Bidding on your brand (July 2008)

Hello! Welcome to another Webfly podcast.

Webfly is the antidote to search engine marketing jargon. A techno-blog without the techno-babble. The place to find real business information you can use and the place to catch up on the real Internet news.

This is the second in a series of Webfly White Papers designed to help you get to grips with the key issues. In this podcast we are going to tell you everything you need to know about Bidding on your Brand and, believe me, you need to know…

OK. So why do people bid on brand names?

Bidding on brand names is simple economics. Or should that be simple statistics?

A study, undertaken in 2006 by 360i and SearchIgnite, looked at the effectiveness of branded versus and non-branded terms by tracking over 3.9 million users and 5.1 million clicks. Their findings make interesting and compelling listening:

Firstly, the more times a consumer clicks on a marketer's ad, the more likely that a consumer is to convert. In fact, consumers who click a marketer's ads ten times are three times as likely to convert as consumers who click an ad only once.

What's more, conversions also rise as consumers enter more unique keywords, with consumers who enter multiple unique keywords accounting for 8.39% of the sample studied, but they accounted for 19.2% of transactions, supporting the ‘long tail of search’ concept.

So what does this mean?

Basically, it means that more of your customers click on ads that include brand names they know, and customers are also drilling down into the search by using more and more specific words or word strings , this includes brand names, generic terms and combinations.

Hence, it follows that to be successful you need to create ads with brand names that people will therefore click repeatedly. Simple!

This is all well and good but what is a brand name?

In terms of keywords, brand names are the name of a company, person, website, product or trademark, for example: “Johnstone Health” or “Johnstone Toothbrush.”

But what about Navigational searches?

This term comes from people trying to ‘navigate’ the internet by typing brand names or parts of a web address or all of it into the search box. For example, people searching for books will type Amazon, Amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk.

There is hard evidence that this type of search is becoming very popular as people return to sites they know and trust and try to cut through the clutter.

How does bidding work?

Let's start at the beginning. All the main search engines allow pay-per-click advertising. Individual pay-per-click ads are triggered to display only when a person types a specific set of words into the search engine. These keywords are chosen and input by the ad owner on set-up and the owner ‘bids’ an amount of money to display the ad. Generally, the more money the owner bids the more often the ad will be displayed for that keyword or sets of keywords. Plus the greater the bid, the higher up the page, or pages, the ad will display.

Google Trademark Policy Change

On 5 May 2008, Google put a cat amongst the pigeons by changing its policy to allow companies to add trademarked brand names to their list of keywords in their pay-per-click AdWord campaigns.

Today, you can choose any word, trademarked or not, to trigger the display of your ad. That means you can set up an AdWord that targets big global brands and their products in any sector, for example Coca Cola, Shell, iPod, and Gucci. However, you still can't use the name of the brand in your ad text, unless you have permission from the brand's owner - but you can use it as a keyword. You can also bid on your own company or product names on Google and also on Yahoo and MSN.

What's all the fuss about?

The fuss is mainly coming from the large global brands. No surprise there then! Basically, up until now their brand name or products have been a closed shop in advertising terms in the UK. Only select suppliers have been allowed to use their brand names as keywords but now the floodgates have been opened and anyone can add these names to their keywords.

In the US, where bidding on trademark terms is already allowed, brand owners are seeing up to 7.6% of brand search traffic being redirected to competitor or other websites equivalent to millions of searches every single day!

Some companies have already made a stand. Tesco has announced that it will not bid on rivals' names. Louis Vuitton, hot on the heels of a legal victory in France, has launched a lawsuit in the European courts in an attempt to protect its trademark across the continent. And Thomas Cook is considering legal action and has already terminated the contracts of five partners – travel agents or affiliates – who have bid on brand names associated with the company.

Why should I bid on brand names?

The most obvious answer is sales. If your ad is triggered by a product brand name then you could increase sales of that item. Known as ‘conquesting’, having your brand or products displayed next to your competitors' is an old real-world trick.

But there is another vital reason to bid on brand names: To build brand exposure. By being seen on screen in conjunction with a well-known brand you become associated with that brand; positioning your company, raising your profile, building trust, credibility and increasing your long-term prospects.

What about my own brand name, should I bid on that?

Yes, bidding on your own brand name or product names can be equally profitable. However, unless you already have an established or growing market for your services or products it could be a waste of money, so monitor your campaigns closely. If your competition is using your brand to trigger its own ads then you need to jump in.

Building your profile by bidding

Bidding on brand names can be profitable, but when you're creating a long-term strategy that will help you create a buzz and build your brand think laterally – it's about much more than just bidding on brand names. So here are a few things to consider when bidding:

Slogans, typos and alternative spellings

High profile slogans or straplines are used as search terms along with alternative spellings and misspellings. Large globals are getting clever, creating print and TV ads that use only visuals along with strong straplines, slogans and sometimes just domain names without displaying the product just to draw people in.

Competitions, Conferences, Trade and Public Events

Whether you're attending or not; putting in an entry or not; your competitors, customers and other attendees will be searching for that trade or public event, conference or competition, and if you have won something, shout about it! We all do on our websites, so why not link your name to an award in your pay-per-click advertising?

Generic Industry Terms and Branded Terms

Generic terms are often overlooked in pay-per-click ad campaigns but they can be vital. Think about it: When we search we often start with the first thing that pops into our head, for example ‘Channel Tunnel’ when we mean Eurostar. Generic and branded terms play an important role in the way people search.

Names of your key staff

People do search on real names. Especially if you have a high-profile person in your organisation or they’ve just been featured in the press. Remember people are naturally nosey!

Your domain name and your competitors' domain names

Always add your domain name and those of your competitors plus various spellings into your bidding strategy. As demonstrated by the statistics people do love navigational searches and do type domain names directly into the search box.

Get yourself a good landing page!

Finally, don't just set up a targeted pay-per-click ad, spend the money on bidding and then let it go straight to your home page. Set up a tailored landing page for each ad that will give people the info they expect when they click your ad.

Most importantly take advice!

Bidding on brand names should never be your whole strategy. Building profitable long term PPC campaigns requires time, patience and expert help.

Bidding on your brand could help you attract new customers, increase your brand awareness and boost profits. It could be the best thing that ever happened to your business. But only if you play the game!

For further information and more visit the webfly blog at www.webflyblog.com