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Google Adwords Question - Why bid on your own company/brand name?

by phildenham
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I wonder if anyone can answer this - why would a company choose to bid on their own brand name, especially when no other adverts display during the search and the company is already position number 1 organically?

Example: Play.com (very popular UK CD/DVD online store)

Search term in Google: play.com

Result: Two results for play.com - 1 sponsored (the only one) and number 1 in organic listings.

Is this not just a waste of budget?

The only view I can see is that it gives them double exposure (and therefore means people are less likely to be tempted by other results) and as they are the only people with a listing this costs them a very small amount.

Any opinions/answers would be great... thanks.
#adwords #bid #company or brand #google #question
  • Profile picture of the author Adam Roy
    Example. 1800gotjunk

    These people have branded their name so intensely, that their company name is an extremely popular search term which unforturnately for them is a competitive page on google.

    If you start branding your name, people WILL look for your company name in search engines and not type it right into the address bar
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    • Profile picture of the author phildenham
      But why pay for it in Adwords if you are already top of the organic listings?
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      • Profile picture of the author Adam Roy
        Then it's unnecessary. I'm sure a bunch of people out there outsource their adwords campaigns to "advertising companies".

        In which case they'll just add a whole crap load of keywords to the campaign.

        So if you're asking this because you've seen it done with someone elses website or service, that's why.

        But again, a low bid on the adwords will give your ad a low position on the page, so you'll still catch the eyes of the "scrollers". The people who won't click on the first one necessarily.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tw0Dynamics
    Why bid on your company name?

    Good question - chance are what they're bidding on however is the keyword "play" which must cost them a fortune! The fact is that I could quite easily bid on play too - so to prevent me from doing so, they already have.

    Then again, companies like this really do have blind advertising budgets and will spend fortunes on surprisingly small amounts of advertising real estate.
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  • Profile picture of the author phildenham
    Yeah I guess so. Just checked and Amazon do the same thing too (in the UK at least).
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  • Profile picture of the author Lucid
    It's very simple really. First, they want to see how many people actually search on their brand. 1800gotjunk is a good example and Adwords is the best and most precise way for them to know who searches on their brand. That kind of information is gold.

    Second, they get to use up more of the first page real estate.

    Third, their ad might attract more clicks than their natural listing. So it's a win-win for them, not a waste of money.

    I started in Adwords by advertising the software I developed. I used generic terms at first of course. But after a while, I bid on the product's name, even though I was at the top of natural results just to see how many people were finding out about the product. I could see it become more popular month by month. I would not have known if I didn't bid on the name. The click costs were low but the CTR and conversion were sky high so not a waste.
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    • Profile picture of the author alxvallejo
      Originally Posted by Lucid View Post

      It's very simple really. First, they want to see how many people actually search on their brand. 1800gotjunk is a good example and Adwords is the best and most precise way for them to know who searches on their brand. That kind of information is gold.

      Second, they get to use up more of the first page real estate.

      Third, their ad might attract more clicks than their natural listing. So it's a win-win for them, not a waste of money.

      I started in Adwords by advertising the software I developed. I used generic terms at first of course. But after a while, I bid on the product's name, even though I was at the top of natural results just to see how many people were finding out about the product. I could see it become more popular month by month. I would not have known if I didn't bid on the name. The click costs were low but the CTR and conversion were sky high so not a waste.
      Can't you just do a simple keyword search in Google Analytics to see how many queries contained your brand name?

      I have no idea why companies bid on their brand name. If someone is typing in the brand to get your website, you do NOT need to advertise for it.

      Special promotions yes,,, but if the searcher is already typing in your brand name, you gotta be nuts to pay for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author yuyuan
    Other than gaining more first page real estate and finding out how popular their brand terms is, another important reason why companies bid on their brand name is because Adwords/PPC gives them the flexibility to place special promotions in their ad copy...

    Yes, although their website is ranked number one organically for the brand term, the Meta description and Title text that are going to appear on the search results is somehow still out of their control.

    However, with Adwords, they can edit the description in the ad copy anytime. They can place special promotions, new product launch, or even directing searchers to a deeper yet important page.

    In another words, bidding on brand term using Adwords gives companies more flexibility.
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  • Profile picture of the author Crystal84
    In the before, I have targeted both my and competitors' brand on PPC and found that competitors' product name gives better conversions. I even didn't get any conversion for my brand. So, i will never advertise my brand name again.
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