Should I bid on my own brand terms?

by xixna
6 replies
  • PPC/SEM
  • |
I really wouldn't know how that would work. Would it be a good thing, or could it go wrong?
#bid #brand #terms
  • I would always bid on my own brand. First of all its very cheap clicks.
    Also, even though the individual searched your name, it is not guaranteed he/she will visit your site.
    I don't remember seeing any site with 100% ctr on organic brand search queries.
    There might also be competitors bidding on your brand, trying to steal traffic.

    Besides, brand traffic is always good at converting.
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  • I generally don't but it depends.

    Let's take a chiropractor client of mine. Does it make sense to bid on the keyword "dr john"? Probably not. How about "dr john chiropractor"? Better. But always ask yourself if there's value to do so. Here, it may indicate that people have heard of you, you could determine your popularity over time and that in itself can be valuable information to have. But this is only good if you can compare to others. So in this case, I'd also bid on competitor's brands. The problem is that some clinics call themselves Town Chiropractor so you can't distinguish if the search was for a chiropractor in the town or the name of the clinic itself.

    Another example is a client selling tool parts. Is it beneficial to bid on "master tool repair", the name of the business? As previously, this may help determine certain things. But what is the intent of this search? To get the address, phone number, something else? It is also very generic. It would be better to bid on the keywords of the actual parts they are looking for. This may be cheaper clicks but wouldn't you appear first in the organics anyway? Are competitors bidding on your brand? Are there searches on their brands and where in the organics are they showing up and is there ads?

    I think the biggest value is determining how "popular" your brand is but you need to also bid on competitor brands to compare. But I've had clients tell me not to do this so as to not "awaken" competitors and have them bid on their brand name. Like I said, I usually don't do this. When I or a client does it on his own, the CTR is almost always very high as is the conversion rate, which makes sense. But it's not to get cheaper clicks (they normally will be) nor to generate more traffic or sales. If they know and search you, they are sold already so the click and conversion rates should be higher. You have to ask yourself if the volume makes it worthwhile. In my case, it would not since in the sea of Adwords managers, nobody knows or searches on me. But I might want to do so for competitors, although that might get expensive just to get this information.

    So you have to ask yourself if it's worth it for you based on your situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi xixna,

    If you pretty much own the top half of the search result page for all common search queries on your company name, website name, product brand names, and none of your competitors are targeting your brand name then no you do not need to advertise.

    If you have competitors showing in search results for your company name, website name, or product brand names then it usually pays to advertise.

    Now, before you do a quick search in your browser to check the results for your brand names, please consider that your browser is going to display personalized results to you on your own device. Your potential customers will not see the same search results that you will see. So do not base your needs on what you see in your personalized search result pages.

    Check search results with a device that has never been used to search for your brand terms, or learn how to disable personalized search before checking search results for your brand names. Otherwise, you may end up basing your decision on the wrong information.
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  • Profile picture of the author vovanfree
    "Yeah definitely you should bid on your own brand.For pay per click program it is good practice to get sales immediately.
    But there are always competition who try to steal traffic from you . Thats why you should bid ."
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  • Profile picture of the author Endrue11
    Yes, You can bid on your own brand terms and its good for advertise your brand name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Diskretni
    Yes you can,but I usually don't do that,but it can help with advertising your brand name.
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