression#2: Viewable – when more data is used to understand if a user saw the ad content or not Served impressions are unreliable, while viewable impressions are more accurate. The most vital of the two are viewable impressions because they provide data analysts with actionable performance data for campaign improvement. Clicks Clicks are a performance metric. They answer the question: How many times has my programmatic ad creative been clicked? With programmatic ads, clicks are among the most telling metrics you can measure. It’s not accurate to assume all clicks are intentional, and they certainly don’t all lead to a conversion. But when you combine click and impression metrics, you can calculate actionable percentages that help you make better campaign budget decisions and improve your ad ROI. In Display Advertising, calculating your Click-Through Rate means determining the percentage of people who saw and clicked on your ad. Here is how you can calculate Click-Through Rate: If 3 people saw your ad every 100 impressions, you have a 3% CTR for example. Clicks help you understand ad success when combined with other metric data! Conversions Conversions are a performance metric. They answer the question: How many times have my programmatic display ads converted? Every ad campaign has goals, or actions that advertisers want the consumer to complete because of the ad that has targeted them. Conversions are the ultimate ad metric. You get all sorts of conversions – buy, sign-up, download, comment – these are all measurable actions. The achievement of conversions means the customer is either buying, or has a much higher chance of buying, from your brand in the future. Cost Cost is a financial metric. It answers the question: What did my ad campaign cost? Programmatic ads cost money to run, and the point is to set a budget that secures you the right inventory and target audience. That means measuring cost in relation to many other ad metrics. As you delve into the world of digital advertising, it’s essential to incorporate financial planning and budget tracking tools into your strategy, ensuring that every advertising dollar is spent wisely and aligns with your business’s financial goals. You can measure cost-per-mille, cost-per-click, cost-per-engagement, cost-per-view, cost-per-conversion and a host of other financial metrics you’ll need to understand campaign success. Cost metrics directly influence how you will invest in your next ad campaign. Sometimes you’ll want to target better quality inventory, because your budget parameters didn’t allow you the right inventory in your previous campaign. Your goal is to keep testing to find the right cost levels. These will help you determine your overall Return On Investment. As you delve into the world of digital advertising, it’s essential to incorporate financial planning for SMBs into your strategy, ensuring that every advertising dollar is spent wisely and aligns with your business’s financial goals. Revenue Revenue is a financial metric. It answers the question: What revenue did my programmatic ads generate? With this ad metric, you need to know everything from gross revenue to net revenue. Coupled with your cost metrics you can calculate and refine media, data, agency, tech and other fees – and even streamline your profit margins over time. The most important of these are the overall revenue generated from your campaign, revenue created per visit and revenue created per page (RPM). Reach Reach is a brand metric. It answers the question: How many unique users did my ad campaign reach? Reach is a critical ad metric for understanding how many people your campaign actually reached. Unlike impressions, reach is calculated per person, not per potential view. Reach can be compared with other vital metrics, like CTR, frequency and impressions to better understand ad success. Paid reach often increases viral and organic reach of your unpaid content. Estimating reach can also help control the parameters of a new ad campaign. Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) ROAS is a performance metric. It answers the question: What was the profit created from my current advertising campaign? ROAS, or Return On Ad Spend is a campaign-specific metric that is often used in the same way Return On Investment (ROI) (return-on-investment) is used. Only ROAS measures gross revenue from ad spend and speaks to the current effectiveness of your campaign. ROI tends to focus more on the bigger picture. Read in-depth on the difference between ROI and ROAS on our other blog article, “Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): Explained”. A good ROAS ratio is based on your niche, investment and target audience. Conclusion Programmatic ad placement and benchmarking is part of the campaign process. You’ll have to run several campaigns before you are fully orientated on best practices for your niche and audience. Programmatic ads perform better
The Pros and Cons of Programmatic Ad Buying
Programmatic advertising delivers striking results. There is no comparison to traditional advertising anymore, which is why most of the industry invests in programmatic buying. But…what’s the catch? We’re going to talk about 3 advantages, and 3 disadvantages in clear, easy to understand terms. What are the pros and cons of programmatic ad buying? There are some clear cut benefits that you should know about when dealing with programmatic ad tech, and some poignant disadvantages too. This post is about the pros and cons of purchasing programmatic ads and why it’s become the single most popular method of ad trading online. Here’s the outline of this blog, feel free to scroll down or skip to the section you’re interested in: Programmatic Ad Buying Explained The Pros of Programmatic Advertising The Cons of Programmatic Advertising Programmatic Ad Buying Explained. So, what is programmatic advertising? To help explain the meaning, let’s look at some other definitions. Programmatic ad buying typically refers to the use of software to purchase digital advertising, as opposed to more traditional methods, that involve these processes: Request for proposal (RFPs) Human negotiations Manual insertion orders Basically – it’s using machines to buy ad inventory or space. Programmatic buying describes online display advertising that is aggregated, booked, analyzed, and optimized via demand side software. These Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) use technology to automate processes and they use math to improve results. Programmatic ads are pre-determined algorithms that are programmed to buy ads automatically for the advertiser. “So, it’s like real-time bidding?” Yes and no. Real-time bidding is a form of programmatic ad buying. Real-time bidding is when criteria are automatically matched in an auction-styled environment, and bids for that ad spot (a single impression) are placed. There are certain platforms that will allow you to buy the spot directly without having a bid auction with other marketers. In this case, the buying is still programmatic, but it is no longer real-time bidding. This type of deal is called programmatic direct. Anyway, onto the pros and cons! The Pros of Programmatic Advertising #1: Highly Efficient Before the days of programmatic ad buys, online spots were bought by humans. They would sit at their desk and call up other humans, and bargain and trade money for ad spots. This was slow, and unreliable. Nowadays, algorithms do this for them. It’s like that story where a man spent two weeks creating a program that turned his 40-hour week into a single click of a program – and he spent the rest of his 39 hours doing something else. Programmatic advertising is incredibly efficient. #2: Fast-Developing Technology Every day, the industry changes. It’s getting better, faster and smarter. From the overall structure of ad buys, to how specific targeting can get, to minimizing cost, and finding a better way of communicating with the right audience – programmatic media gets you there in a tenth of the time. Programmatic ads deliver striking results. There is no comparison to traditional advertising anymore, which is why most of the industry invests in programmatic buying at this point in time. How does the saying go? You can’t win the game if you don’t know the rules. Using this form of automated ad buying gives you the chance to find your winning formula, and to grow as the technology develops. #3: Outstanding Return on Investment (ROI) When the hard bits are automated, machines can keep chugging along until your goals are met or your budget runs out. Either way, you save time, maximize your ad spend and get a much higher return on your investment when you use programmatic ad buying. The Cons of Programmatic Advertising #1: Lack of Human Control One of the obvious concerns of ad automation lies with the human element of the process. That’s why different ad agencies produce different results. It takes highly skilled, highly trained programmatic ad professionals to launch, manage and execute successful campaigns. If an agency has bad practices, or inexperienced staff – there could be a host of issues for the advertiser. Ads appearing on low-quality inventory, wasted viewability – or worse – a campaign that succeeds, but doesn’t do it to its highest potential. How would an advertiser know that their money is being wisely spent then? The right team is everything in programmatic advertising. Do you need a marketing agency or advertising agency? #2: Online Traffic Fraud When advertisers pay for views, the general consensus among business parties is that these views should be real views. But many of these views come from bots, and bots aren’t real at all. Some companies create bots that watch videos over and over again. Then, they say, “Hey! Your video got 3000 views. That’s $100.00!” The problem here, is that you aren’t paying for empty views, you’re paying to influence real consumers. Bots don’t buy things. Thankfully, most respectable companies have ways around this these days. #3: Inappropriate Ad Matching A risk of paying for low-quality inventory is that sometimes your ad ends up being next to content, or on a website, you don’t want your brand anywhere near. For example, flight commercials on a news page about an airplane crash are in bad taste and wouldn’t get any conversions. Similar to the online fraud situation, most companies offer something called Brand Safety that helps prevent things like this. Disadvantages of programmatic ads (& how to avoid them)
War Room’s 10 Most Read Blogs in 2020
2020 has been a year of uncertainty. At the end of each year, we like to reflect on what we did and what we’re grateful for. Here are some things we’re thankful for: Foster kittens in the office Growing together closer as a team Working on some awesome campaigns for our clients We’re also proud that we’ve been writing more blogs for the Advertising Institute again! Here’s a look back at War Room’s most-read articles in 2020: Our Top 10 Most-Read Blogs in 2020 We love that the list contains a mixture of educational content about programmatic advertising, marketing tips for COVID-19, and even one about our office culture! #1: The Pros & Cons of Programmatic Ad Buying What are the pros & cons of programmatic ad buying? Let us present you 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages explained in clear, straightforward terms. We want consumers to learn more about Programmatic advertising, both the good and the bad, so you can make an informed decision that works best for your business. #2: What is Programmatic Advertising? Marketers rejoice! This is our cornerstone blog. The question we get asked the most. What exactly is programmatic advertising? Expect easy-to-understand terms and examples in this blog perfect for beginners. #3: Holiday Marketing Tips for 2020 The holiday season in 2020 is not canceled, but moving more to an online, remote model. How do businesses’ navigate their marketing strategy during this pandemic? Here are 13 tips to win in holiday marketing. #4: Why War Room is One of the Most Pet-Friendly Offices in Vancouver War Room prides itself on being an incredibly pet-friendly office. Not only do we have office dogs, but we also foster kittens! Click for cuteness! #5: Will Google Removing Third-Party Cookies Impact My Business? When you first enter a website, whether on your desktop or mobile phone, you are almost always likely to be welcomed with a pop-up window asking for you to agree to the website’s use of cookies and link to their company’s Cookie Policy. #6: How Does Programmatic Advertising Work? Seriously – how does programmatic advertising work? This easy and comprehensive guide teaches you how programmatic ads work on the internet today. #7: What are RTB, Programmatic Direct and Private Marketplaces? What’s the difference between RTB, programmatic direct, and private marketplace advertising? Here’s what you need to know about these 3 ad types. #8: The Differences Between Youtube and Google Keywords What is the difference between Google vs. Youtube keywords, anyway? If you’re using the same keyword terms on both platforms, you need to read this. #9: What is Programmatic Video Advertising Need to understand programmatic video advertising better? Here’s a simple guide on what it is, vital, useful stats, and why it’s an excellent advertising strategy for brands to expand their audience reach! #10: How Covid-19 is Changing Marketing COVID-19 has thrown everyone for a loop. These are challenging times for marketers and consumers alike. The world is changing, and marketing is changing as well, so we wanted to share some insights and tips on how businesses can step back into marketing during a pandemic. This is Part 1 of the 3-part series. Honorable Mentions Aside from our blog, the Advertising Institute also produces additional resources in a variety of formats like infographics. Here are the top two most popular in 2020: Blueprint for a High-Converting Landing Page This infographic will help you build a user-friendly landing page that communicates effectively, and most importantly, has a high conversion rate. Download now! 170+ Power Words For Writing Emotional Ads Here are 170+ words you can start incorporating into your ad copy that can resonate with consumers emotionally to sell more–download today. Got any other topics or resources you’d like to see? Contact us today! We’re always reading the latest digital news to ensure we’re at the top of our game and are happy to create more educational content to add to our library. War Room’s Advertising Institute publishes new content every week. We share insights and tips in digital marketing with a focus on programmatic. You can subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the latest content delivered to your inbox! Sign-up for a Newsletter
What is TikTok?
Hey social media, have you heard about that new kid on the block, TikTok?It’s the most downloaded app in 2020. How did it become so popular? Why did the U.S. president want to ban it? Let us take you on a deep dive into this insanely popular app! Here are the topics we will cover: What is TikTok How Does TikTok Work How TikTok Started & How It’s Going TikTok Statistics TikTok For Business TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by Franck on Unsplash What is TikTok TikTok is a video-based social media app that allows people to create, discover, and share short videos. It is available on iOS and Android. The app’s niche in its earlier stages on music-related video content (like karaoke), but it has evolved to a wide variety of video content, such as: Dance Challenges Tips Magic tricks Comedy and more The company mission of the video platform is: To inspire creativity and bring joy and we’re working on this mission by enabling our users to connect and express themselves authentically. The platform offers a home for creative expression where users can enjoy an eclectic range of immersive, genuine, and entertaining videos – from dance challenges to lip-syncing to DIY tutorials to historical parodies to internet memes. The layout is user-friendly and designed for seamless browsing. It focuses on making video creation, viewing, and sharing easy for the public, which is why it’s become such a hit. When you open the app, videos automatically start playing one by one, which is fun and entertaining to browse through. Because each video is typically 15 to 60 seconds, aka “bite-sized,” it’s easy to consume, and sometimes users end up watching random videos for hours — a prime example of how social media is addicting! The current top genres of video content on TikTok are: Performance (dancing, singing, musical instrument, etc.) Entertainment (comedy, challenges, sketches, etc.) Sports & Outdoors (fitness, workouts etc) Learning (educational content, tutorials, how-tos, etc.) Travel & Leisure Beauty & Style (make-up or hair tutorials, outfits, hauls, etc.) Food (cooking tutorial, recipe, etc.) How Does TikTok Work? TikTok videos can be created directly in the app or uploaded from a different program. If created natively on TikTok, each clip is 4 to 15 seconds long and can be strung into a more extended clip of 60 seconds in total. The time restraint does not apply to videos made elsewhere then uploaded onto TikTok. Like other social media platforms, you can follow other users, like, and comment on videos. The “Discover” newsfeed will have new content for you to browse through. You can also use the search bar or hashtags to find other videos. The app offers an abundance of functions for creating videos, such as: Slow-motion Time-lapse Fast forward Filters V.R. effects Green screen background Songs…etc Once a video is uploaded, users will have the option to share it on other networks like Messenger or WhatsApp. Many users like to crosspost videos on their Instagram accounts to maximize views and the opportunity to gain more followers. How TikTok Started & How It’s Going Now that we know more about what TikTok is and how it works, let’s look at how it came about. It originally started in North America as “musically.ly” and over the past few years evolved to the app we know it as today. When it was musical.ly, it was a karaoke app geared towards teens. In 2017, the Chinese company, ByteDance acquired it and migrated its users and existing content to TikTok. ByteDance also owns Douyin, which is the Chinese equivalent of TikTok. In 2019, it was already the third most-downloaded app around the world, gaining 500 million followers in its first year. Let’s say that 2020 has been an eventful year for TikTok! President Donald Trump wanted to ban the app over the concern that because a Chinese company owned it would threaten U.S’s data privacy, foreign policy, and national security. However, TikTok’s spokesperson had clarified by saying: TikTok is led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the U.S. We have never provided user data to the Chinese government nor would we do so if asked. Many people were even looking for the “new” TikTok replacement if it happened during this uncertainty. We even wrote a blog on it! TikTok ended up persevering and is actually the most downloaded app in 2020. You can definitely say it is here to stay…for now! Video has consistently been the preferred type of media for content consumption. Snapchat, Instagram stories, and now TikTok, the trend is leaning towards bite-sized videos typically under 30 seconds. COVID-19 has made 2020 a strange and uncertain year, with stay-at-home orders, so TikTok was able to fill people’s need for exploration, creation, and connection. TikTok Statistics 90% of TikTok users use the app daily. In 2018, there were already more than 1 million TikTok videos viewed every single day. There is no doubt that the number is continuing to grow. By 2021, it is already forecasted that monthly active users on TikTok will exceed 1.2 billion users worldwide! 83% of TikTok users have posted a video. 92% of users watching video on mobile will share it with others. By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic. Top 10 list of TikTok Creators in 2020 Top 10 Viral TikTok Videos of 2020 The App’s 2020 Pick of Brands & Campaigns That Inspired Them TikTok for Business Because Tiktok is completely video-based, it cannot feature advertising formats like static images, carousels etc, like Facebook or Instagram in the newsfeed. However, because the app is incredibly popular with millions of active monthly users, many business brands consider TikTok as a marketing channel to engage with their audience base. On the TikTok For Business’ website, their homepage slogan is: Don’t Make Ads. Make it interesting. Make a connection. Make a new trend. Make TikToks. The app currently offers different ways businesses can advertise on their platform:
11 Social Media Advertising Statistics for 2021
What are some social media advertising statistics in 2020 that can guide us in 2021? Smart advertisers always look to trends to determine where they should place their ad investment in the year ahead. Ad statistics can help you understand what to do next. This post outlines the 11 most important advertising statistics on social media. It will include keen insights on what social advertising channels are best to invest your money as we move into 2021. Here’s a glance at eleven trends we’ve observed over the year: The Pandemic Has People Using Mobile More Influencers Have Double the Selling Power Celebrities Do Sell More Products Directly From Social Media Ads Sponsored Content will Win Big This Year Social Media is Still the Most Relevant Ad Platform Facebook Ads Have the Most Predictable ROI Your Advertising in 2021 Needs to Be More Diverse & Reflective Video Ads Get Incredible Engagement Rates Targeted Twitter Ads are Welcomed Mobile Video Ads are Where the Eyeballs Are LinkedIn is an Untapped B2B Goldmine TL;DR – What Have We Learned 11 Social Media Advertising Statistics from 2020 2020 has been quite a year! Most B2C and B2B companies had to adapt quickly due to COVID-19. Consumer behavior has also shifted throughout the last 12 months, resulting in significant changes to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media advertising statistics. That’s why we’ve assembled the ones that matter here. #1: The Pandemic Has People Using Mobile More Smartphones have been keeping people occupied and taking their minds off of the pandemic. The average global mobile phone usage increased by a whole 1 hour per day! Because of many city-wide mandates of sheltering at home to stop the spread of COVID-19, people have been turning online to procure groceries and other shopping needs. Many brick-and-mortar stores were forced to shut down and had to pivot online. Many brands had to pause their marketing campaigns or reduce their budget at the early stages of COVID-19, which meant fewer competitors bidding for ad space. Brands that took the opportunity to advertise during this time were able to gain higher engagement rates with their audience online. This resulted in a 15% growth in mobile ad engagement in 2020. #2: Influencers Have Double the Selling Power Celebrities Do 20% of American shoppers have bought something because of an influencer or blogger, while only 10% have bought something because of a celebrity. It’s advertising 101 – sponsor a person with influence, and you’ll sell more products. But no-one dreamed that influencers would work better than top-tier celebrities. There’s something about proximity, connection, and access that makes people really listen to online influencers. #3: Sell More Products Directly From Social Media Ads Of the 63% (two thirds) of consumers that have clicked on a social media advert, 33% made a direct purchase, according to an Episerver survey on cross-channel consumer preferences.Social advertising is still leading the pack in 2021, with influencers selling more products and services from social posts than ever before. These built-in audiences are happy to buy, right from the post itself. What this means is that this year, you should consider more direct advertising messages. You can either work directly with influencers or hire an agency to do all the negotiations for you. #4: Sponsored Content Will Win Big This Year By the end of 2020, Emarketer predicts that advertisers will devote around two-thirds of their display ad budgets to native ads.Native Ads are most commonly found on social media platforms. Native ads are particularly powerful when used in your consumer’s feed or content they’re already consuming on a social network. Investing in content that teaches consumers about your products and services will pay off big time this year. #5: Social Media is Still The Most Relevant Ad Platform According to DataReportal, there’s been a 7.8% (255 million) increase in active social media users across the globe since 2019. Some 46% of global consumers are active on social media sites. If you’ve been concerned about people leaving Facebook and Twitter in droves – don’t be. The social media advertising statistics are clear-cut in this case, and social is still highly relevant. In 2021, launching a diverse, cross-channel social media advertising campaign is an excellent investment. #6: Facebook Ads Have the Most Predictable ROI in Social 93% of all social media advertisers use Facebook Ads on a regular basis. Thanks to programmatic ad targeting, it’s easy to get a decent return on your investment on Facebook. That’s why so many advertisers keep on using Facebook once they begin. To achieve exceptional outcomes, consider hiring a programmatic advertising expert who can optimize your campaigns and analyze your data. It’s harder to get extraordinary results, but you’ll never get there if you don’t have campaign data to review. #7: Your Advertising in 2021 Needs to Be More Diverse & Reflective 61% of Americans believe that diversity in advertising is important. People prefer diversity in your brand advertising. We especially love the article, “Diversity in advertising: the art of being self-aware and giving a damn”. It references a study Google had hired an external non-profit organization to review their advertisements. What the results showed was that there was plenty of racial diversity in their ads, but interestingly enough, not enough diversity in socio-economic status and gender roles. Google reflected on this and was able to create a training course on diversity and 90% of the company completed the course the same year. The biggest takeaway is that it isn’t hard to achieve diversity in advertising. We all need to be aware, empathetic and speak up. By doing so creates a safe and diverse environment, which will encourage us all to call out inequality or lack of representation when we see it. Another example of being reflective is especially important ever since the pandemic hit. Due to the COVID-19, people look for sincerity and genuine kindness and care from a brand perspective. Advertisers had to pivot their ad creatives to fit the current social landscape. Take a look at an analysis of commercials in this pandemic: In 2021,
Do I Need To Bid on Branded Keywords?
Every advertiser that’s running Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns has contemplated the question: “Do I need to bid on my branded keywords”? Typically, we see one of two options when it comes to brand term bidding for PPC keywords. There has been much discussion—and much written—on this topic. (Actually, there are more than 61,500,000 Google results for “should I bid on brand keywords in Google Ads” when writing this.) The reason for the debates are: Those without investment in paid search tend to hesitate to spend money on traffic that could have come for “free.” Those with an investment in paid search tend to prefer the inclusion of high-converting brand terms with high-quality scores in their PPC accounts (and PPC reports). We are here to say: yes, you most definitely should bid on your brand keywords. In this article, we share six reasons why. Read on! Photo by Raphael Nogueira on Unsplash Six Reasons Why You Should Bid On Branded Keywords Here are six key points why we believe every brand that’s running PPC campaigns should bid on branded keywords: #1: If a person is typing in your branded terms in the search bar, they’ve likely got some familiarity with your brand and are therefore closer to a sale/conversion. Whether they heard about you from word-of-mouth or they’ve already been on your site shopping around, some of their questions have been answered, and they’re further into the consumer funnel than someone searching for available product or service terms. But this does not mean our job is done. #2: You can double your visibility to searchers by showing up twice on one Search Engine Results Page (SERP). More than likely, you’re getting the top organic result for your brand, but having a paid ad listing on the first page (and probably in the top few paid positions) reinforces your presence to the searcher. Amplify Interactive posted data back in January (chart below) that showed CTRs increasing by 5.1% when a brand has an organic and paid listing instead of just an organic result.Competitors may try to bid on your branded terms to try and “steal” your traffic to show up for searchers, so this strategy is a good way to combat that and also increase clicks to your own website! #3: Your competition is and will be bidding on your branded terms, so you need to be prepared. While there are restrictions and policies on not allowing competitors to bid on your trademarked terms, there are ways around it. Most advertisers have a campaign dedicated to the practice. You can call and report these competitors for bidding on your terms, but that can take more time than you might think and be a bigger hassle than just bidding on the keywords yourself and doing a better job! #4: Branded terms can help your overall account Quality Score. Due to the high relevancy of your branded terms to your ad copy, landing pages, and your entire website – your branded keywords are probably going to get the highest Quality Scores in your whole account (9’s and 10’s!). Simple math will tell you that adding terms with higher Quality Scores will bring up the average and offset some of your lower scored terms. The healthier an overall account score, the more likely it is that newly added terms could get some Quality Score bump right out of the gates. #5: You can’t capture all searches organically, even with the top organic result. Some searchers prefer to click paid ads, and some who prefer organic results. Traffic received from paid ads is not replicated in organic traffic when there are no paid ads (this means fewer clicks). Even Google recommends not lowering your ad spend to zero if you are planning to reduce your paid ad spend. It’s best to keep the most effective keywords (which may include your branded terms). Look at this infographic, which shows that 85% of all click traffic is lost and not replaced by organic clicks. #6: Branded keywords are generally low-cost. Keywords of your product or service, your industry might have high competition, leading to higher Cost-Per-Click (CPC). Your brand name will have low competition (unless other businesses have the same name as yours), which means lower CPC. Conclusion + Additional Resources In summary: We highly recommend for you to bid on brand keywords. Capture leads that a cost-effective way without having your competitors steal clicks that would have gone to your website. We believe, if you got it, flaunt it! For additional reading, here are some pro-brand bidding arguments raised by our fellow PPCers that are compelling and insightful: Five Reasons to Bid on Branded Terms in PPC by Wordstream Incremental Clicks Aspect of Search Advertising (PDF) by Google Learn more about our advertising services today What Have We Learned? Yes, it would be best if you bid on branded terms in your PPC campaigns. If someone is looking up your branded term online, they have higher purchase intent, which is an audience segment important to capture. If your website’s SEO is good, you’re probably going to rank on the first-page organically for your branded term. Capitalize on your exposure and appear twice by also being on top of the results page with paid ads. Your website, landing page content probably features a fair amount of your branded terms. Because the branded keywords are highly relevant to your content, your PPC Quality Score will be ranked higher! Your competitors will be bidding on your branded terms and try to capture your clicks and leads, so you need to bid on them to be shown to your audience. Even if you rank high organically, Google says if you don’t have the bare minimum amount of paid ads running, you lose a good chunk of clicks. Your branded terms are likely to be less competitive, which means the cost-per-click will be lower.