Recently, Basecamp grabbed attention with an eye-catching advert. The ad itself took a swipe at Google and the idea that pretty much anyone can bid on the back of their success and they’re effectively held ransom by Google because they have to pay to top the search results for their brand.
It’s upto you what you think about the dominance of Google!
Let’s explore bidding on competitors a bit more.
There’s nothing to stop anyone bidding on certain keywords and terms related to other brands, infact it’s pretty common. You can bid on related brand terms for a specific business, which will in turn drive up the price of the search times that receive a lot off traffic which means they’ll need to bid more. A brand could ask you to stop and if you don’t, they’ll probably bid on your terms to try to make money back.
It’s a dog eat world out there…
Is brand bidding useful for your business?
If you’re, for example, a fledging fashion brand then it makes sense to piggyback off the brand search times for massive businesses like TopShop or H&M – they’ll have more brand search volume than you, so you can be more bold with brand bidding. In return, they’ll probably start to bid on your brand’s search terms and in turn you’ll have to bid more so you’re nearer the top of your brand’s search results, which is beneficial to you as you’ll have fewer people searching for your brand at this stage.
Whereas if you’re a massive brand, with lots of search volume, you probably won’t be spending time bidding on competitors’ terms, unless they’re bidding on yours, of course. If you’re actually the top search result for your search terms organically then it’s worth investing in other advertising.
Brand bidding also depends on the industry that you’re in – if you’re in a small area where you’re going to come into contact with other businesses a lot or work alongside them then bidding on their terms could become awkward. Your next networking session could get a little bit tetchy.
Look back at Basecamp’s reaction to brand bidding – it annoys and irks other brands so if you come into contact with them in person locally, they might question you on this. It’s just something that some industries are less likely to do, rather than say, credit card companies that will aggressively bid on competitors’ brand search terms.
It’s worth making sure that brand bidding fits into the ethos and strategy of your brand. If everyone else is doing it in your industry then it’s not something to feel particularly conscious of, but if it’s important to uphold good relationships with your competitors then it’s worth swerving brand bidding on their terms and prioritising good relationships.
If you’re unsure what’s best for your brand and want to know which terms to bid on then get in touch with our team at DOWO and we can help you with your advertising strategy and brand bidding technique