Branded keywords useful in converting leads to customers
Discussion around the use of brand-focused keywords in an online paid campaign is one that takes place in businesses the world over.
Detractors may argue that it’s unnecessarily redundant because your website will rank organically if leads enter your business name and the funds can be directed to non-brand keywords.
Those in favour of promoting a branded keyword in paid advertising believe that it’s important to have domination in the search results, the cost of the branded keywords aren’t particularly high and you can direct prospects to the landing page that’s designed for conversion.
If you go down the path of bidding on branded keywords, the next logical question follows is how do you measure its success given that the lead is looking for you already?
Here at Delacon, we advocate that prospects that use the telephone are closer to the end of the sales funnel and generally attract a higher sale’s value.
Given this criteria, branded keywords can actually play a significant role in making the conversion from lead to customer.
Non-branded keywords are usually generic in their purpose. Prospects use them when they’re in the research stage – when they want to become familiar with their options, gain an understanding of the market and collate pricing.
After the prospect has gone through the research stage of browsing through various websites, they need to return to the business website that they’ve decided is perfect for their needs.
To find that website, the prospect is not going to re-enter those generic non-branded keywords they used previously but they’re going to use branded keywords so that they can access the chosen website without fuss.
When analysing the keywords that led to a call, some businesses may observe that branded keywords are overly represented compared to their non-branded counterparts.
This is logical given the sales funnel and the way in which leads interact with companies using digital platforms. Under this scenario, branded keywords are important – the ad appears in the prime position on the search engine results page and enables leads to access the phone number of the business as quickly as possible so that they can purchase the product or use their services.
The challenge for companies is how to capture leads when they’re still in that research stage. It’s also important to compare the volume of traffic that returns to a website who don’t convert with a submission form or telephone call.