Own Brand Bidding

“Why bid on our own brand name?” is a question we are often asked as PPC account managers. It seems a reasonable question – after all, a brand owner often ranks really well organically for their brand terms And assuming that’s the case then why waste money on appearing on your own term? 

 Answer: “So you make more money and your competitors make less”

Spending money on keywords that “belong” to yourself is frustrating but protecting your brand is important. Bidding on your brand terms has become an important part of protecting your brand.

“Why am I bidding on my brand name?”

Even if you are top of the organic results, there are potentially three competitor ads and a map showing other competitors above your organic listing. The ads above you may also have site links, star ratings or other ad extensions pushing your organic listing further down the page. 

For example, a search for “sheilas wheels insurance” shows Sheilas’ Wheels are top of the organic results; however many of their competitors have PPC ads showing on this particular keyword. Sheilas’ Wheels do have a PPC ad showing in ad position two though:

While the searcher is looking for your website, if other companies have shown above you they may be easily convinced to look elsewhere. 

Searchers looking for your brand term are more likely to convert than other searchers.  You have probably already put the hard work in through other marketing and it would be a shame to waste all that hard work by not ensuring you are at the top of the page. If it is your own brand term Google should recognise your ad and keyword as being highly relevant so you receive a good quality score and a low CPC. It would be a shame to lose a conversion when it may have only cost a few pence.

“Why are my competitors showing on my brand?”

Many people new to PPC have misconceptions about the keywords their competitors are allowed to bid on. The initial thought is often “It is my brand term; it is trademarked and belongs to me!”  Therefore other people’s ads should not be showing on it.

Sadly a brand term being trademarked does not mean other people cannot bid on that particular keyword or even that your brand term cannot appear in someone else ad.

What your competitor can’t do is be misleading; they are not allowed to pretend to be you.

If your brand term is showing in someone else’s ad this does not always mean they are pretending to be you. Google allows resellers and informational sites to use brand terms in their PPC ads providing that their landing page is relevant.

 “How do I stop competitors showing on my Brand Term”

If you’d like to really stop someone from using your brand terms in their ads there are a few steps you can take:

• Ask nicely – If you call or send them a letter they may agree to stop bidding.
• Send a trademark complaint to Google or Bing – this should stop those misusing your brand term from using it in their ads, though this does not apply to resellers.
• Bring in the lawyers - If they are not nice you could bring in the lawyers and send them a cease and desist letter. This is usually the way to go if someone is maliciously using your brand term, representing themselves as you or they have been increasingly evasive and difficult to deal with.
• Contracts with resellers – Even if you send a trademark complaint letter, resellers can still write ads that include your brand term in the ads, if you don’t want them to show you can ask them to stop, you are their customer after all. However, before you do this you may want to consider your business model. If they are particularly important to your revenue stream, bring new visitors to the site or often outrank your main competitors then there’s a good chance you don’t want to change your current set-up.

Here’s an example: Suppose you are a hotel owner, you have your own site that people can book through, however you also sell beds through Booking.com and Hotels.com. When you search on your hotel name your resellers appear above your organic listing. While you may not view this as fair, if they are filling the majority of your beds then they are providing you with a good service, you may want to consider that before you talk to them.

Yes, It’s Worth Bidding on Your Keyword Brand Terms!

Whilst you may not view these searchers as new customers to gain they are your customers to lose.  Bidding on your own keywords ensures that you are present or at the top of the page when customers look for you.

Owning your brand space is one reason to bid on your brand term. However, it is not the only reason. Next week Louise will be going through her top reasons to bid on brand terms.