Brand Bidding & PPC Optimization: Best Practices For Brand Bidding (Part 3 of 8)

Welcome to Part 3 of a series on PPC brand bidding, where I answer the biggest question facing PPC advertisers in 2016: How do I get meaningful growth numbers out of a crowded and competitive PPC market?

Let’s get you all caught up. In Part 1, we reviewed how gains in PPC evolved over the years and why top-line revenue is so hard to come by today. Part 2 used data and case studies to explain just how valuable brand bidding has become to marketers.

With the “why” now out of the way, it’s time to discuss the best practices of “how” to implement brand bidding campaigns.

1. Keyword Development

As with any PPC campaign, brand bidding begins with effective keyword development. There are plenty of primers on keyword selection and keyword research tools on the web if you need to review the basics. These definitely apply to brand campaigns, too.

To start, find the brand and brand-plus keywords by reviewing your existing campaigns and analytics for generic terms that drive the best traffic. Then, add your brand terms in front of them (e.g., Burton + women’s snowboards on sale).

Next, combine your brand name with common search term appendages, such as:

1. Brand + product name (“Burton snowboard”).

2. Brand + review (“Burton Snowboard review”).

3. Brand + discount (“Burton discount”).

4. Brand + sale (“Burton sale”).

5. Brand long tail (“used Burton Process Flying V Snowboard 2016 157W”).

6. Brand + website (“www.Burton,” “Burton.com” or “Burton website”).

You can also check Google Autocomplete and related searches (at the bottom of the results page) for common searches on your brand.

[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]