Measuring incremental sales from paid brand search

Hi J,

Yes, there is a way to partially measure that in AdWords, it is called "Attribution" (formerly called "Search Funnels"), and to properly measure it requires a technique called attribution modeling.

One thing to keep in mind is that the results of Branding campaigns need to measured across a range of marketing channels, this type of measuring is usually referred to as "Multi-channel attribution". If you are using Google analytics you will find multi-channel reports that will help you gain even more attribution data on your Branding campaigns.


Not all effects of branding campaigns can be directly measured

The nice thing about those reports is that you are getting directly measured results that can be attributed to a specific AdWords campaign. There are many other benefits from Branding campaigns that cannot be directly attributable, however they are certainly contributing value and can be indirectly measured and estimated values can be attributed to your branding campaign. For example, you can measure the change over time in the number of branded searches, and allocate a percentage of that growth to your branding campaigns.

You can also measure the change in the percentage of New Visitors to your website, another well known efect of branding campaigns.

Changes in Visitor Loyalty & Visitor Recency can also be attributed to effective branding campaigns.

Another benefit of Branding campaigns, that is often overlooked by AdWords advertisers is the increase in conversion rates. Effective branding campaigns tend to increase conversion rates across all channels, and you may want to track changes in conversion rates and attribute a portion of that to your Branding campaigns.

The bottom line is that a lot of advertiser shy away from Branding & Awareness campaigns because it is much more complicated to measure the benefits. That leaves a great opportunity for the marketer that is willing to tackle this complex measuring and attribution task. It's a sure fire way to get an advantage over less sophisticated competitors.