Whenever you talk about bidding on branded terms, an obvious question tends to come up: Why pay for clicks when our company website already shows up as No. 1 in the organic search results for our name?

OK, OK, so if you are the only ad and you are also No. 1 in the organic search results, it can be a huge waste of money to buy branded pay-per-click advertising. (I’ll touch on that dilemma at the end of this article.) But for all other scenarios, it’s worth checking out.

Here are three reasons you want to bid on your branded search terms in PPC:

1. 1. Show up so your competitors don’t
   2. Get more visibility in the search results
   3. Control the messaging

FAQ: How can I effectively enhance my brand’s online presence using branded keywords in PPC?

We’ll cover those first, and then I’ll touch on how to control wasted ad spend related to bidding on your branded keywords.

1. Show Up So Your Competitors Don’t

One of the first arguments for bidding on your branded terms is because your competition can. Yes, your competitors can and will bid on your company name and your branded keywords so that their ads show up when someone searches for your business, product, etc.

And then, they can steal your traffic and business. People might click on your competitors’ ads for many reasons.

Maybe they are multitasking and just select the first result without looking closely. Maybe they don’t know it’s an ad and think it’s an organic listing instead. Or maybe the competitor’s ad points out your shortcomings, persuading a thoughtful searcher to visit their website instead.

Whatever the issue, you want to be sure your company is showing up for a search on your brand. Case in point: A search for the branded term “quickbooks” is stuffed with competitors’ ads.

By the way, you can find out who is bidding on your branded terms in Google Ads. Once you have a branded campaign, navigate to your Google Ads account > Auction Insights. When you know who is bidding on your terms, you can plan a counterattack.

If you feel the competition is infringing on any trademarks, you can file a complaint with Google Ads here. And if they are violating Google Ads policies, then you can also report the ad. Or, you can simply reach out to the competitor and have a conversation.

2. Get More Visibility in the Search Results

The organic “blue links” represent only one area of the search results page that you want to own for your branded terms. The more you can show up in the search results, the better! Ranking with SEO and running a PPC campaign simultaneously can reinforce brand awareness and increase conversions.

For example, the search below returns both organic and paid results owned by the brand:

For more on this concept, check out our article on how to have a whole-SERP SEO strategy.

3. Control the Messaging

When someone searches for your brand name, and your website shows up in the organic search results, the displayed snippet is usually pulled from your homepage’s meta data. While you do have control of what you put in your meta data, you don’t always have control of how Google will display it.

Not only does an advertisement give you a lot more control over the messaging, but it also gives you a chance to play with more compelling ad copy than you might want in your homepage’s meta tags.

Here’s an example of how an ad can really make up for the lackluster organic listing of a popular shoe company:

For more on how meta tags actually work, check out our beginner’s article on meta tags.

Don’t Waste Money by Bidding on Branded Keywords

Alright, so we’ve covered the reasons why bidding on your branded terms is a good idea. But when is it a bad idea?

If you have the only ad showing on the search results page AND you are the No. 1 organic result — that’s when you shouldn’t pay for PPC.

That scenario can result in thousands or millions of wasted ad spend dollars per year, depending on the size of your traffic. (Side note: It looks like the Whole Foods example above currently falls into this category.)

So, what to do? Try doing a quick search with your brand name here.

If you see that you have the only ad followed by the top organic result, then you need some way of mitigating the cost of people clicking on your ad and wasting a lot of your money. Since ads change all the time, this could require some diligent monitoring.

There are tools out there that can help with this; in fact, we deploy one of them as an extension of our PPC services.

The tool we use figures out if you have the only PPC ad and if you are also the first organic result. It then tells Google Ads not to show the ad on the results page for that query. That way, the user never sees it, and you don’t waste ad spend.

This is the kind of thing you need to do to manage wasted ad spend related to bidding on your branded keywords.

At the end of the day, you want to have more control over how your brand shows up on the search results page. Bidding on branded keywords in your search advertising campaign is a no-brainer — so long as it doesn’t end up wasting money.

At Bruce Clay Inc., we offer expert PPC services that focus on reducing waste and maximizing return for your advertising budget. Contact us today for a free quote.

FAQ: How can I effectively enhance my brand’s online presence using branded keywords in PPC?

Branded keywords can help your brand increase visibility online and its impact. Here’s how you can do it efficiently.

Regarding brand recognition, PPC campaigns serve as a dynamic tool. You secure prime real estate in search engine results by bidding on branded keywords. This ensures that your brand appears at the forefront when potential customers search for your offerings. It’s not just about dominating the space; it’s about strategic positioning.

One of the most crucial aspects of utilizing branded keywords in PPC is countering competition. Your competitors will likely bid on your brand terms to redirect traffic to their sites. By doing the same, you safeguard your brand from being overshadowed. It’s a proactive measure that safeguards your hard-earned reputation and directs users to your official channels.

Striking a balance between organic and paid search results is essential. The synergy between these two avenues reinforces brand recall and fosters trust. When users encounter your brand multiple times across different sections of the search results, it reinforces your authority and increases the likelihood of them engaging with your offerings.

Messaging control is another compelling reason to invest in branded keywords. Organic search results often pull snippets from your website’s metadata, limiting your control over messaging. With PPC ads, you can craft persuasive ad copies highlighting your brand’s strengths and unique selling points. This allows you to guide the narrative and influence users’ perceptions positively.

Incorporating branded keywords into your PPC strategy demands vigilance. Regularly monitor your campaigns and adapt to changes in competition and market trends. Implement data-driven optimizations to fine-tune your approach. By aligning your PPC efforts with your broader branding goals, you create a holistic online presence that resonates with your target audience.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Enhancing Brand Presence with Branded Keywords in PPC

1. Identify Core Brand Keywords: List the primary keywords encompassing your brand identity and offerings.
2. Conduct Competitor Analysis: Research your competitors’ PPC strategies to understand their approach to bidding on branded terms.
3. Craft Compelling Ad Copies: Develop engaging and relevant ad copies highlighting your brand’s unique value proposition.
4. Strategic Bidding: Allocate your budget strategically to bid on branded keywords that matter the most to your brand.
5. Monitor Auction Insights: Regularly check Google Ads’ Auction Insights to identify competitors bidding on your branded terms.
6. Utilize Negative Keywords: Exclude irrelevant terms from your PPC campaign to ensure your ads appear for the most relevant searches.
7. Landing Page Optimization: Ensure that the landing page associated with your ads provides a seamless user experience.
8. Analyze Data and Metrics: Regularly analyze campaign performance metrics to identify areas of improvement.
9. Refine Ad Campaigns: Based on data insights, refine your ad campaigns to enhance their effectiveness.
10. Leverage Ad Extensions: Use ad extensions to provide additional information and encourage user interaction.
11. Experiment with Ad Formats: Test different ad formats to find the ones that resonate most with your target audience.
12. Segment and Target Audiences: Segment your audience and tailor your ad messaging to specific demographics.
13. Optimize Ad Scheduling: Schedule your ads to appear during peak hours when your target audience is most active.
14. Allocate Budget Wisely: Adjust your budget allocation based on the performance of different branded keywords.
15. Implement A/B Testing: Continuously conduct A/B tests to determine which ad variations yield the best results.
16. Stay Updated: Keep up with industry trends and changes in search engine algorithms to stay ahead of the competition.
17. Track ROI: Monitor the return on investment for your branded keyword campaigns to assess their impact.
18. Adapt to Changes: Be prepared to adapt your strategy based on your brand’s positioning and customer behavior shifts.
19. Continual Optimization: Implement ongoing optimization based on the evolving branded keywords and PPC landscape.
20. Refine Brand Messaging: Continuously refine your ad messaging to align with your evolving brand identity and goals.

The post Should I Bid on Branded Keywords in Our PPC Campaign? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Default advertising networks like Google and Facebook are great if you want to stick to the leaders and play it safe. But there are lots of other digital advertising channels where you can find your target audience.

Quora is an up-and-coming platform to watch, and we’ve successfully used it with clients as part of their marketing mix. Here’s the CMO’s guide to Quora Ads in under five minutes.

In this guide, I’ll cover:

• What is Quora?
• What is Quora Ads?
• How Quora Ads work
• Why use Quora Ads
• FAQ: How can I effectively utilize Quora Ads to reach my target audience?

What Is Quora?

Quora is a social Q&A platform. It allows people to ask questions and get answers from other Quora users, many of whom are professionals or otherwise experienced in the subject matter. The platform lets members upvote the answers to questions, and offers features like other social media.

Quora has more than 300 million monthly active users. To put this in context, Twitter has about 330 million monthly active users — though Twitter stopped reporting this metric in 2018.

Quora explains how the platform works:

Quora is organized around Topics, which are a series of questions anchored by a main keyword. When a user enters a search term on the site, a drop-down list of related Topics appears. Users can choose to follow Topics, which means related questions and answers will appear in the Quora news feed. Users can also write answers to questions when they have expertise to offer. Similar to how following works on Twitter, users can follow other users and profiles on Quora to receive notifications and see their content in news feed.

Unlike other user-generated Q&A sites, users on Quora create profiles based on their real identities. Quora has active moderation politics in place to ensure that discourse is civil, content quality is high, and people feel safe sharing their knowledge.

Here’s an infographic from Quora that gives the business opportunity at a glance:

What Is Quora Ads?

Quora Ads is Quora’s advertising arm.

Quora explains how advertising within the platform provides opportunity:

Over 300+ million people come to Quora every month to ask questions and read insightful answers. This includes people looking for reliable information about your company, products, competitors and industry. This gives advertisers the opportunity to influence people during the consideration phase of their purchase process. Quora is a unique, high-intent advertising platform, ideally suited to reach customers as they research a product or service.

Benefits include:

• A large base of monthly active users who are “highly educated and primarily live in West and East Coast metropolitan area.”
• On-brand targeting, as Quora promises that “your message will only appear alongside content that’s on par with your brand.”
• Lots of targeting options.

Quora Ads launched officially in 2017 and recently has been gaining ground among agencies and brands as a viable place to advertise. According to the 2019/2020 State of PPC report by Hanapin Marketing (now Brainlabs), brands and agencies are taking note.

For example, the 2018/2019 report found no agencies willing to pitch Quora Ads to clients. But that number rose to 20% in 2019/2020 report.

And, 14% of brands are investing in Quora Ads, according to the latest data. While this seems like small potatoes compared to Google, Facebook, and others, the opportunity for early adopters could pay off.

How Quora Ads Work

Quora Ads feels intuitive for anyone who’s worked with other digital advertising platforms like Google Ads. To set up a campaign, you choose a campaign objective and set the budget (minimum $5 daily to get started), ad schedule, targeting options, and bids (for clicks or impressions). Then you create an ad for Quora with a linked landing page where you’ll drive visitors.

Objectives for a campaign include:

• Traffic to your site
• Conversions on your website
• Downloads of your mobile app
• Awareness of your brand
• Lead generation

Targeting options include:

• Contextual targeting that shows ads that are relevant to certain topics, keywords and questions
• Audience targeting that matches an audience based on your web traffic; matches lookalike audiences based on an existing audience; or contacts based on an existing list
• Behavioral targeting that shows ads based on a person’s interests, keyword history or question history
• Broad targeting that shows ads widely across Quora
• Location targeting for states, cities, ZIP codes, etc.
• More targeting like device, gender, excluded questions and excluded audiences
• Quora digest email inclusion

Native ad types include text, image,s or promoted answers:

Here’s an example of a native image ad:

And here’s an example of a promoted answer within a user’s Quora feed:

Why Use Quora Ads

The nature of Quora leads to advertising that allows brands to build credibility as subject matter experts.

Besides branding, audience reach is another plus. People searching internally within Quora form a base, already a large population. But your audience may extend to Google searchers as well since Quora answers often rank in search engines organically.

So advertising on the platform is a way to reach a broad audience with high search intent — for a lot less than you’d probably pay for a Google ad.

Of course, you can view data from third-party studies like this one to see what types of results others have experienced. But there are far too many factors at play to generalize this type of data to every brand and campaign. If you’re interested in branching out with your advertising spend, Quora Ads is worth a try.

At Bruce Clay Inc. we offer PPC management services covering a variety of ad platforms. Contact us today to discuss your business’s marketing goals and get a free quote.

FAQ: How can I effectively utilize Quora Ads to reach my target audience?

Leveraging Quora Ads offers a unique opportunity to engage potential customers actively seeking information in your niche. To ensure your efforts yield maximum results, here are some expert strategies to consider:

1. Understand Your Audience:

Before delving into Quora Ads, conduct thorough research to understand your target audience’s preferences, pain points, and interests. This knowledge will guide your ad creation and targeting efforts.

2. Craft Compelling Content:

Develop ad content that addresses users’ queries effectively. Focus on providing value and solutions rather than a hard sell. This approach establishes your authority and encourages users to engage with your brand.

3. Precise Audience Targeting:

Utilize Quora’s targeting options to narrow your audience based on demographics, interests, and behavior. This precision ensures your ads are shown to the most relevant users.

4. Leverage Keyword Targeting:

Identify high-performing keywords related to your industry and incorporate them into your ad strategy. This increases the visibility of your ads in relevant discussions.

5. Engage Authentically:

Participate in discussions related to your niche to establish credibility. You can organically drive users to your ads and profile by offering insightful answers.

Transitioning seamlessly optimizing your Quora Ads is paramount:

6. A/B Testing:

Continuously test different ad formats, headlines, and visuals to identify what resonates best with your audience. Use this data to refine your campaigns over time.

7. Clear Call to Action (CTA):

Every ad should have a clear and compelling CTA that guides users on the desired action, whether visiting your website, signing up, or purchasing.

8. Monitor Performance:

Regularly analyze your campaign’s performance metrics. Identify which ads are generating the most clicks, conversions, and engagement. Adjust your strategy based on these insights.

9. Budget Allocation:

Allocate your budget wisely across different ad campaigns and target groups. Monitor which campaigns yield the best results and adjust your budget allocation accordingly.

10. Ad Creative Consistency:

Maintain a consistent visual and messaging style across your ads and landing pages. This fosters brand recognition and trust.

Now, let’s dive into the step-by-step procedure to utilize Quora Ads to reach your target audience effectively:

Step-by-Step Guide: Mastering Quora Ads for Target Audience Engagement

1. Audience Research: Identify your ideal customer profile and gather insights into their preferences, pain points, and behaviors.
2. Ad Creation: Craft compelling and informative ad content that addresses users’ questions and provides value.
3. Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords users frequently search for on Quora.
4. Targeting Options: Choose demographic, interest-based, and behavioral targeting options provided by Quora Ads.
5. Keyword Targeting: Incorporate high-performing keywords into your ad strategy to enhance visibility.
6. Profile Optimization: Ensure your Quora profile is complete and portrays your brand as an authority in your niche.
7. Engagement: Participate in discussions and provide insightful answers to attract users to your profile and ads.
8. A/B Testing: Continuously test different ad variations to optimize performance.
9. Clear CTAs: Include clear and actionable CTAs in your ads.
10. Performance Monitoring: Regularly analyze ad metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly.
11. Budget Management: Allocate the budget based on campaign performance.
12. Visual and Messaging Consistency: Maintain consistent branding across all ad creatives.
13. Engage with Leads: Respond promptly to users who engage with your ads or ask questions.
14. Ad Placement: Experiment with ad placement within relevant discussions.
15. Ad Scheduling: Optimize ad scheduling to reach users at peak engagement times.
16. Landing Pages: Ensure your landing pages align with your ad content and provide a seamless user experience.
17. Conversion Tracking: Implement tracking to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
18. Refinement: Regularly refine your ads based on user feedback and performance data.
19. Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors’ strategies and identify opportunities for differentiation.
20. Continuous Learning: Stay updated with Quora’s advertising features and industry trends to adapt your strategy accordingly.

By following these steps, you’ll be well-equipped to harness the power of Quora Ads and effectively reach your target audience with compelling and relevant content. Remember, success on Quora requires a balance of expertise, authenticity, and consistent effort.

The post The CMO’s Guide to Quora Ads in Less Than 5 Minutes appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..