Don’t Be Tricked By Brand Keywords: A PPC Marketer’s Perspective
Avoid Being Misled by Brand Keywords: Insights from a PPC Marketer
It’s a story as ancient as time. Your PPC campaign is thriving, and conversions are steadily increasing. Even more promising: upon reviewing your search terms, you find that all traffic is coming from your brand keywords!
This appears to be a wonderful aspect: if an individual is seeking your brand, they are surely looking for you. These inquiries indicate strong intent; not only are they interested in your product or service, they desire you.
However, what if I informed you that brand keywords fueling your PPC campaign could be detrimental to its success?
Why Are Successful Brand Keywords A Bad Sign For My PPC Campaign?
When reflecting on why this could indicate a negative trend for your keywords, intention is crucial. It’s not merely that it is high, but what is causing that intentionality.
Hang on a moment, but let’s analyze the various types of individuals who might search for your brand name on Google:
- They possess a significant level of understanding – they are aware of you and your activities, after all.
- They probably obtained this information from an outside source – a recommendation from a friend, or a relative.
- They are an earlier client who is familiar with and has confidence in your service, and they are seeking to engage once more.
Only one of these genuinely signifies new business: referrals. And they are nearly unrelated to your PPC campaign. They interacted with your ad simply because it was the initial link to the business they encountered.
Consider it from their angle: they’ve searched for your name on Google, and your advertisement appeared as the top result. They proceeded to your landing page to purchase something they already intended to buy. What has occurred here is that you’ve incurred a loss on the initial click, along with any subsequent ones.
If your campaign has been attracting these kinds of clients, what implications does it have for PPC?
What Brand Keywords Leading Means For Your PPC
Having brand keywords dominate your PPC campaign is unfavorable for all. It indicates that you’re not successfully expanding your audience: merely attracting simple conversions.
By implementing an effective brand keyword strategy, these phrases also remain non-competitive. Unless rivals are exceptionally unscrupulous with their landing pages, you will consistently rank for them. This can be either through organic search results or via a PPC advertisement you’ve positioned above the search listings.
In summary: the campaign is stagnant, and this is something everyone is aware of—the extensive reach of PPC ads does exactly this: places your campaign in front of individuals seeking something associated with your brand.
Well-ranking brand keywords do not signify actual growth for customers or clients. The figures in Google Ads may appear impressive, but your profits by the end of the month will reveal the true situation.
So why do individuals care about their brand keywords in the first place? There are more legitimate reasons than I have been implying up to this point.
So Why Bother With Brand Keywords At All?
Don’t misunderstand me, having a solid brand keyword strategy included in a PPC campaign remains essential. Recall my previous example. If rival websites possess strong domain authority, Google recognizes their relevance. They could potentially appear higher than you in search results!
Even more troubling, they could be quite audacious and place bids on your brand keywords while you’re not. Positioning advertisements directly above your website links. Diverting what ought to be valuable, secure brand traffic and conversions.
This is particularly crucial if you’re engaging in B2B PPC: brand awareness commonly consists of returning clients who are already familiar with your offering, thus customer retention is crucial!
Consider your brand ad group more like a fortress. You are protecting your position using brand keywords. Competitive bids to fend off rivals, and advertisements to combat SEO decline.
Managing a PPC campaign is a continuous task, and an effective brand keyword strategy is essential.
Having mentioned that, let’s discuss ways to expand your campaign beyond brand-specific keywords.
Growing Beyond Brand Keywords
Now that you’re aware that leading with brand keywords isn’t beneficial, what adjustments can you make to your campaign approach to enhance the competitiveness of other ad groups?
The initial step you can take is revisit your bid strategy. Review your ranking status for general industry keywords. Determine where your advertisements are appearing. If they’re at a low absolute top rate, it’s time to get to work and prepare to invest more.
If you’ve engaged in the fundamental error of advertisement copy – mentioning your brand in your PPC advertisements – it’s likewise necessary to redo your ads. Keep in mind that beyond brand ad groups, you need to communicate who you are and what you provide clearly and concisely. Individuals who are not familiar with your brand name have no understanding of what it signifies.
Don’t be afraid to branch out your keywords also. Discover the type of long-tail, industry-specific keywords that continue to produce strong conversions. These are crucial if your campaign budget is less than that of many rivals: identify a niche and strive for it.
All three of these measures should assist in addressing the issue of solely brand keywords performing effectively. Think about employing a PPC advertising agency for enhanced expert campaign administration.





