Paid For Search Boosts Branding

Over the past couple of weeks Google have conducted some studies with major international brands, Heineken and Levi’s, to investigate the value of paid for search to branding. The findings of both studies returned positive results that indicate paid for search can considerably boost brand awareness as well as increasing sales.

Over both studies, brand awareness for the featured products was considerably increased when they were featured as the number one ad in the search results, amassing over 50% of people’s initial choices. In terms of the Heineken study, a search impression created 23% more brand preference for the beer company than the whole Heineken campaign without search.

In the Levi’s study, 53% of “in-market” customers named Levi’s as the first jeans brand that came to mind when a Levi’s search ad was in the top sponsored links; only 30% thought of it when an ad wasn’t present.

Thus indicating that when a search ad is displayed, if it isn’t clicked, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has no value; the lasting brand awareness could have positive future returns.

Paid For Search and TV

As part of the study, Google measured the relationship between paid for search and TV, online display ads and YouTube. Interestingly, the results showed that search complements TV, improving brand effect by 1.5 times. However, a paid for search branding campaign was 53% more cost effective than television when creating top of mind awareness in consumers.

These results support the use of view-through data rather than simply measuring paid-for ads by a click through rate (CTR) when assessing their value. Understanding how paid for search boosts brand awareness, as well as sales, demonstrates a better intrinsic value to the practice. An article by Mike Shaw of comScore provides an interesting insight into this.

Paid for Search Could Boost Christmas Sales

This is timely information for companies as searches for gifts for Christmas presents is likely to boost search activity and branding is vital in a competitive market. Companies with ads ranking highly in search results can expect to improve their brand awareness and, as a result, direct more sales.

A paid for search campaign could have the potential to, not only improve sales, but also improve brand awareness.

To speak with a home james campaign manager to understand how we could help implement an effective paid for search marketing strategy for your company, please get in touch with us.