The branded campaign strategy is something that account managers use to show ads to users who search for the brand company name on Google. These campaigns allow you to protect your company from competitors who wish to bid on your brand name. They also allow you to take control of your brand message so you can have as much control of your messaging as possible. Branded campaigns are simple to set up if you understand proper campaign structure, but they may be more complex to set up for those who don’t. This article will walk you through the basic components of the branded campaign, and it will explain how best to approach these aspects of the setup.
Branded Campaign Keyword Targeting
Keyword targeting with branded campaigns is very easy. To target your brand name in an efficient and organized manner, simply add the name of your company as an exact match and phrase match keyword. To use our agency as an example, if we wanted to bid on Devslove Digital Growth Agency, we would add the keywords “devslove” (phrase match) and [devslove] (exact match) to our keyword strategy.
Avoid overcomplicating the keyword targeting of branded campaigns. In most cases, phrase match versions of the branded keyword will usually cover those different variations of your brand name. But there are exceptions to this rule and if you are aware of very common misspellings of your brand name, be sure to add them to your keyword list.
It’s best to keep your keyword targeting simple by including less keywords within your branded campaign. Your campaign should have somewhere between 2 to 5 keywords within it. The exact number of keywords you target can vary based on your specific brand name. If you understand the basics of keyword match types, then you can intuitively figure out what terms to bid on. If for example, your campaign targets 30 variations of your brand name, then you are likely targeting too many keywords.
Ad Copy Within Branded Campaigns
The ad copy within your branded campaign(s) should highlight the key selling propositions of your company. The ad copy should include headlines that highlight the key benefits and features of your product or service. It should also include a headline that has a call to action (CTA) so the user can know how they are going to convert once they land on your website.
Your headlines and descriptions should also contain some social proof if your company has some. Some common examples of social proof include high star ratings on the company, user testimonials, the total number of customers served, and celebrity endorsements if you have any. If your website has hundreds of positive reviews, then include a headline that says “200+ 5-Star Reviews” for example. If your company has serviced a high number of satisfied customers or provided a valuable service to a large number of people, then include a headline that speaks to that result. An example of such a headline would be something like “10,000+ Seasonal Jobs Created”.
Make sure you pin the name of your brand to headline 1 of your ad. Doing this will guarantee that users see your brand name on the ad when they search for your company. This helps show the user that your ad has what they’re searching for, so it’s a good practice to pin your brand name to this first headline.
The final URL within your branded ad should send users to the homepage of your website. It’s generally a best practice to avoid sending users to the homepage of your site for non branded search campaigns because doing that creates extra friction for the visitor. That’s not necessary for branded campaigns because the people who search for your brand name already know about your website. If they’re familiar with your site, then they already know what they’re looking for most likely. These users have very high commercial intent compared to other kinds of users in the sales funnel, so you don’t need to direct them to a specific page where they can take action on your product or service. They will simply browse through your site and get to the specific page that is relevant to them.
Branded Campaign Bid Strategy
A branded campaign being created for a newly launched account should use the manual CPC bidding strategy to start. Once all the branded and non branded campaigns in the account have accumulated around 30 conversions over a 30-day period, then you should switch the bid strategy in the branded campaign to maximize conversions with no target cost per acquisition (tCPA). Max conversion without a tCPA is the most aggressive bidding strategy you can use to get the greatest number of conversions possible. The image below is a performance comparison of a branded campaign over a 30-day period.
Selection 1 is the Branded Campaign with the Target Impression Share Bid Strategy.
Selection 2 is the Branded Campaign with the Maximize Conversions Bid Strategy (no tCPA).
There were no changes made to the budget, ad copy or keywords. The biggest edit that was made was simply changing the bid strategy, and the campaign was able to generate more sales (conv column), more revenue (conv val column) and at a higher ROAS (conv val / cost column).
In Conclusion
Branded campaigns are a great way to optimise your ad spend because users who search for brand names do so with a high intent of purchasing your products or services. Branded campaigns should be utilized in all Google Ads accounts. There is a lot of debate surrounding the utility of branded keyword bidding and whether it’s worth it to pay for branded traffic. But that is a subject for another article.