Are branded keywords valuable to every audience? [Case Study]

Hello, my search industry friends.

If you’ve followed me, you know I’m a staunch supporter of using Brand search keywords (And those New York Jets).

So this column might get you into trouble. We’re talking about using ads to target branded searches – but only to those who don’t know the brand.

listen to me.

I also think the concept is illogical and goes against industry best practices.

But there is a way to make it work and make it purposeful.

Interestingly, two separate clients in different industries approached me with a similar situation:

• Client B: “How do we maintain brand power without advertising to consumers who are already coming to us?”
• Client N: “We wanted to see how first-time buyers vs. repeat buyers of our brand name interacted with us. But we wanted it to be as clean and clear as possible. How would we connect previous buyers of our brand name with previous buyers who searched for our name but never Distinguish those who have purchased?”

Both are essentially equivalent to marketable, brand-conscious audiences who come to us through different forms of media.

when i remind them 1+1=3 SEO+SEM Incremental InsightsI sat down and tried to figure out how these Google Ads work, what they would look like, and how to determine success.

Two Different Audience List Game Plans

Since the requests are similar but different, we have to come up with a game plan to execute them. This in turn affects the design.

To my surprise, this was actually simpler than expected.

Both clients are heavy users Google Analytics (which I strongly advocate), making this design quite effective.

First, I need the audience list.

We create a list of all website visitors for Client B and set a 365-day range on it.

We use this list for exclusionary purposes and the resulting Google lookalike audience (ie what it looks like) will be used for observation.

Client N is slightly different. They have window shoppers, but they never have buyers on their website, so we need a less aggressive stance.

We created a list of anyone who made at least one purchase on the site and used GA’s maximum reach of 540 days.

We use this list as an exclusion.

This allows previous visitors to still come in and get the offer, provided they haven’t made a purchase.

Image via Google Analytics, March 2022

Next, we had to wait.

We informed both clients that the initial launch would take four to six weeks to allow the audience to build some history and generate any level of effectiveness.

We also supplement these lists with CRM list uploads to maximize accuracy.

Ultimately, we see site visitors go from being targeted to being blocked or diverted based on their behavior on the site.

Expert Tips: Develop a lengthy timeline for the deployment of anything involving any first-party data audience lists. This allows the list to grow and become more useful over time.

How do we organize these events?

It’s not rocket science (unlike trying to fold a fitted sheet).

In fact, there are different ways to do this. But I support the most concrete separation, so I like to keep things separate at the campaign level.

Client B has a simpler structure – importing audiences from GA to Google Ads.

Enter the campaign and exclude all visitor audiences for 365 days.

Rumble, roll around.

If you want fancy pants in this regard, add your lookalike audience lists and in-market audiences that you have reviewed as observational.

Want to feel like an industry all-star? Add bid modifiers.

But yes, Client B is set.

Client N is slightly more complex; they want to be visible in branded searches, but to differentiate repeat buyers from non-buyers.

Monitor to track new customer growth, measure some branding efforts, and decide if you need to offer incentives to non-buyers who know our name.

Note that non-brands have a similar setup, and it’s already incentivizing new shoppers.

For Client N, we copied a branded keyword campaign.

An exclusive audience target for remarketing lists purchased in the past 540 days (plus CRM lists with confirmed purchases) will be called a duplicate.

Another campaign excludes that remarketing list (and CRM list); this campaign is called NTF (the internal naming acronym is all you need to know).

Over time, the 540-day list gets longer, so non-buyer transactions continue to flow to those who haven’t bought before.

In Client N, the two campaigns mirror each other in terms of bid keywords, bid strategies (not the most recommended method), and landing pages.

The main difference between them (besides the audience who sees it) is a slightly different idea.

Image via Google Analytics, March 2022

How can we be sure that the election is successful?

Honestly, “success” in this context is a relative term.

Like starting my own little chicken farm in my backyard…in a city. There are no clear but/clear boundaries, it’s more of an observation of the audience.

For Client B, the concept of success is gaining a strong market share in our hyper-targeted geographic area, people who know our brand name but have not visited the site before.

Also, it would be a success if we could get conversions compared to all audiences in a cost-effective way.

Client N is different.

There is no real measure of success.

Just observe the value of new vs repeat customers and see how they perform.

So like I said before, “success” here is relative.

In my opinion, solemnly declare that my small group chicken farm is a success.

Expert Tips: Don’t put your face close to the chickens; they will bite you. They also don’t like to wear costumes. Both statements are directly related.

result:

For Client B, this is interesting.

We said, “If you’ve been here before, we won’t pay you again!”

We measured data for all audiences, only new visitors 7 weeks before the change and 7 weeks after the change (a three-week difference between the two time frames for processing holidays).

Image via Google Analytics, March 2022

Unsurprisingly, CPC went up a little and CTR went down a little; these aren’t doomsday differences.

Our conversion rate dropped 19% and our cost-per-click (CPC) soared 50%.

But when you look at relative numbers, they’re not that scary.

Given the low CPCs for branded terms and our total CPA target of less than $10, we’re not concerned in this case.

An important thing to note is that we are “successful” if market share is our primary success metric (translated here as impression share).

Yes, our traffic was down slightly (about 44%), but we captured more brand awareness and never visited our site audience.

Client N is still different.

Once again, we wanted to understand the behavioral differences between audiences and make it as clear as possible.

Image via Google Analytics, March 2022

The data is clear and insightful.

We finally understand the contribution of non-search marketing to branded search demand.

It also showed us a 7% higher average order value (AOV) for repeat purchases and a more than 220% higher conversion rate (CVR) than first-time buyers in brand terms.

It also shows the need to incentivize first-time buyers on the brand side, where the chances of re-converting are so high, if not more.

Essentially, repeat buyers of the brand made at least 206% more sales than single buyers (as our data was only 8 months old).

So, what does this mean?

More or less, you already suspect something.

Presence in terms of branding is still very important.

But if you have to leave the brand — at least, to save a few bucks — don’t leave your first engagement.

They’ll take you into your CRM and help you demonstrate the value of non-search higher channel marketing.

Also, chickens can bite.

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Featured Image: FOTOSPLASH/Shutterstock