For companies that have several retailers and affiliates, sometimes your company can get lost in the weeds when it comes to Branded Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns.  When you are not the only company selling your products a Branded campaign in PPC can be hard to justify.  You don’t want to upset your retailers by ‘competing’ with them for your branded keywords but in terms of brand awareness your company needs to be visible (in both organic and paid results) when a user searches for your brand name.  In fact it is known that if your site is visible in both organic and paid listings users are more likely to click through to your site.  In a study done by Nielsen ReelResearch, when an advertiser had both paid and organic search results on the same page the site got 92% of the clicks, while an organic listing alone resulted in a click 60% of the time.

There are several reasons to be visible in both the organic and paid results but that is not the purpose of this post.  There are also many arguments when it comes to running Branded campaigns in PPC, but that is not the purpose of this post either.  So now your thinking, what is the purpose of this blog post?  To provide you with tips on how to stand out amongst your retailers and affiliates for paid branded terms.

1) Increase CPC to maintain 1st position

Rise above the weeds and be the first ad to catch the attention of visitors.

2) Use Branded Keywords in Ad Text

Having your targeted keywords in your ad text will improve the relevance of the keyword and ad text, increasing your quality score.  Also, using your targeted keywords in your ad text can help to increase CTR.  You can see in the screen shot above, “PUMA” is bolded because my search query was matched with a keyword PUMA is bidding on and is included in their ad copy.  When relevant use your branded keywords in the title, description and display URL of your ad text.  But beware don’t go over bored here.

3) Use Official Messaging in Ad Text

Official messaging in ad text will help users identify your site among your retailers and affiliates, which is very helpful because it gives you a one up.  In the PUMA example, Zappos can’t say “The Official Online PUMA Store”.  Many advertisers are including the “Official Site” messaging directly in the headline to make the messaging stand out even more.

4) Showcase Your Brand’s Registered Trademark Symbol

Is your brand name a registered trademark?  If so, are you using it in your ad text?  This is a great way to reinforce the official messaging of your branded campaigns, helping potential customers to identify your ad as the most relevant result matching their search query.

There you have it, 4 easy tips to help increase your Branded efforts in paid search.  If you don’t have the budget to ensure top positioning, make sure your ad copy is spot on – communicating to your customers you are the site they are looking for when they search for your branded query.  Don’t miss out on an possible opportunities when it comes to branded search.