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).
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.
#4: Branded terms can help your overall account Quality Score.
#5: You can’t capture all searches organically, even with the top organic result.
#6: Branded keywords are generally low-cost.
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
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.
