Today’s article presents one of the more powerful search growth attack strategies for 2017: PPC (pay per click) brand protection. This article is the first in my eight-part series presenting SEM marketers with the most effective growth hacks for 2017. As CEO of the ad monitoring company, The Search Monitor, I see the ads, campaign strategies and performance results from agency and brand clients. In this series, I will use this data to present the best growth hacks for 2017. Why does brand protection matter?An ongoing and serious problem threatening your SEM revenue is competition from affiliates and competitors bidding on your valuable, high-converting branded keywords. The result of the increased number of advertisers competing against you is obvious: higher CPCs (costs per click), lower clicks and a lower click-through rate (CTR). We estimate that each competitor with ads running on your brand or brand-plus keyword terms costs you a 10 percent loss in clicks and a 20 percent increase in CPC. If we flip brand bidding around from a problem to a solution, you can turn competitive brand bidding into a monster growth opportunity for your SEM team. To illustrate this point, consider two case studies where creative growth hacks were used by two of our clients:
If you need even more data on the value of brand and brand-plus keywords, check out my past Search Engine Land article here. Now, let’s discuss what to do. Brand protection growth hack #1: Enhance your list of branded keywordsExpand your branded keyword list to include brand plus keyword variations. To do this, combine your brand name with common search term endings, such as:
Brand protection growth hack #2: Team up with partners & affiliatesCoordinate PPC efforts with partners and affiliates to dominate as much of the results page as possible. You will advertise on your brand terms, and then your partners will fill up the remaining top spots with “friendly” ads. Here’s the growth hack:
Brand protection growth hack #3: Knock out competitors with search engine complaintsRemove as many competitors as you can by letting the search engines do the work for you. My growth hack has two parts:
Brand protection growth hack #4: Piggyback on others’ brandsThis last growth hack flips Hack #3 around and turns you into the brand bidder to let you take advantage of brand bidding yourself. As I mentioned, the search engines allow you to brand bid (provided you do not use the brand in your ad copy) and to use competitors’ brands in your display URL. The key is to make sure that your landing page content is relevant to the promises made in your ad. The best strategies are as follows:
Here are a couple of examples from the past year showing this tactic. Chevy vs. FordSearch Term: Ford Fusion Marketo vs. PardotSearch Term: Pardot Final thoughts on brand protectionWhile the word “protection” can signify a defensive approach, PPC brand protection is actually a crucial part of your revenue growth attack strategy. This article discussed the value of these keywords, how to protect them using partners, how to defend them from competitors and how to smartly run ads on your competitors’ own branded searches. Now that your brand protection strategy is set, watch for my next growth hack article for tips on measuring and optimizing your PPC market share. Stay tuned! The post 2017 SEM growth hacks: Monster growth from brand protection appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2pHIYvr
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