SEO vs. SEM: Why run AdWords on brand names and other brand-related keywords?

The placement of AdWords offers businesses the opportunity to achieve a prominent position in search results even for keywords where they do not achieve a good organic ranking. That's the general understanding. However, it is somewhat controversial whether one's own brand should also be booked as a keyword? Many marketing managers see this as wasted budget since you generally rank at the top position for your own brand anyway.

Why it still makes sense to place brand AdWords and the positive effects AdWords has on branding and visitor numbers are shown by various studies from the last three years.

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Source: Google[/caption]

The Studies at a Glance

(Download links are at the end of the article)

In a recently published study as well as a study from last July, Google examined the extent to which good positions in organic search results replace AdWords ads, specifically: Do clicks on unpaid search results replace clicks on ads when they are turned off? Can you therefore save your AdWords budget for keywords where you already occupy the top position?

The study on branding with AdWords by Google, eye square, and tns Infratest from April 2008 examines the impact of AdWords on the branding of companies. The study “Paid vs. Organic – The (Inter-)Effects of Organic and Paid Search Results” by Google, Enquiro Research, and Ipsos Mori from March 2008 explores how AdWords and organic results influence each other and what synergy effects arise. In the study “Search Occasion Advertising – An Analysis of the Influence of Advertising on Search Queries on Google” in March 2008, Google and MillwardBrown examined how search queries are triggered by offline advertising and AdWords.

Image Maintenance and Branding with Google AdWords

The placement of AdWords ads led to an increase in brand awareness by 21%. Even with just an impression, without a click, an increase of 11% was recorded. Brand awareness was particularly enhanced when users saw both the AdWords ad and visited the website. It is interesting that it hardly matters whether the ad was clicked or not. Just the mere impression, which also incurs no costs, is enough to achieve a significant positive effect. Moreover, the more contacts there are with an AdWords ad, the more positively brand awareness is influenced. A top position is particularly effective here. Eye-tracking confirmed that the main focus is on the top ads and first organic search results, ads on the right side are only perceived after several seconds and even then users pay them comparatively little attention. (3)

Image also improves through presence in organic and paid search results. Here too, the best effects are achieved when a top position in unpaid results is combined with a top position in ads. The evaluation of the competition worsens accordingly. It is also interesting that the combination of a top ranking in organic results with an ad on the right side shows a comparatively negative effect: The evaluation of one’s own brand does not improve if, in addition to the top ranking, an ad appears on the right side. In this case, the competition is even rated slightly better. (5)

Although Google demonstrates in the “Paid vs. Organic” study that a combination of a top organic position and a top position in ads results in a 6% improvement in brand awareness. However, it is also worth looking at the other numbers: A top ranking without an ad alone increases brand awareness by 4%, a top position of the ad without an organic ranking brings an increase of 5%. An ad on the right side, on the other hand, leads to a deterioration compared to the control group, the combination of organic result and ad on the right side curiously brings no improvement. Positive effects are exclusively achieved through top rankings and ads in the top position. (5)

Increase in Buying and Recommendation Willingness through AdWords

AdWords ads increase users' willingness to buy, especially through ads in the top positions. (3)

The willingness to buy is especially increased when a top position is achieved both organically and in the paid area, for searches for brand-related keywords and for generic search queries. The more present a brand is on the search results page, the more the buying willingness for the competition decreases. (5)

Willingness to recommend a brand also increases through contact with AdWords ads, but only in the case of a top placement above organic search results. (3)

Increase in Click-Through Rate by Placing AdWords

In general, it can be stated: The click-through rate is always higher when combining a top position in organic results with a position in paid search results. In numbers, this means for the respective click-through rates: (5)

• Ad on the right side: 6%

• Ad in top position: 20%

• Unpaid top result: 17%

• Unpaid top result + ad on the right side: 19% + 1% = 20%

• Unpaid top result + ad in top position: 21% + 12% = 33%

Notably, unpaid results generated more clicks when ads were also placed. Thus, not only more clicks were generated by the additional ad clicks, but also the free clicks increased.

Depending on the industry, website visits increased by 22 – 60% through the placement of AdWords. It is also interesting that the number of visitors remained higher even after AdWords was turned off compared to the period before the SEM campaign. (4) However, good organic results do not replace the clicks generated via AdWords. 89% of paid clicks are not replaced by an increased number of clicks on the unpaid result (2).

Depending on the position in unpaid search results, this means: With a ranking at position 1, a whole 50% of AdWords clicks are incremental, meaning they cannot be replaced by clicks on the organic result. With an unpaid result between position 2 and 5, it's even 82%. With a poorer ranking than position 5, 96% were determined (1).

For companies, this means that placing AdWords on the brand name can actually result in a higher number of clicks than the mere organic result, especially when the top position is not occupied.

Compared to searching for brands, the click-through rate on organic results increases when searching for generic keywords when ads are placed. In brand searches, clicks on the unpaid result decrease, but the overall click-through rate increases with the placement of AdWords. Interestingly, the simultaneous display of a competitor causes clicks on the organic search result to decrease, but not on the AdWords ad. (5)

The Quality of Traffic through AdWords

According to the “Search Occasion Advertising” study, the average bounce rate of visitors via search pages was significantly lower compared to visitors who came to the page from other sources (direct input and links). Visitors who accessed the page through search pages also viewed almost twice as many pages on average. The dwell time was also significantly higher. However, the example does not distinguish between AdWords and organic results, so no clear statement can be made here about the quality of traffic through AdWords. (4)

Interesting is also the perception and evaluation of users in comparison to affiliate marketing: AdWords was perceived by users as more sympathetic, credible, useful, interesting, and relevant compared to banner advertising. (3)

In summary, it can be said that the placement of AdWords, including brand keywords, increases the click-through rate, enhances brand awareness, and improves the image. The highest effect is achieved here by top ads in combination with a good ranking, while ads on the right side have a significantly lower positive impact. Search engine optimization and Google AdWords complement each other and cannot replace each other. However, with all the euphoria about the positive effects of AdWords, caution is also advised.

Sources

The exact results can be read in these studies:

1. Impact Of Ranking Of Organic Search Results On The Incrementality Of Search Ads, March 2012 (PDF download here)2. Incremental Clicks Impact Of Search Advertising, July 2011 (PDF download here)

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