Why does pay–per–click bidding on your own brand work so well?

Writing about web page http://www.frost-electroplating.co.uk/directions.html

I have recently been reviewing a series of Adwords groups that bid on my client’s brands and company names. Some of these are common names, there are a lot of Nova Engineerings out there. But 25% of them were looking for an engineering company in Coventry. Others had changed brands so N.T. Frost became Frost Electroplating and the Adwords have been slowly educating their customers and has faded.

Other results were remarkable; 30% click-through-rate for slightly shorter versions of company names. ‘Simmons Epoxy’ at 66% was the highest return. Simmons Mouldings are synonymous with epoxy resin sinks and lab benchtops so people just search for the name and the material!

Many of these companies have good websites that are top of Google’s results for their brands. So why the high click-through-rate for the little text ads? The main reason is that the page title does not echo the search. Good page titles will emphasise the company’s products and services and add the brand to the end but there should be one that puts the company name first and one that has location in the title.

Examples from Frost Electroplating’s new titles:

Contact Frost Electroplating for Specialist, Technical Service
Find Frost Electroplating in Birmingham, West Midlands, UK

The rest of the site puts the products and services first:

Plating Services using Gold, Silver etc. | Frost Electroplating | UK
Plating to TS16949 Quality using XRF, AAS | Frost Electroplating.

I have been asking around as to why we search more for information we already have? When the buyer is in another building at the request of the MD or board he will use the local PC to find the phone number. But mostly two words in your Search Toolbar is quicker than the filing cabinet, telephone book etc.

You can see my guide to bidding your own brand over at ppcPromotion.co.uk .

Robert McGonigle : 03 Dec 2008 10:09 |  Tags: Bid On Brands Google Adwords Pay Per Click |  Comments (2) |  Report a problem