Numerous B2B enterprises grapple with incorporating branded or competitor campaigns within their PPC strategies. Often, these campaigns prove instrumental and advantageous, particularly from an internal sales perspective. Below, we dig deeper into the multifaceted benefits of branded and competitor PPC campaigns and outline optimal scenarios for their utilization.
What are Branded PPC Campaigns?
Branded pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns strategically incorporate brand-specific keywords to target the intended audience and secure a prominent search engine results page (SERP) rank. This deliberate approach aims to maximize brand visibility, outperform competitors, and enhance user engagement. By leveraging this type of campaign, businesses assert their presence in critical search queries related to their offerings.
Advantages of Branded PPC Campaigns
Some business owners may perceive branded PPC campaigns as unnecessary, assuming they already attract existing web traffic. However, these campaigns offer substantial benefits beyond mere brand reinforcement.
Contrary to common belief, branded PPC initiatives not only maintain relevance within the SERP but also facilitate the acquisition of new prospects. These campaigns strategically position brands atop search results, ensuring visibility among users actively seeking related products or services, thereby fostering higher engagement and conversion rates.
Be Relevant to Your Top Search Results Page
Securing a prominent position at the top of search results through a paid ad elevates your brand's visibility. It also safeguards its relevance amidst the competitive landscape. By occupying the prime spot, your company garners heightened exposure, amplifying brand awareness and fostering trust among potential customers. Moreover, when a paid ad complements an organic search result that may be of lower ranking, it establishes brand credibility. It offers viewers multiple entry points into your offerings within the search results.
Fight Against Competition Who Use Your Brand Name to Appear in Branded Queries
When companies abstain from leveraging their branded keywords, it presents an opportunity for competitors to exploit these terms and intercept potential customers. Competitors might capitalize on this gap by maneuvering their presence in branded queries, diverting prospects from your brand. However, by consistently securing top positions in branded queries related to your company, you create a formidable defense, dissuading competitors from deploying aggressive competitor PPC campaigns and safeguarding your brand's market dominance.
Better Conversion Opportunities
Paid ads offer enhanced conversion rates owing to the pre-qualified nature of the audience, having traversed previous stages of sales nurturing. These ads efficiently guide potential customers toward dedicated landing pages, facilitating actionable conversion steps. Effectively harnessing paid ads not only amplifies conversion rates but also contributes to refining performance metrics. It provides valuable data insights for optimizing future campaigns.
Higher Presentation Control in Search Results
While organic results offer free promotion, business owners encounter constraints in controlling which pages or how they appear within search results.
However, paid ads empower marketers with comprehensive control over their positioning. Through paid ad campaigns, marketers can incorporate attention-grabbing elements such as call-outs, contact numbers, and customer reviews. This avenue provides an opportunity to craft compelling messages utilizing features like dual headlines and descriptive text, effectively capturing user attention amidst search results.
Opportunity to Promote Something New
Paid ads give businesses a prime avenue to promote newly launched offerings effectively. Utilizing landing pages, dedicated service pages, or press releases, businesses can swiftly disseminate information about novel products, services, or upcoming events to their target audience. This strategic approach facilitates timely notifications to potential customers, driving engagement and fostering interest in the latest developments within the business.
Branded Keywords are Cheap
Branded keywords, without direct competition, offer cost-effective advantages with lower clicks per click. These keywords also attain higher quality scores due to their remarkable relevance to the ad, URL, page content, and overall website theme of the company. Leveraging branded keywords not only ensures cost efficiency but also aids in balancing any potential low-quality scores from other campaigns within the account, thereby optimizing overall campaign performance.
What are Competitor PPC Campaigns?
Competitor PPC campaigns strategically leverage competitors’ branded keywords to surface in search results associated with rival brands. Despite inherent risks, effective utilization involves strategic selection, avoiding prominent competitors, and deliberate device targeting. Notably, deploying paid competitor ads on mobile devices might yield reduced effectiveness, considering users often possess a higher purchase intent towards their intended brand, potentially diminishing the impact of these ads.
Advantages of Competition PPC Campaigns
Engaging in competitor PPC campaigns bears inherent risks, including your competitors using your branded keywords in retaliation. Using competitor keywords can also negatively influence the quality scores of your campaigns. This strategy might not align with businesses prioritizing high conversion rates over heightened brand awareness.
However, in scenarios where the associated risks are mitigated, these campaigns allow businesses to pursue alternative goals effectively.
Increases Brand Awareness and Web Traffic
The number one advantage of competitor PPC campaigns is that they are pivotal for augmenting brand awareness - especially if the company has a competitive edge. When users explore a competitor's brand, companies can strategically position themselves by showcasing superior offers or highlighting competitive advantages through strategically placed paid advertisements.
Their Potential Customers Have Familiarity with Similar Products
Competitors' potential customers possess familiarity with their respective products and services, often requiring minimal educational efforts on their value. Capitalizing on this existing familiarity, companies present improved offers or distinctive value propositions, thereby enticing potential customers effectively.
Know When to Use Branded PPC Campaigns
Determining the opportunity for launching branded or competitor campaigns hinges upon various business factors. It’s futile to delve into branded campaigns if a business has a poor conversion rate and lacks distinctive or competitive offerings. Prioritizing enhancements in these areas is paramount.
Businesses can start with branded PPC campaigns once considerable improvements in product/service uniqueness and conversion rates are achieved. These campaigns can complement other branding endeavors across diverse channels. At the same time, they can counter competitors who are using their branded keywords.
Know When to Use Competitor PPC Campaigns
Once branded PPC campaigns are successful, they boast high-quality scores and serve as a buffer for competitor PPC campaigns. With risks mitigated by these campaigns, competitor PPC campaigns can spread awareness of the company’s competitive edge to the competitors’ potential customers.
Contact us through Zipline’s PPC Management Service to learn more about PPC strategies.
