Branded terms in paid search have caused me to think. A lot.

For each client there is clearly a different “right” approach regarding how to use the brand name when frolicking through the land of paid search.

Your first response to this is, predictably, “Yea…and…?”, or more descriptively, “isn’t that the point of being paid for this? To think about the strategy?”

Yes and yes.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t write verbose blog posts about it so I attempt to quantify different ways to circumvent this whole “thinking” process. Then we can all spend more time on more important things like…facebooking…or whatever the kids do nowadays.

There is a plethora of important reasons why you should be using brand terms in your paid search. These keywords can obviously explain a lot about brand awareness (the “awareness gauge”) and they can send extremely valuable and inexpensive traffic with users at the tail end of the purchasing cycle (depending on your goals), plus the added benefit of being able to see just how many people misspell (read: mangle) the most innocuous of company names for the sake of search.

However, branded terms can also be somewhat enigmatic. And the question remains, are the branded terms that you are using actually hurting your results?

Again, it depends on your goals and your client. In the next few posts I’ll try to neatly package the ways that branded terms can be used by detailing the different types of clients that often arise.

The “Kleenex”

Everyone knows the name; it is synonymous with the general product it represents (Kleenex = Tissue). When others somewhat resemble it, they often hear “OMG, you remind me so much of the Kleenex!”, or, “Did the Kleenex get a hair cut?”, or even, “Yo! It’s Kleenex!”.

The Kleenex’s goal is most likely not to build on existing popularity, but to make sure everyone knows it is still there and is still the sh*t, sometimes by buying new shoes and showing them off. Some call this “defensive marketing” which, for ubiquitous brand names, means it is not about getting to the top, but more about staying on top while others chuck grenades at your text ads.

Here are the problems with being the Kleenex: Everyone knows you (good), which means there are a lot of people riding your coattails to success and driving up your costs (not good). This also means that everyone tries to be like you, so you can end up blending in with the crowd if you’re not careful, especially in search results. Furthermore, you are an easy target for undercutting, and people saying that they are the better version of you.

If you are the Kleenex, here are ways to make sure you are getting the best results out of your paid search:

1. You must always remind people that you are the real deal. Use “Official Site” in your ads, constantly place your brand name or product name depending on the search terms, and of course, make it a priority to be at the top of the page. It seems obvious aloud, but how often do you actually look at the daily positions for your branded terms? Sure, your quality score should be handing you the top positioning on a platter (a delicious, delicious platter), but don’t look away - that position is coveted by the little guys who just want a piece of you and/or want to steal your squeeze. They should be willing to bid the big bucks to get above you, since capturing the users at this time in the purchasing cycle is a rare thing. Use position preferences if you’re average position is not at the top.

Reminding the user that you are the one and only Kleenex, and that all others bow down to you, lends an incredible amount of credibility (see what I did there?) and plants the seed of doubt about all of those posers on the page.

Also, most search engines have trademark laws that should be adhered by across the board. Make a competitive sweep once a month just to make sure ads aren’t using your name and/or products in ads. If so, you have to file a complaint with the search engine to remove. To deflect this potential, check with the search engines and make sure your trademarked name is registered with the network so competitors will be thwarted when writing their malevolent ads.

Additional Tactic: Test placing the registered trademark symbol in your ads next to your brand/products.

2. Make sure you cover misspellings with its own ad group. You’d be amazed at the number of ways people can misspell your infamous name. Clean-ex, kleen ex, cleanix, chleanox…the list is infinite. Again, you do not want competitors stealing your thunder, so missing out on a few of these terms could add up and could make you lose out on many-a-customer.

Check out the search query report if you are using Google Adwords, look into the most popular organic searches in your analytics program, or check out review sites where people comment on your product (and make sure they are saying nice things!).

Moreover, setting the misspellings aside in their own ad group will help you keep track of which misspellings are happening the most. Knowing this, you may want to gear some ads specifically to these misspellings, or even throw in very prevalent misspellings strategically on your website to help with quality score and SEO.

3. Give brand terms a separate budget. This could be a big one and it depends on what your users are using your brand name for. For example, if you are a bank, or any website in which users constantly return and sign in, how much of your paid search budget should be used up by these users coming in through text ads? If you are sending users to a site where customers log in, here are a few approaches:

- Limit budget, but don’t get rid of branded terms entirely. You do not want to completely abandon these keywords since many users may want sign up instead of sign in. Don’t underestimate users switching the two of these accidentally. All you have to do is put thought into what types of users you are willing to pay for, and what they are searching on (so simple yet so effective!).

- If you are truly concerned about this, put the “login”, “signin”, “existing user” terms as negative keywords. But make sure you are the #1 organic search result site. On the same note, look into excluding terms that deal with customer service, troubleshooting, etc. If you are not a company that focuses a lot of effort on these items, the users coming to complain or troubleshoot your product can use organic, no use paying for it!

On the other hand, if your brand terms are the most efficient and effective way that users not only get to your site but also end up converting, you don’t want the more expensive broad terms eating up your whole budget while the branded terms are left in the dust, do you?! For this reason, test the ceiling budget for these branded terms by testing for about a week or two, and come up with a figure that allows these keywords to fly free. Not only will this drive down CPCs (which the client loves!) but it will also increase overall clicks, conversion rate, and CPA (which the client also loves! Good times).

The bottom line is this: Branded terms are very inexpensive and can be invaluable, especially if you use them correctly. In most cases, it is not worth it to leave your brand and product names out of the campaign, if only because they cost next to nothing. For the big gun brands, defensive marketing tactics are a necessity in the online search environment, since everyone wants your position and customers!

Constantly remind searchers of just how important you are (kind of a big deal) and why your official-ness is more awesome than being a brand freeloader.

Now, what do you think? Are Branded terms worth all of this trouble? Do you disagree and think that they are useless, or do you have experience in which the above techniques just don’t work? Post a comment…it’s the only way to get closer to the truth!

Stay tuned for the next post: The Anklebiter.