brand term bidding: an offensive + defensive strategy - retail edition
TRANSCRIPT
The value of bidding on your brand termsAn offensive and defensive strategy
for digital marketers
Retail edition
There is an ongoing debate about the inclusion of brand name keywords in search marketing campaigns.
Performance of brand name keywords varies according to many factors, including the competitiveness of the industry segment.
The researchers at Bing Ads recently tackled a big question
that advertisers wrestle with…“To bid or not to bid on brand terms?”
We analyzed 3 million impressions for retailon Bing in December 2014.
And included
the majority of the brand terms searched for in the retail vertical.
We compared two scenarios:
1) When a brand term ad was present on the search results page
2) When a brand term ad was not present on the search results page
Because Bing Ads is a search engine, we have deep insight into what’s happening on the search results page – for any brand, advertiser, and industry.
Since we can see all the clicks on the page, we can tell if the clicks go to your brand, your competitor, or somewhere else.
We found two things.
Advertisers who bid on their brand terms received:
More clicks.
And fewer clickswent to competitors.
By bidding on your brand terms, you are playing offense and defense
at the same time.
Driving more clicks on offense, and preventing your competitors from winning clicks to your brand terms on defense.
Score!
Let’s start.
Retail We looked at how many clicks a brand got
without a brand ad present on the search results page.
“retail brand”.com
Here’s where people clicked – the top organic positions
Retail Then we looked at how many clicks a
brand got with a brand ad present in search results page.
Here’s where people clicked:
The brand ad (mainline position 1)
The top organic positions
“retail brand”.com
First let’s look at the results
when an advertiser is not bidding on their brand terms in the retail space.
Retail
“travel brand” flight“retail brand”.com
For the retail industry, when no brand ad is present, the brand received 60% of clicks on the search results page – from organic listings.
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
No brand ad
60%
People clicked the top organic positions
Do clicks increase when we add a brand ad?
Retail Yes! Clicks increased 32% when a brand
ad was present.
91%
Brand ad + organic
Brand ad in main line position 1 and top organic listings.
“retail brand”.com
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Retail Booyah! That’s 31% clicks gained as a
result of brand term bidding.
Gain
Brand ad + organic
60%
31%
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Brand ad in main line position 1 and top organic listings.
No brand ad
60%
Retail Here’s where the clicks will go:
49%
Brand ad + organic
42%TO BRAND AD
TO ORGANIC
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Brand ad in main line position 1 and top organic listings.
“retail brand”.com
Our research shows thatBrand term bidding helps deliver more clicks.More clicks? Let’s break that down…
What about cannibalization?
Wouldn’t I receive some of those clicks anyway if I didn’t bid on my brand terms?
Retail
Yes, some paid clicks you may have received anyway. But you also received 31% incremental clicks!
Incremental (paid) clicks from the brand ad
Overlap: Paid clicks you may have received free anyway from organic listing
49%No brand ad
60%
Brand ad + organic
11%
31%
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Brand ad in main line position 1 and top organic listings.
Retail Competitors are getting 40% of clicks
when no brand ad is present.
91%
No brand ad
60%
Brand ad + organic
40%
9%Your competitor
You
Your competitor
You
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Brand ad in main line position 1 and top organic listings.
How many of these clicks to competitors were on their ad?
Retail
Great question. Clicks on competitors’ ads decreased from 34% to 4% when a brand ad was present.
91%
No brand ad
60%
Brand ad + organic
6%
5%
34%
4%
Competitor ad
Competitor organic
Competitor adCompetitor organic
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Brand ad in main line position 1 and top organic listings.
You You
Let’s take a look at a few examples from individual retail advertisers.
Retail
Without a brand ad present, this major retail company’s competitors can capture over half of the clicks for some searches.
34%
“Retail brand”furniture
57%
“Retail brand” bridal registry
69%
“Retail brand” baby registry
43%66%
31%
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Competitor Ad + organic
No brand ad
Retail
Just a few of clicks to competitors were on their
organic results.
34%
“Retail brand”furniture
57%
“Retail brand”
bridal registry
69%
“Retail brand”
baby registry
41%61%
25%
Source: Bing Ads Internal Data, December 2014.
Competitor OrganicNo brand ad Competitor Ad
6%
5%
2%
Oh snap!
Retail
High fives all around for this major retail company. Competitor ads captured only up to 11% of clicks with a brand ad present.
97%
“Retail brand” Bridal
82%
“Retail brand” Home
81%
“Retail brand” Furniture Sale
18% 19%
Competitor Ad + Organic
Brand Ad + Organic
3%
Booyah!
Let’s recap that.
Brand term bidding is a strategy that allows you to play offense and defense at the same time.
Bidding on your brand terms reduces opportunities for your competitors to capture your customers or their mindshare if
they bid on your brand terms.
❶ PLAY OFFENSEBrand term bidding helps deliver more clicks.
❷ PLAY DEFENSEBrand term bidding means fewer clicks to competitors.
What do I risk if I don’t bid on my brand terms?
❶ Getting a lower “click-yield”
or rate of clicks/searches, even with a strong SEO strategy in place.
.
What do I risk if I don’t bid on my brand terms?
As we saw, you can risk losing nearly half of clicks if you don’t bid on your brand terms.
❷ Losing clicks to competitors attempting to “conquest” the searches for your brand.
Don’t let your competitors steal demand for your brand – your clicks and leads.
.
What’s the best way to get started?
To learn more about the value of bidding on your brand terms, check out the complete Bing Ads
research study and white paper
The beauty of search advertising is that advertisers can make data-driven decisions – like whether or not to bid on their brand terms.
And the best way to glean these insights is through testing to understand how your brand performs based on your objectives.Ready, set, bid (on your brand terms)!
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