Michael Kahn: Searchers trust the engines to tell them which brands are the most relevant for the keyword. As a branding vehicle, paid search drives brand engagement. Brand term bidding (an offensive and defensive strategy). Brand terms generally drive more conversion than generic terms. Better bid strategies come from a deeper understanding of the entire search behavior.
Scott Edwards: Branded paid search campaigns monetize existing search volume. Failing to capture all the branded search terms means you are leaving money on the table. Yet, branded paid search campaigns should still meet performance goals. Branded paid search terms monetizes other advertising spend. Make sure to harvest queries non core terms. Are competitors bidding on your terms?
Julie Sun: Branded Searches show demand…growing trend of using search as a top level navigation. Use branded searches as a barometer of marketing efforts across platforms, brand strength, market share. More branded searches = higher brand awareness. Search Behavior: Searcher’s behavior can tell you a log about your brand: Brand Association (what is being searched along with your brand?), misspellings, long tail terms. Search can tell you a lot about your brand strength, competition & opportunities.
Melanie Mitchell: Steps for Launching A New Brand. 4 part strategy: 1) Use Paid search to reinforce offline branding efforts. 67% of people are driven to perform searches as a result of exposure to some offline channel. 2) SEO contributes to brand perception. 3) Blended search results capture traffic. 4) Engage in the “right” communities. Clearly define your strategy, know your customers, study it, and study the speakers, find an entry by appealing to your interests. Successfully integrated marketing campaigns starts with the customer, emphasizes customer behavior, transcends campaigns. The search engines are listening to your customers…are you?
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.