Achieving Paid Search Balance: 3 Reasons To Invest In Non-Branded Terms

Managing your health requires achieving a balance between diet and exercise. In the same way, a healthy paid search campaign requires achieving a balance between branded and non-branded spending. Working together, the two create an optimal mix that will help you achieve the best results possible. Why balance matters Given branded terms’ reputation for delivering […]

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Managing your health requires achieving a balance between diet and exercise. In the same way, a healthy paid search campaign requires achieving a balance between branded and non-branded spending. Working together, the two create an optimal mix that will help you achieve the best results possible.

Why balance matters

Given branded terms’ reputation for delivering ROI, they often receive the lion’s share of a paid search budget. However, in this economy—where consumers are still hesitant to purchase—many marketers are not seeing the revenue from their branded terms that they had hoped for. As a result, they are desperate to find other means to boost revenues.

Fortunately, targeting non-branded terms can help you do exactly that. In fact, doing so not only has the potential to drive revenue, it can also increase brand awareness and spur growth—3 great reasons to invest in non-branded terms. Let’s take a closer look at each:

Growth. A paid search campaign that only spends on branded keywords will only grow as much as the brand recognition allows. By only investing in your brand, you leave growth opportunity to your competitors who are willing to make the non-branded investment. True growth, beyond the brand, comes from non-branded investment. If you are only investing in branded spend, year over year growth will be a reflection of your brand and the investments you’ve made towards it alone. In order to see year over year growth in paid search, you need to invest in non-branded spending.

Branding. If you want to increase brand awareness, you need to run paid search advertisements on relevant non-branded terms. After all, the search funnel begins with research, often with non-branded searches. Given that, it is important to get your brand in front of searchers when they are beginning their research. Ad copy that reflects your brand name may be one of the first touch points you have with that new user. Employing tracking that attributes the sale appropriately across each marketing touch point with that user will qualify your investment in non-branded terms that results in branded conversions.

Revenue. If your goal is to increase revenue from the dollars you invest, non-branded investment is an opportunity that has proven profitable for marketers. With accurate attribution management/reporting, non-branded spending can reflect its own profitability and that of your other marketing initiatives. Such attribution will be key to helping you find the optimal balance between branded and non-branded terms, and allow you to see how they are balancing each other in regard to ROI. In addition, this style of asset management may also teach you a thing or two about your consumers. In essence, it will allow you to leverage the data from your non-branded investment to improve your overall marketing and increase your bottom line.

Keys to achieving balance

But before you can configure your optimal balance between branded and non-branded terms, you first need to establish your minimum threshold of return. For example, if you could make $2 for every $1 you invested would you do it? Could you afford to make such a low return? Or, can you afford not to? Would it be better for your competitor to be spending that dollar and making two? Compared to the return you get from your branded spend, a 2:1 return doesn’t look that great. However when you are looking for maximized returns and growth, it spells possibility. Once you know your minimum threshold, you’ll be ready to push your investment to get the maximum return possible with the branded/non-branded mix.

While it can be tempting to solely focus on branded terms, smart marketers will incorporate non-branded terms into the paid search marketing mix in an effort to achieve the optimal balance that will deliver the most profitable return.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Cara Beaudette
Contributor

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