Why Advertise Your Brand Through PPC?

Clients have asked me in the past, "why should we spend PPC dollars on advertising our own brand?  We already rank #1 naturally."

Market intelligence.

Bidding on your brand provides actual data about how often people are looking for you on the Web.  Not just estimated data from keyword tools.  And for those of you who have not done it, it can be a revelation.  You probably already can tell from your website reporting package how many people are coming into your site on your brand name, but that won't tell you how many searches there were.

And bid on your URL too. 

I personally was dumbfounded one day when a fairly internet-savvy friend used Google by typing the URL into the search box.  I thought he made a mistake and asked him.  Nope, daily practice.  So I tried it with a client, and now it is a regular practice.

Try this - while this may be a deep shade of gray (hopefully not too deep a shade), I also bid on the URL's of my clients competitors, unless it is a major trademarked brand, where I get a gentle slap on the wrist from Google or Yahoo.  But when you can do this, you know how often people are looking for your competitors, with real data.

The next concern of a client is "it's a waste of $$"

Not for the amount of market research you get out of it.

Oh yeah, the CPC is tiny.  And the conversion rates for commerce and B2B leads is higher than any other keyword you bid on.  Pays for itself.

It's worth it.  Try it.