Brand Term Bidding: An offensive + defensive strategy - Retail Edition

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


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 Booyah! That’s 31% clicks gained as a

result of brand term bidding.

Gain

Brand ad + organic

60%

31%



No brand ad

60%

Retail Here’s where the clicks will go:

49%

Brand ad + organic

42%TO BRAND AD

TO ORGANIC




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%



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



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



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%


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%


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)!

http://www.slideshare.net/bingads/tax-white-paper-final

http://www.slideshare.net/bingads/tax-white-paper-final

© 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Date post:	26-Jul-2015
Category:	Marketing
Upload:	bing-ads
View:	3,063 times
Download:	1 times

Brand Term Bidding: An offensive + defensive strategy - Retail Edition

Marketing