OPTIMIZE YOUR NON-BRANDEDSEARCH CAMPAIGNSIN SIX STEPS

Search engine marketers lucky enough to

work on campaigns for well-known brands

rely heavily on branded search terms that

convert well and cost relatively little. Brand-

ed search terms are often the stars of digital

marketing, because they provide brands

and agencies a way to prove the effect of

large-scale traditional awareness campaigns.

Non-branded search marketing, by compari-

son, can be tough. It’s more expensive and

typically has lower conversion rates. So why

do it at all? Well, because your competitors

are. And, unless you’re a brand like Pepsi or

McDonald’s, there’s a portion of your ideal

audience who is preparing to buy, but doesn’t

know your brand—those are the consumers

you want to reach.

Branded and non-branded strategies serve

two different objectives. While branded

terms consistently provide ROAS (return on

ad spend), non-branded terms cast a wider

net, boost impression share, get your brand

into the consideration set, and lead to new

acquisitions that otherwise would have gone

to a competitor.

The non-branded “pool” is exponentially

deeper than the branded pool, so there are

some critical concepts to grasp prior to

jumping in headfirst and blowing your

budget.

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OPTIMIZE YOUR NON-BRANDED SEARCH CAMPAIGNS IN 6 STEPS:

SAFELY TEST YOUR NON-BRANDED TERMS USING

CONSUMERS WHO KNOW YOU.

Authors for both Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch cite Remarketing Lists for

Search Ads (RSLA) as a top tip for testing non-branded terms. RSLA allows you to target

your search ads to searchers who have already been to your website. You can assume these

searchers are lower in the sales funnel and easier to convert because they know your

brand, making them prime testing for key phrases before serving them up to “strangers.”

Only take top-performing key phrases over to your traditional non-branded campaigns.

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GO BEYOND THE PRODUCT NAME:

PEOPLE DON’T SEARCH THAT WAY.

It’s tempting to just use a handful of industry-familiar product name variations as your key

phrases. As a garage door manufacturer, for instance, you might instinctively begin with the

phrases garage doors, insulated garage doors, and faux wood garage doors, and call it a day.

However, consumers at different points in the research process don’t always search this

way. Consumers will often search for solutions to a problem, common symptoms, how-tos,

and FAQs before specifically searching for a product. Thinking in this way will help you to

identify niche key phrases that may have lower traffic, but often have less competition.

2

LOCALIZE, EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT LOCAL.

Thought leaders have long been shouting the power of localization from the rooftops. Not

only does the localization of paid search campaigns raise conversion rates and lower cost

per lead,3 it’s one of the easiest ways to create niche relevancy in your ad creative. Google

reports that searches conducted with “local intent” have increased 34-fold since 2011,3 so

why, as a digital marketer, wouldn’t you capitalize on this trend?

At Balihoo, we meet marketers all the time who perceive local paid search (where the

targeting, ad copy, and landing page are all customized to the city or zip code level) as being

too difficult to execute. And it is—unless you automate. A platform like Balihoo can absorb

your list of locations and their attributes, and spit out tens of thousands of local search

campaigns overnight.

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Brands without brick-and-mortar locations are also benefiting from localizing their

non-branded search campaigns. How does that work, you ask? Smart brands, even ecom-

merce brands, are focusing their non-branded paid search efforts on geographical regions

where their brand name is more recognizable. This can be uncovered through brand lift

surveys, or simply by looking at geographies with higher than average purchase rate per

capita.

LEARN FROM YOUR COMPETITORS:

IT’S NOT CHEATING, BUT IT FEELS LIKE IT.

If your competitors are already bidding on non-branded terms, chances are they’ve learned

a thing or two along the way and have subsequently changed their creatives or key phrases.

You can sneak a peek at who has bid on your key phrases in the past, what they have spent

each month, and what their ad copy said using tools such as SEMRush Keyword Ad History

or Google AdWords Auction Insights.

4

USE BRANDED SEARCH TERMS TO HELP BUILD

UNBRANDED KEYWORDS

Brooke St. Marie, a digital services specialist at Balihoo, recommends extending the time

you already spend analyzing branded search queries to your non-branded keyword set.

“When I see a desirable search query in a customer’s branded ad groups, I create it as a

keyword on the unbranded side. If it’s not desirable, I add it to the negative keyword list.

This process kills two birds with one stone.” For example, you may see that “Acme handheld

hammer” is driving clicks to your branded ad groups. If this is a keyword you never realized

was a popular search term, it makes sense to test it out in your new un-branded campaigns

as “handheld hammers.”campaigns overnight.

5

MEASURE SEPARATELY FROM BRANDED TERMS

Remember when I mentioned that branded and non-branded terms serve different objec-

tives? To get a clear view of how each strategy is performing independently, you should

report them separately against those objectives. Otherwise, you’re muddying your view

and not giving yourself credit for the unique strategies applied to non-branded terms.

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