Episode 4: Branded Search - Should You Bid On Your Own Brand Name?

00:00
Lisa Perry Kovacs:
The world of digital marketing moves at a dizzying speed. Strategies, budgets, tactics, buzzwords. How can we even begin to distinguish the signal from the noise, the good moves from the bad? Take it from the team that's tripped as much as we've triumphed. We're putting our best moves in the spotlight and spilling every secret to give you step-by-step instructions to feel for your own success and digitally scale your business. This is Marketing Moves.

00:31
Nate Statt:
All right, welcome welcome to episode four of Marketing Moves. I am Nate Statt, a Senior Account Executive here at VividFront. And today, I'm joined by Karen Steinbauer, one of our most talented Marketing Executives here. She has a wide range of experience working with some of our largest eCommerce brands and growing their businesses. And today, I brought her in here to talk about one of the most hot button issues here, which is, what is branded search, and should I be doing it for my business?

01:01
Karen Steinbauer:
Thanks so much for having me, really excited.

01:04
Nate Statt:
So, today we're talking about, I would say, one of the biggest controversies, maybe, in the paid search space, which is branded search important, and should my business be doing it? So I want to kick us off maybe with just a simple question of what is branded search?

01:20
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, absolutely. So, a branded search or a branded keyword is any query via a search engine like Google or Bing that contains the name of your company, business, or brand. So hence the term branded search. So, for example, if we here at VividFront were to run a branded search campaign, we would bid on terms like VividFront, VividFront Marketing Agency, VividFront expert developers, things like that.

01:51
Nate Statt:
Got it.

01:51
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah. So, a branded search shows that the user just has really high intent for your brand, and they're likely they've either heard of you or they know exactly who you are. So the main goal is that they probably want to head to your website, which is why it's so important to rank as high as you can on the page for your brand name.

02:10
Nate Statt:
Got it. And on the project management side, I would say we usually get the first question is, why would I be paying for my branded name here if I can just get that traffic for free? So, what are some other common rebuttals against doing branded search and spending money on branded search that you see from clients across all different kinds of industries?

02:33
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, absolutely. There's definitely some skeptics out there who are very much against bidding on your brand name, and we get a lot of them. Like you said here at VividFront, I think you'll find that the pros sort of outweigh the cons, but we'll head into the argument against bidding on your brand name first. So, the first reason that we hear a lot is that established organic ranking. So, most companies already rank at the top of organic search for their brand name. So they've spent time and money building that brand related authority, whether it's through content authoring or a really beautifully developed website that follows best practice. So the thought here is that they've already solidified top search ranking on a keyword. Why pay to advertise on it? It's kind of one of the first reasons. The second reason that we hear sometimes is, well, we own the brand, not Google.

03:29
Karen Steinbauer:
This is definitely one of the reasons that I think is a little more frustration and emotion based, but we definitely hear it. It's kind of like, how dare Google make us pay for clicks on our brand? It's ours. In the similar vein, the third reason is that Google has enough of our money already. So for people who are already maybe bidding on non-brand terms, they're kind of already spending money to advertise there. So the argument is that you shouldn't throw pay per click money at branded keywords, instead save that budget for terms that you might not rank organically for.

04:05
Nate Statt:
Yeah, we own the brand, not Google, I can totally empathize with. I feel like I hear that often and know why would I pay maybe upwards of a $1,000, thousands of dollars for my name on this platform? Yeah, that's definitely one of the more common ones that we hear.

04:19
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And then I think to close out that side of the argument, the final and probably most frequently heard here is, well, they'll just click on us anyways. So people think that if someone is using your brand name that they must be looking for your company's homepage. Right? So the idea here is that if that's true, there's no reason to pay for ads and that you'd kind of just be competing against yourself in the search results. So that's definitely one of the top reasons that I think we get here at VividFront. But all of those explanations we've heard before.

04:56
Nate Statt:
What would you say now is our mantra here with branded search? I think as an agency it's been a hot button issue over time, but we've now kind of solidified our strategy and our approach with branded search. And so I'm just curious what your perspective is on that.

05:15
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, I think we'll get into a lot of the reasons why we believe here at VividFront that you should bid on your brand name. I think if I had to pick just one reason though, it would be defending your turf. Defending your turf because if you don't do it, your competitors will. And if your competitors aren't there today, there's no telling that they won't be there tomorrow. So you just have to be careful and know that as you scale and hopefully grow, the space will become more competitive and you want to make sure that you're protecting your brand name and that no one else has the opportunity to come in and snatch that space away from you.

05:54
Nate Statt:
Right. Because even though maybe you're ranking first organically, that could change very quickly. And also if a competitor comes in, are you thinking the issue is now they're going to be showing up above you even though you have an organic placement?

06:09
Karen Steinbauer:
Exactly. And another thought to consider there is that on mobile, which keep in mind the majority of users, especially as it relates to ecommerce, are looking on mobile. On mobile, if a competitor is above you in a paid spot for your brand, consumers probably won't see you until they scroll. That is just such key real estate, right? Like you don't want to give that up.

06:34
Nate Statt:
Yeah, definitely. What are some other reasons why we are big fans of branded search here?

06:39
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, I would say the next one is controlling the SERPs, controlling the search engine result page. So again, it comes down to a question of real estate. Are you willing to pay a quote tax to Google to dominate the search results for your brand? Or are you willing to potentially give up that top of page space to competing information? Just because you're the number one organic result doesn't mean you're number two through ten. Right. There's so many other people on the page that are going to come up below you or above you, whatever it is. So I would just say if your organic ranking is strong and you're bidding on your brand name, you essentially have pretty good control of what consumers are seeing.

07:21
Nate Statt:
Yeah, there is that messaging element too, where you can customize the first kind of experience people have with your brand. Unlike you can't really do that with an organic placement. You're kind of at the mercy of what Google decides to show. Yeah, that makes sense.

07:38
Karen Steinbauer:
Exactly. And that kind of ties well into our third reasoning is to control your messaging. So like you said, relying on organic results means that the message a person sees is really what Google is honing in on based on your organic description. So not necessarily the message that you want them to see. So if you use paid advertisements, you can really control what message the user is seeing at the right time. And with pay per click, you have the opportunity to use things like ad copy and extensions to really showcase your special features, your unique value propositions, things like that. Where general homepage meta descriptions might not be able to pull in all the time.

08:21
Nate Statt:
Yeah, we see it all the time. You can set your meta descriptions, but Google might show completely different content, whereas you have a bit more control with your ad copy.

08:30
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, and to finalize out that point as well, you are able to test your messaging, which is so key in this data driven era that we're in. If you can test ad copy and test your messaging, it can really inform your content strategy. And having that data about what your consumers, what works for them, what's getting them to click through to your website is so key.

08:55
Nate Statt:
Yeah.

08:56
Karen Steinbauer:
And then I would say fourth. And finally, probably the most important reason is the revenue potential. Branded search terms typically, if not always, are cheaper than non brand terms. So it's our belief that those less expensive clicks are worth the investment. So if you're still not sold, I'll throw some data in here. We're a very data driven organization here and we hope that you guys are using data to inform decisions with your own brand. So, last year we had a client spend $9,000 on a branded search campaign to make $223,000 in sales. That's almost a 25x ROAS, return on advertising spend. So as a business, I think you have to ask yourself, would you spend 9K to make 223K in sales or would you roll the dice on SEO?

09:53
Nate Statt:
Yeah. And imagine how much business they could have lost if competitors are bidding on their name, if they're showing up above them, that ROAS would just be up in the air even though you're not paying for branded terms.

10:07
Karen Steinbauer:
Exactly. So I think that reasoning in itself for us here is just that key revenue potential. If that is your bottom line goal, what's more important? Right. I think you just have to weigh the options for your brand and what works best for your strategy.

10:23
Nate Statt:
Yeah, it's literally a cost of doing business to exactly make sure that you're showing up there. That makes sense. Any other main takeaways from working with clients about why branded search is so valuable?

10:35
Karen Steinbauer:
I think we've definitely hit on the majority of it, but we understand the skepticism and the confusion. I think, again, like you said, just a lot of people coming in are really weary to do that and don't understand why. But I do think that once we get into the campaigns and they're running and they're rolling for a while, most of our clients really recognize how valuable they are for their business. And again, just that the pros outweigh the cons.

11:04
Nate Statt:
One of our biggest strategies here is relating to stacking the page. It's a term we use a lot really intentionally. Can you walk us through a bit more just about why we're big fans and big proponents of stacking the page and having brand be part of that strategy?

11:19
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, exactly. Again, I think that kind of relates into the real estate question and controlling the search engine result page. Again, just because you're number one on the results page doesn't mean you're number two through. Whatever. So when you couple in, stacking the page through not only your organic listing, but your paid advertisements as well, and then you bring in other aspects like paid shopping, that again, shows up above those organic and paid results. I mean, you have at least half the page there, right? So a consumer is looking for you, they're going to see essentially just you before they're scrolling. So having that real estate, especially in this day and age, we're a little bit lazy. A lot of people don't want to scroll. They don't want to have to work for the information that they want. So if you can just force yourself to be right there in front of them, I mean, that's gold. Right?

12:17
Nate Statt:
Right. Because if a user misses your first ad, doesn't click it, you can now have multiple spots where you're still showing up and giving them a chance to click on your brand. Right?

12:27
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, exactly.

12:28
Nate Statt:
Got it. So I think you've covered a lot of the main points for why we love branded search. Can you talk through someone maybe who's setting up branded search for the first time? What are some of the biggest things that they should be doing in this platform to guarantee success?

12:43
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, absolutely. I think the first point that we would maybe touch on is you have to consider your brand's goals and what bid strategy you might want based on those brand goals. The two that we would recommend here at VividFront are, one, a manual cost per click bid strategy. I think that this strategy is maybe a little bit more conversion based, but more than that, manual bidding gives you absolute control over that cost per click metric. So even down to the ad group and the keyword level, you can really control how much you're spending for one click on a branded keyword. That also is great for flexibility because you can change that bid whenever you want. You don't have to rely on the platform to be doing that for you. If you really want that control. I think this is a great option to start out for maybe some of the skeptics who are worried about spending money or spending too much money on branded search because you can really be careful about how much you spend on each bid.

13:47
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah. And then the second bid strategy that we typically utilize is a Search Impression Share bid strap. So while this strategy can be focused on performance and we definitely still see great performance from it, I think it's a little bit more of an awareness in reach play and it's more for visibility purposes. Like you're really just trying to get that sweet spot of being at whatever area on the page you want.

14:14
Nate Statt:
Right. I see this a lot with some of the clients I work with where if someone is typing in my branded name, I don't care. I want to be showing up for as many of those searches as I can. So would you say that's where like, Search Impression share, that type of strategy might work with your business?

14:30
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And what's really cool about that strategy is that you can customize it based on your goals. So if, for instance, you, if that was you and you said your goal is to get to that top spot every single time, maybe you would break it down even further and go for an absolute top of page bid strategy. But if you kind of want to be a little bit more relaxed, you can also opt for just the top of page or anywhere on the page. So those are kind of sub levels of a target impression share bid strategy, which I think is really cool.

15:01
Nate Statt:
Got it. What other keys for success are there when setting up these campaigns?

15:06
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, I would say utilize auction insights as much as you can. Keep an eye on those auction insights. You might not have competitors bidding on your brand name right now, but again, hopefully the goal is that as you scale and grow, competitors become aware of you and they know that you're a threat in this space. So if they're smart, they'll probably start bidding on your brand name. So I just think keeping an eye on those auction insights will really give you key information on when it might be time to up your bid and when people are entering the chat, we say here at VividFront and really coming after your turf. So keeping an eye on that as well as your search loss impression share due to budget is something that those two things coupled together, we think would be great to look at in order to know again when to up your bid and when it's time to kind of increase and scale based on other competitors coming after you.

16:03
Nate Statt:
Got it? Yeah. Any others?

16:06
Karen Steinbauer:
I think finally, this one might seem a little bit intuitive, but just be strategic with the brand terms that you target. Again, I think this is based on your brand's goals and strategy, but looking at the search terms, being careful with what you negative, you might not want to bid on terms that are related to careers and job terms or customer service login terms because these have different intent purposes. Right. So if your end goal is a sale or a contact being submitted, those terms, vivid front portal login, for example, that would not indicate to us that person is looking to contact us. So we might want to either negative out those terms or just not bid on them so that we don't get people who aren't looking to make our final end goal.

17:03
Nate Statt:
That makes sense. Yeah. Paying for a click for customer support, you might be able to actually, in that case, get by with your organic listing. Right?

17:10
Karen Steinbauer:
Exactly. Yeah. So I think just weighing your options and really knowing what your end goal is with this campaign is definitely key. And you can really through everything we've said, through the bid strategy and down to how much you're bidding for your campaign, you can really customize it to make sure that you're in that sweet spot and that you're not overspending because obviously the goal is a positive return.

17:36
Nate Statt:
So main takeaways, branded search, good? Yes.

17:39
Karen Steinbauer:
Yes. We are here for it here at VividFront. We most definitely recommend doing it. I think you'll really see that the proof is in the pudding, kind of, if you really just give it a shot. The cheap cost per clicks, coupled with all of the messaging and testing benefits, stacking the page, like you said, really outweigh some of the cons that I think are a little bit more emotion and frustration based. Right. They don't really have data behind them to prove that is the correct option. So we're all for testing here. I think based on everything we said, it's definitely worth just giving it a shot and seeing how it goes. And if it's not achieving your brand goals, then you turn it off. But we're fairly confident and we always see positive return here at VividFront and that it's only done great things for our clients, so that's definitely why we recommend it.

18:34
Nate Statt:
Cool. Well, thank you so much for joining today and talking through this again. We encounter it on our clients that we work together with on all the time. And so it's always fun to kind of chat about why we are big fans of branded search.

18:48
Karen Steinbauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And if there's anyone out there who has any further questions or is maybe considering a strategy like this for their brand, definitely hit us up. Head to our website. We have even more information there about our services and what we can offer you guys.

19:02
Nate Statt:
Amazing. Thanks, everyone. And thank you, Karen.

19:04
Karen Steinbauer:
Thanks for having me.

19:05
Lisa Perry Kovacs:
We hope you enjoyed this episode. Now it's time to start making moves. Head to Vividfront.com/Marketingmoves for exclusive marketing materials. Every episode, we add more of our greatest insider secrets to help you move towards success. See you next time.