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Don’t Let Competitors Outbid You on Your Brand Names

05/06/2018 - Digital Marketing

If you type your company name into a search engine, you might be under the impression that your website will be the first to appear.

But due to bids on brand terms in the paid search arena, this is not always the case. Competitors can usurp you by bidding on your brand names and as such they might appear first on results pages.

That means that even if one of your potential customers has heard good things about your company, there’s a risk of losing them due to one of your competitors catching their eye once they’ve searched for you online with a paid advertisement.

You might think this isn’t exactly by the book, and it’s certainly not the prettiest of digital marketing tactics. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to help tackle such tactics from your competitors and give yourself a better chance of staying top of the pile.

Do the Research

What happens when you search for your company name? Or one of your brands? What is appearing in front of you?

There might be some surprising answers to some of those questions due to the tactics your competitors have adopted. It’s completely feasible that you have searched for your own company name and yet aren’t the first to appear in the search results – don’t be shocked if this is the case!

It’s important to know what you’re up against as part of your digital strategy and work out what kind of approach your competitors are taking. That way you are best prepared to make decisions that are in your best interest.

Be sure to get a clear idea of the state of play and pin down exactly what you want to do and where you want to do it.

Analyse and Act

For many companies, their name and their brand are synonymous. For example, let’s say you’re a B2C company operating under the name ‘Excellent Bicycles’.There’s a chance that by using a sneaky bit of wordplay, your competitors are getting the upper hand in search results with no benefit to you at all. For example, they could have a PPC advert that reads: ‘Looking for excellent bicycles? Look no further than Brilliant Bikes’. It’s sneaky, but it can be effective.

So if your name is comprised of keywords that can’t be registered, a PPC campaign might be a good idea.

“If you have a brand name that includes keywords that cannot be registered, something to consider if you do go down the PPC campaign route is that your quality score will be high,” says Yasser Mohammed, full stack digital marketing manager at Un.titled. “This is because your landing page experience is highly relevant to the keyword used to trigger the ad, which is, of course, your brand name. Having a high-quality score means you will generally pay less than competitors and you give yourself a better chance of pushing your brand towards the top of the search rankings.”

Alternatively, you might be an established industry leader. But this means competitors could see a chance to benefit from bidding on your brand name, and potentially even outrank you.

So, for example, if your company is called ‘Benjamin’s Bikes’ and you’re hypothetically one of the leading bike retailers in the field, your competitors could bid on the term ‘Benjamin’s Bikes’. If they do this, whenever someone searches for your company online, there’s a chance that a competitors’ PPC advert will catch their eye and they will shop with them instead.

“If you spot this kind of thing happening to you, there are a few things you can do,” says Mohammed. “Consider copyrighting your brand names if you haven’t done so already. That means your competitors’ ability to bid on your brand name is diminished. Alternatively, you could look to outbid your competitors with a PPC campaign of your own.”

You might not feel it’s necessary to bid on your own brand names but sometimes it’s the way to go and can make a real difference if your competitors are using tactics such as this.

Getting Things Right

The world of Pay Per Click and paid advertising is competitive and if mis-managed, can render the money you spend on your campaign a waste.

Speaking with a PPC expert can set you on course for a successful campaign that brings real benefits to your business. Whether you’re looking to generate sales, get more registrations to your site or promote a new brand or release, be sure to get the support you need to make your PPC campaign a success.

Un.titled is in a position to provide ongoing support and keep you on top of the subtle changes Google and Microsoft sometimes make to their search algorithms. We are a Google Premier Partner, have Certified Google Ads PPC experts in our ranks.

We can help make sure you don’t get left behind in the PPC battle and can continue to enjoy the benefits a strong, well-managed campaign can bring. As an established PPC agency, Un.titled is in a great position to offer you leading PPC management and expertise.