We’ve answered this question over and over again. Every situation calls for it’s own solution and you should test to find the answer for you, but by and large we’ve found that buying branded keywords in PPC is a good idea. Here’s all my thoughts on it. Buckle your seatbelt.

1. If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It

A properly managed PPC campaign is being managed and optimized to a performance goal that supports a business goal. All keywords and ads are measured against that goal. It’s pretty simple – if a keyword is supporting the goal by helping the campaign meet or beat the performance goal, then leave it in there. If it’s not helping the campaign perform, then get rid of it.

Sometimes though, you don’t know whether something is broken or not until you test it. I absolutely encourage you to test whether or not having branded keywords in your campaign is effective, but that judgement should be made based on data.

2. The Power of PPC Ads and Organic Listings on the Same Page

Don’t like my argument above? Then let’s look at some data. NYU’s Stern School of Business did a study in late 2009 called: “Analyzing the Relationship between Organic and Sponsored Search Advertising: Positive, Negative or Zero Interdependence?” [Links to a PDF] Don’t worry you don’t have to read it or interpret the numbers – I did it for you. Here’s a breakdown of a couple key findings:

Click Through: Combine SEO + PPC for Best Results

Click Through Rates increase for terms where you have both an organic (SEO) and paid (PPC) presence. Not only do you own more of the search results page real estate, giving you a better shot at capturing a click, but perhaps there’s a gain in brand perception and credibility as well.

Conversion: Combine SEO + PPC for Best Results

Conversion Rates increase for terms where you have both an organic and paid result. Perhaps having a presence in both improves your credibility and/or encourages a repeat visit?

True, this study isn’t directly addressing branded keywords, but it does address the search results landscape. Having a PPC ad and an organic result on the same page improves performance. My assertion is that this applies to branded keywords just like it would any other keyword in your campaign. In our view – you HAVE to include brand keywords in your PPC campaign as a baseline. You can always test the impact of not having brand keywords, but if my job is to make the PPC campaign perform – I’m going to hedge my bets and include branded keywords in my PPC campaign.

3. Branded PPC Supports the Conversion Funnel

If your campaign is firing on all cylinders then PPC will be reaching users all along the conversion path with the right message at the right time. This includes the final stage of  the funnel where conversion/purchase/vendor selection happens. Sometimes people just want directions or a phone number. Why not use a PPC ad and take the opportunity to make that next step a little easier? That makes your brand look a little more helpful.

4. Defend Your Turf

Look at all the competition trying to get a click for this "iPad" brand search.

Competitors bidding on your brand terms can push your organic listing way down, giving them the click instead of you.

5. Control the Message and the Link

6. Quality Score

Conclusion

So there you have it, our thoughts on the role that brand keywords play in your PPC campaign. What did I miss? What did I get wrong? What are your experiences with branded PPC? Leave a comment.

More Resources – Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

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This is the first guest post we’ve put up on our site. We plan to bring more good content onto our blog from partners, colleagues, and experts. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Does Your B2B Marketing Plan for 2012 Involve More or Less Social Media?

With 2012 kicking off, it is important for B2B marketers to have a fix on whether or not social media will play an important role in their marketing efforts over the next 12 months.

For some marketers, social media has already paid major dividends in leading their businesses to more exposure and sales for that matter. Others, however, have been slow to adapt social media into their marketing plans, be it to lack of planning, shortage of faith or a combination of both.

When you stop to look at the various studies on social media and its importance to B2B marketers, the numbers are quite frankly randomly scattered.

According to a survey from email and social media marketer StrongMail, more than 50 percent of B2B marketers report they will be adding to their marketing budgets over the next 12 months, while just eight percent plan to decrease their efforts.

For those planning on additional marketing, 55 percent said increases will go towards social media efforts, i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, while 68 percent report they will do more to integrate social media with their email marketing plans. Lastly, 64 percent state that awareness building proved the most important feature when it came to social media.

Meantime, a BtoB Magazine report claims that 93 percent of all B2B marketers are currently using some means of social media marketing, with the majority utilizing the best-known sites, i.e. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The exact numbers broke down to the following:

• 72 percent use LinkedIn;
• 71 percent use Facebook;
• 67 percent use Twitter;
• 48 percent use YouTube;
• 44 percent blog;
• 22 percent participate in online communities.

So, such numbers would seem to indicate many B2B marketers are using social media, but don’t let the data fool you. As it turns out, many marketing pros still report a number of obstacles when it comes to integrating social media into their marketing efforts.

According to the survey, 70 percent of B2B marketers named a shortage of resources as the biggest stumbling block to properly implementing a social media plan. Among the other challenges was:

• 57 percent reporting badly defined success metrics and critical performance measurements;
• 44 percent noting a shortage of knowledge when it comes to social media;
• 22 percent stating management resistance.

While the survey did not break down the reasoning for the 22 percent showing resistance to using social media in their marketing plans, it is safe to say that some older marketers, those who have not been exposed as much to SM as younger professionals, may feel it is not worth their time and effort.

In the event you want your 2012 marketing efforts to include more emphasis on social media, keep these factors in mind:

• Become engaged – In the event your company’s marketing efforts presently do not include sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ then make those priorities in January. On Facebook, set up a fan page. With Twitter, you can share industry links with articles on trends and more. LinkedIn works as a great business resource, while Google+ allows you to construct a circle of friends, exposing them to your marketing efforts;
• Construct your brand – With a strong emphasis on social media, you can increase your company’s B2B brand awareness, better your rank among search engines, and provide both present and potential clients with added reason to want to visit your company’s Web site;
• Measure your results – It is certainly not unheard of to come across B2B marketers who are not effectively measuring their social media efforts. So, why employ a social media strategy if you’re not going to measure the results? You want to see who is engaging in your social media efforts, where they are coming from, what specifically is of interest to them and more. Recording such analytics will help you better focus your social media efforts, letting you know where there needs to be more effort and improvement.

While social media is not the end all of your marketing efforts, it can and should play a major role in your plans for 2012. If it doesn’t, you’re simply being anti-social.

About the Author: Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a business, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Get Amplify Interactive’s SEM Secrets whitepaper, which covers the topic of integrating  SEO & Social Media Marketing.

– –Update: Jan 5 2012– –
Seattle Interactive published a video of the session. So now you can watch my presentation in real live moving pictures. The slide deck is below as well.

SEO and User Experience Panel at SIC2011 from Seattle Interactive Conference on Vimeo.

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Check out the presentation to find out how:

If you’re interested in more, you can see all the slides from the other presenters on the Seattle Interactive SEO & UX session here: http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/seoux-panel-at-seattle-interactive-conference-sic2011

Unbeknownst to you, I have had the team furiously battling each other in a blogging contest for the last few months. The contest goes through the end of the year, and there are VALUABLE prizes on the line.

Image by Images_of_Money via Flickr

The team has put out some great posts over the last few months, and I thought it was a good idea to make sure you saw them. So here’s the front-running posts from each Amplify blogger over the last 3 months. In alphabetical order:

Ben

Actually – I’m not going to tell you my most viewed posts. The team is trying to beat me, so I’ll throw them a bone. Think you know which post it is? Comment below.

Christian

Informational post: “8 Tips on How to Optimize a Blog Post”

• The title says it all. There’s even a PDF you can download “anatomy of an optimized blog post”

Most viewed column: “Christian Reads… (So You Don’t Have To) – SEO Edition – June 2011″

• Lots of stuff on SEO Ranking Factors in this one

Jessica

Informational Post: “Facebook Insights, For Your Website?”

• Jessica details how you can get Facebook stats for pages on your site, not just on the stuff you post to Facebook. Confused? You won’t be after you read this.
• Note – she’s still waiting to post Part 2…

Most Viewed Column: “Jessica’s Social Media “Likes” – 07/06/2011″

• Chock full of stuff: Twitter Town Hall, Google+ Project, Social Engagement Tracking in Google Analytics, and more…

Ryan

Informational Post: “Launch and Optimize a Google Display Network Campaign in 3 Easy Steps”

• What? You can do a display campaign using Google? Yep – here’s 3 easy steps to get one going.

Most Viewed Column: “Ryan’s June PPC Playlist – 8 Best PPC Reads for June”

• The theme – using data to manage ppc campaigns

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How can you help your favorite Amplify blogger win? When they write a new blog post, share it, like it, forward it, comment on it, do stuff like that.

And just for fun – I got on a Rocky III kick somehow last week, and revisited my favorite clip from the movie. Mr. T (as Clubber Lange) knocks this one out of the park. I think you’ll like this one too. (if you’re reading via email/reader – you need to click through for the video)

What’s your prediction for the fight?

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