Digital marketers 'must pay for brand terms in PPC'

15:00 11th March 2010

Digital marketing professionals have been advised that when planning their pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, they must include their brand names.

Some marketers may believe this not to be necessary, as in many cases using search engine optimisation as a more natural method will get the brand name high in search engine results pages.

However, Jennifer Robertson, a search expert, stated in an article for Search Engine Land that this is not a foolproof approach.

She pointed that lots of variables, including a search engine altering its algorithms, could affect a site's placing in search engine results pages, regardless of how good their search engine optimisation campaigns are.

"If you pay to play you are essentially purchasing an insurance policy for your brand terms," she commented.

Ms Robertson added that only 70 per cent of search engine users click on organic search results, so it is important for digital marketing professionals to ensure that their sites are listed in the paid search areas in order to avoid missing out on 30 per cent of traffic.

"Bidding on your branded terms eliminates that risk and allows you to dominate the search results page and capture all of your potential traffic," she commented.

This comes after search engine marketing expert Rachel Andersen said in an article for Search Engine Journal that combining PPC with search engine optimisation could produce the best results for digital marketing professionals.