Bidding on search terms can be a confusing and conflicting experience, with many people having different opinions about how to do it. On one hand, bidding on your own brand terms can be a great way to capitalize further upon your brand recognition, and tends to work for smaller companies. On the other hand, these terms tend to cost quite a bit more, leaving many to wonder whether or not it is worth it. Because of this conundrum, you’ll need to ask a few simple questions of yourself before making any definitive decision. In the following article, we’ll lay out a few simple concerns that you should consider in order to make the best decision.

Existing Brand Presence

Brands that have a dominant position in a particular niche or category may wonder whether the need to buy brand terms is a smart decision, or simple redundancy. As always, the answer lies somewhere in between. The smallest of businesses may be able to get a great rate for their terms, but it could be that virtually no one actually searches for those terms. In other words, it can be a waste of resources in these cases. If your business already dominates in select search results and you are pinging links across multiple SERPs, buying brand terms may be just the thing you need to add an additional kick of promotion in all the right places. We recommend that the smallest of businesses and brands avoid buying brand terms, while businesses with a bit more clout engage in this tactic as a way to enhance their chances in grabbing traffic.

Competition for Your Terms

Depending on your specified brand terms, you may already have some competition in the field. In some cases, you may be selling a branded product from another company – and other resellers are trying to grab traffic for an already-known product. In other cases, people may try to snag up advertising for your well-known brand and divert it to their own websites. There are a variety of tools available, such as AdWords and Google Analytics, that will allow you to do cost and value assessments of competing for these brand terms. In some cases, you’ll be able to outbid the individuals in question and snag the traffic for yourself. In other cases, you may have to resign yourself to losing these brand terms as sources of marketing.

Some Presence, But Not Much

In some situations, you may be performing fairly well for a new brand in select SERPs. Many brands will find themselves pinging links to Google and others halfway down the first page of results. This can be a more difficult situation in which to make a decision about brand terms. On one hand, you may be able to bid to the top of these SERPs and snag traffic that you otherwise wouldn’t get; in other cases, the costs associated with this may be better justified in more niche results. Ultimately, this strategy will need to be carefully examined if/once put into effect, in order to see how much ROI you are receiving. If there is a paltry ROI or none at all, then you’ll know (through Analytics or AdWords metrics) that it is time to move on.