Why You Should Always Have an Active Branded Campaign

Branded campaigns and keywords should be considered the bread and butter of your PPC accounts. In most instances, they almost always have the best KPIs, including lowest Cost-Per-Click (CPCs) and highest Click-Through-Rate (CTR) in addition to a higher quality conversion volume.

From an analytical perspective, branded keywords also have the best engagement metrics such as longest time on site and lowest bounce rate.

As a paid search consultant, you should be prepared to answer a few questions to the skeptical client who thinks that branded conversion volume can just be acquired for free through organic traffic based on brand loyalty alone.

At first glance, using your branded campaign’s KPI data to prove your point would be the best course of action. However, it may be more convincing to take it a step further with three of the following key points:

Run Branded PPC Campaigns to Control Where Ads Drive To

Of course, when searching for your brand in the SERP, your clients should ideally show up on the top spot of the organic section. However, apart from a few additional highlighter links below the headline, that spot is generally reserved to drive to the home page.

The beauty with running a branded PPC campaign is that not only are you almost guaranteed a top spot of the paid section of the SERP, but you also have more control on where those ads drive to.

This is a great tactic if you want to highlight a specific product offering or promotion which your non-branded campaigns are having trouble with, due to increased competition and budget. Additionally, it creates a great opportunity to A/B test landing pages and sitelink extensions with direct gated assets that are more likely to record leads.

Create Higher Quality Leads & Look Farther Down the Purchase Funnel

Brand loyalty clearly goes a long way in the lead generation space. The searcher is already familiar with your brand, has most likely been to your site in the past, and is more likely to be categorized further down the purchase funnel.

With that in mind, the leads acquired by these searchers will be more qualified and are more apt to turn into actual sales.

Having the ability to control where a searcher lands as explained in the first key point, in combination to lead quality, can help push a specific product initiative or promotion to the next level.

Take Out The Risk of Competitors Bidding in the PPC Landscape

The lack of having a branded PPC campaign gives competitors an easy opportunity to bid on your brands’ terms and steal your would-be customers.

While a potentially expensive strategy on the competitor side, this kind of campaign can be justified when competitor paid ads are the only ones showing when your keywords are being searched — especially when they are ranking above your organic spot.

Additionally, competitors bidding on your brand can also negatively affect your overall impression share and equity if they provide a better offering or promotion; this can result in losing your brand equity to the competition.

Final Thoughts

If you can clearly and concisely explain the reasoning behind branded campaigns, even the most reluctant clients may rethink their initial assumptions.

Using KPI data is a good start to proving your case, but explaining the additional benefits of running a branded campaign, as outlined above, is the best course of action for driving success with PPC campaigns.