The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Please Bid On Your Brand Name!

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Here's an ad we're running for a new client that's getting nearly 50% CTR.

If we weren't bidding on what's effectively their brandname then Booking dot com and airbnb would have ads above the organic listing and the client would be paying 15%+ for the bookings that they should have been getting themselves.

30754
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

sonny_1080

Creating a tool I want to use.
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
164%
Oct 30, 2019
496
815
Los Angeles
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that one can make a business just by...
- making branded searches for small businesses
- if that particular company isn't at the top of the page, then a hypothetical entrepreneur could reach out to them and "sell" the top spot
- then just make a branded campaign for that company's website

Right?

Btw, Google must LOVE yelp.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that one can make a business just by...
- making branded searches for small businesses
- if that particular company isn't at the top of the page, then a hypothetical entrepreneur could reach out to them and "sell" the top spot
- then just make a branded campaign for that company's website

Right?

Btw, Google must LOVE yelp.
I think it’s the first thing Groupon and Booking dot com do when you sign up.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

door123

Bronze Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
107%
Apr 4, 2020
177
189
West Coast
Please Bid On Your Brand Name!
(Originally posted on the inside in this post and a few after.)

Many people think they shouldn’t bid on their brand name because they already occupy the top organic position on Google/Bing.

Because they’re getting this traffic for “free”, they begrudge paying Google/Microsoft for it.

You should definitely load up ads and test whether you get a higher volume of visitors than when you just have your organic listings.

Even if you don’t get a bump in visitors, or if you don’t think it’s worth the additional cost, I suggest you should still bid on your brand name.



Some reasons why you should bid on your brand name

1) You get accurate stats on how often people search for your brand

You can count impressions, divide by impression share, and can see search volumes rising or falling. (This assumes you’ve the right account structure to be able to determine impression share by branded searches.)

You can then detect the outcome of other marketing initiatives.

For example, we ran a YouTube campaign and the video ad finished with a new product name. By running a search campaign at the same time we could see people starting to search for the new product name.


2) You get to iterate the ad copy, sitelinks, and callouts

This enables you to improve CTR and volume of visitors.

More importantly, it allows you to learn WHY some ads resonate more with people.

These small insights are often the ones that help you find the small actions that have a large impact.


3) You get to send people to the landing page YOU choose

The page that gets ranked top organically for a particular search term is not necessarily the page that will best convert that visitor into a buyer.

By running a paid ad, you can control which landing page to send people to, and can change this instantly when you want to promote a different offer.

You can also test landing pages to continuously improve visitor to subscriber/buyer conversion rates.


4) You protect your branded searches from being hijacked

If you didn’t bid on your brand, then your competitors can do so and insert an ad above your organic listing.

They will effectively steal your branded searches, which are the culmination of all your other marketing efforts.

Why do all the hard work to generate demand for your brand, and then let another business capitalise on it?


A good example of a business bidding on their brand

The ad below doesn’t even have all the available ad extensions in use, but it’s still MASSIVE.

The sitelinks below the actual ad are showing with description text below them.

It’s pretty much the only time I see the sitelink descriptions being used (when it’s a branded search and you ARE the brand).

I think sitelink descriptions give you SUCH a boost in CTR that Google won’t show them when the search term is something businesses compete over.

Notice how the ad is probably going to take me to the best page for me as a searcher (I’m searching from within Dublin), and that the ad headline mentions Dublin, but only one of the organic listings does?

I’m more likely to find relevant offers on the page that the ad sends me to, than pages via any of the organic listings.

60%+ CTR anyone?

41I3YYp.png





A good example of a business NOT bidding on their brand

Check out the search volumes below for 123.ie and FBD in particular.

Both offer car insurance, and both have done a great job of increasing brand awareness and getting people to type in a branded car insurance search.

gzN0qh2.png



How do you think FBD is doing capitalising on all those branded searches?

ufSD0w0.png



BADLY !!!

Heck, even an arbitrageur can put the branded search term in their ad headline (see the about.com ad on the right).



EDIT:
Here's a private video talking about this:
View: https://youtu.be/mQpUdiR5Txw
I was managing an Google Ads ecomm account with $500K monthly spend. Brand was 1000% plus ROI & the 2nd most profitable keyword in the account was a competitor brand name. You snooze, you lose
 

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
@Andy Black
Quick question if it's not too much trouble. I'm trying to run some ads to collect impression data. My ads include the term 'Amazon' so I'm getting this trademark error:

An ad isn’t showing now
  • Your ads in this ad group aren't showing because your ad text contains a trademarked term: amazon.

I write blog articles about Amazon so I'm trying to count impressions to see if anyone's searching for that. Any suggestions?

Please help. :'(
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
@Andy Black
Quick question if it's not too much trouble. I'm trying to run some ads to collect impression data. My ads include the term 'Amazon' so I'm getting this trademark error:

An ad isn’t showing now
  • Your ads in this ad group aren't showing because your ad text contains a trademarked term: amazon.

I write blog articles about Amazon so I'm trying to count impressions to see if anyone's searching for that. Any suggestions?

Please help. :'(
Sometime we can't put trademarked terms into ads. To get search volume data for those types of searches I'd just use the Google Keyword Planner, or other tools if you have access to them.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
Sometime we can't put trademarked terms into ads. To get search volume data for those types of searches I'd just use the Google Keyword Planner, or other tools if you have access to them.
Hmmm, gotcha.

I hope I'm not asking too much, but I feel a little lost here (and hopeless), so please bear with me...

One huge thing I learned from you is to echo back the keywords they typed in the ads for optimal CTR.

Let's say we're dealing with the search term 'Amazon Blog Post Writer'...

1) How would you handle the ad copy if the search term we're trying to echo contains the trademarked term Amazon?
2) Can I do something like Am@zon?

Any help at all is appreciated.

Edit: I'm asking because let's say I got impression data from another tool, I'd still want to let searchers know that I'm a blog post writer that writes about Amazon-related stuff. I'm wondering how can I do that for the optimal CTR if I can't mention Amazon.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
2) Can I do something like Am@zon?
Gosh, don't do that. Google frowns on that as they can see you're deliberately trying to circumvent their systems.

There's a workaround where you can use dynamic text replacement, but I don't recommend it. There's a reason businesses trademark their name and products - they don't want people bidding on them and/or putting them into their ads.



Let's say we're dealing with the search term 'Amazon Blog Post Writer'...

1) You can likely put the name into Path1 or Path2 of the ad, so the URL could look like:
  • processpro.com/Copywriter/AmazonListings

2) You'll have to come up with creative headlines that are close. (I haven't checked if this fits.)
  • Need a Blog Post Writer? | View Our Packages | Improve SEO & Conversions
 

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
Gosh, don't do that. Google frowns on that as they can see you're deliberately trying to circumvent their systems.

There's a workaround where you can use dynamic text replacement, but I don't recommend it. There's a reason businesses trademark their name and products - they don't want people bidding on them and/or putting them into their ads.





1) You can likely put the name into Path1 or Path2 of the ad, so the URL could look like:
  • processpro.com/Copywriter/AmazonListings

2) You'll have to come up with creative headlines that are close. (I haven't checked if this fits.)
  • Need a Blog Post Writer? | View Our Packages | Improve SEO & Conversions
Thanks a lot Andy. I'll take this approach.

That explains why there's so little competition, ha!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
Thanks a lot Andy. I'll take this approach.

That explains why there's so little competition, ha!
Hey @Andy Black . I appreciate all your help. I still feel a tad bit stuck. I'm getting the error below and I know for sure that the ad group has keywords.

Is the error simply because of the trademark issue or am I doing something else wrong?

34127
 

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
Hey @Andy Black . I appreciate all your help. I still feel a tad bit stuck. I'm getting the error below and I know for sure that the ad group has keywords.

Is the error simply because of the trademark issue or am I doing something else wrong?

View attachment 34127
I should point out that I used Ads Editor to bulk upload (almost burst a vein in my head weekend figuring that out...ha).
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
The Google Ads Editor might not have uploaded the keyword that contained "amazon", because it's a trademarked word. Amazon and Google are preventing it for a reason. Don't try to get round it.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
The Google Ads Editor might not have uploaded the keyword that contained "amazon", because it's a trademarked word. Amazon and Google are preventing it for a reason. Don't try to get round it.
Hey @Andy Black , quick question.

I want to check out the competitors' ads for a keyword, however, I'm from a location that would have been likely been excluded from their campaigns so I can't see their ads in my SERP. How can I scope out the competition in this case? Does the Ad Preview tool bypass location exclusion criteria once I set the location (so that I can see the competition for my term in the US)? Alternatively, I guess I can try a proxy/VPN. Any help is appreciated.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Hey @Andy Black , quick question.

I want to check out the competitors' ads for a keyword, however, I'm from a location that would have been likely been excluded from their campaigns so I can't see their ads in my SERP. How can I scope out the competition in this case? Does the Ad Preview tool bypass location exclusion criteria once I set the location (so that I can see the competition for my term in the US)? Alternatively, I guess I can try a proxy/VPN. Any help is appreciated.
You can set the location in the Ad Preview Tool. I’m not entirely confident it works 100%, but it’s not bad.
 

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
You can set the location in the Ad Preview Tool. I’m not entirely confident it works 100%, but it’s not bad.
Wow! Fast response! Thanks a lot. By the way, I redid my ad so that it's compliant (no mention of Amazon), and the ad status is approved :D. They're taking kinda long to review the keywords though, but I'm being patient. Excited! I'd never have tried this if it wasn't for your adwords posts, so thanks a lot!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
Wow! Fast response! Thanks a lot. By the way, I redid my ad so that it's compliant (no mention of Amazon), and the ad status is approved :D. They're taking kinda long to review the keywords though, but I'm being patient. Excited! I'd never have tried this if it wasn't for your adwords posts, so thanks a lot!
@Andy Black My ad isn't on the first page according to the Ad Preview tool. Should it be for the sake of gathering impression data? Should I up my Max CPC? (currently set at $1.00).
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
@Andy Black My ad isn't on the first page according to the Ad Preview tool. Should it be for the sake of gathering impression data? Should I up my Max CPC? (currently set at $1.00).
Give it a day and see what data comes through in your account. If you have no impressions then look at your impression share metrics and see if you're losing impression share due to rank or to budget. I'd then boost the bids a lot (maybe to $5) and keep an eye on the ad preview tool to see if the ad appears (refresh every 10 mins). Keep the daily budget to $5 or $10 so you don't get a load of clicks and spend. If the ad then shows then you know it's possible and you can start reducing the bids bit by bit until it's still showing but at a more reasonable bid price.
 

ProcessPro

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
121%
Apr 26, 2018
380
461
Give it a day and see what data comes through in your account. If you have no impressions then look at your impression share metrics and see if you're losing impression share due to rank or to budget. I'd then boost the bids a lot (maybe to $5) and keep an eye on the ad preview tool to see if the ad appears (refresh every 10 mins). Keep the daily budget to $5 or $10 so you don't get a load of clicks and spend. If the ad then shows then you know it's possible and you can start reducing the bids bit by bit until it's still showing but at a more reasonable bid price.
Wow, super glad I asked! Thanks a lot!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Hey @Andy Black,

Are there any premium keyword research tools you recommend (that are better than keyword planner)?
I don't use any. I load campaigns and then get data from the campaigns.
 

maverick

Aspice, officio fungeris sine spe honoris ampliori
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
228%
Oct 26, 2012
605
1,380
Use it toA/B test titles and descriptions. Change your meta title and description to the winner.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

maverick

Aspice, officio fungeris sine spe honoris ampliori
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
228%
Oct 26, 2012
605
1,380
Google Search Console will also give you these metrics btw.. so you can see the CTR of each of your pages.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Google Search Console will also give you these metrics btw.. so you can see the CTR of each of your pages.
Cool. I’ve never used the Google Search Console. Do you have a screenshot showing that data?
 

maverick

Aspice, officio fungeris sine spe honoris ampliori
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
228%
Oct 26, 2012
605
1,380
Cool. I’ve never used the Google Search Console. Do you have a screenshot showing that data?
Ahh.. you're missing a trick there @Andy Black ;-)

Glad to jump on a call to show you. Attached are some screens. All in Dutch though but you should be able to guess the columns!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Attachments

  • GSC1.png
    GSC1.png
    125.9 KB · Views: 9
  • GSC2.png
    GSC2.png
    83.4 KB · Views: 10
  • GSC3.png
    GSC3.png
    100.2 KB · Views: 9

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Ahh.. you're missing a trick there @Andy Black ;-)

Glad to jump on a call to show you. Attached are some screens. All in Dutch though but you should be able to guess the columns!
Dayum. Looks very similar to the Google Ads interface. I should indeed check it out.
 

tsouri

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
67%
Oct 4, 2020
15
10
united states
Please Bid On Your Brand Name!
(Originally posted on the inside in this post and a few after.)

Many people think they shouldn’t bid on their brand name because they already occupy the top organic position on Google/Bing.

Because they’re getting this traffic for “free”, they begrudge paying Google/Microsoft for it.

You should definitely load up ads and test whether you get a higher volume of visitors than when you just have your organic listings.

Even if you don’t get a bump in visitors, or if you don’t think it’s worth the additional cost, I suggest you should still bid on your brand name.



Some reasons why you should bid on your brand name

1) You get accurate stats on how often people search for your brand

You can count impressions, divide by impression share, and can see search volumes rising or falling. (This assumes you’ve the right account structure to be able to determine impression share by branded searches.)

You can then detect the outcome of other marketing initiatives.

For example, we ran a YouTube campaign and the video ad finished with a new product name. By running a search campaign at the same time we could see people starting to search for the new product name.


2) You get to iterate the ad copy, sitelinks, and callouts

This enables you to improve CTR and volume of visitors.

More importantly, it allows you to learn WHY some ads resonate more with people.

These small insights are often the ones that help you find the small actions that have a large impact.


3) You get to send people to the landing page YOU choose

The page that gets ranked top organically for a particular search term is not necessarily the page that will best convert that visitor into a buyer.

By running a paid ad, you can control which landing page to send people to, and can change this instantly when you want to promote a different offer.

You can also test landing pages to continuously improve visitor to subscriber/buyer conversion rates.


4) You protect your branded searches from being hijacked

If you didn’t bid on your brand, then your competitors can do so and insert an ad above your organic listing.

They will effectively steal your branded searches, which are the culmination of all your other marketing efforts.

Why do all the hard work to generate demand for your brand, and then let another business capitalise on it?


A good example of a business bidding on their brand

The ad below doesn’t even have all the available ad extensions in use, but it’s still MASSIVE.

The sitelinks below the actual ad are showing with description text below them.

It’s pretty much the only time I see the sitelink descriptions being used (when it’s a branded search and you ARE the brand).

I think sitelink descriptions give you SUCH a boost in CTR that Google won’t show them when the search term is something businesses compete over.

Notice how the ad is probably going to take me to the best page for me as a searcher (I’m searching from within Dublin), and that the ad headline mentions Dublin, but only one of the organic listings does?

I’m more likely to find relevant offers on the page that the ad sends me to, than pages via any of the organic listings.

60%+ CTR anyone?

41I3YYp.png





A good example of a business NOT bidding on their brand

Check out the search volumes below for 123.ie and FBD in particular.

Both offer car insurance, and both have done a great job of increasing brand awareness and getting people to type in a branded car insurance search.

gzN0qh2.png



How do you think FBD is doing capitalising on all those branded searches?

ufSD0w0.png



BADLY !!!

Heck, even an arbitrageur can put the branded search term in their ad headline (see the about.com ad on the right).



EDIT:
Here's a private video talking about this:
View: https://youtu.be/mQpUdiR5Txw
Agreed. Many people I know don't know that and that's too bad.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top