The Brand Appeal of Search Marketing

By Gary Finn

Account Executive

Many advertisers are finding more reasons to place ads on many of the top global search engines, now that they are using it to promote their brands.

Historically, pay-per-click advertising (i.e. Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing etc) have been almost solely considered a direct-response medium, where advertisers can measure how many people they reached by tracking the number of clicks and subsequent sales. However, many advertisers are starting to use PPC ads for branding purposes, like more traditional ads.

Many companies are now placing ads through Google Adwords to send a message or promote a product generally, and not necessarily to get customers to take an immediate action, such as purchasing an item. Since PPC advertising occurs at the search level, your sites ads will be shown for certain keywords. Over time, this association grows stronger and helps to brand your website with a particular product.

Furthermore, many studies show that more and more users are turning to search engines as navigational tools, meaning that they'll search for a brand name rather than guessing a URL. Companies that lack a presence in the PPC ads for their own products may be missing out on potential customers. Additionally, having your brand name ad show up for the right generic phrases is a great way to brand your business.

The beauty of PPC ads is that impressions are free. That means that rather than paying for impressions like a company would for a typical banner ad, they pay only for any actual visits (i.e. a user clicking on your ad).

So before you sit down again to tackle your pay-per-click campaign, think about what goal you are trying to accomplish. Do you simply want to use pay-per-click to drive more sales to your site, or should you use it to achieve brand appeal!