Display advertising drives branded search volume

As a paid search campaign manager, clients frequently ask me why more of their budget isn’t going towards branded search campaigns as those have the lowest Cost per Acquisition (CPA). The answer is typically that their brand campaigns are saturated in terms of ad impressions served — interest in the brand is limited; there are only so many searches for branded keywords that we can serve ads on.

Increasing the volume of searches for brand terms can be quite a difficult proposition – especially for companies offering needs based services and products for which brand names might not be commonly known.

In this case – the simplest solution is however also most effective. To increase the volume of branded search queries, increase the amount of budget you spend on display advertising that targets communities and users to whom your brand’s offering can offer genuine value.

Branded search drives the best return on investment (ROI)

When it comes to ROI delivered by paid campaigns it is quite typical to find that branded search campaigns outperform all other pay-per-click (PPC) efforts. And by a considerable margin when it comes to conversion rates and average cost per acquisition.

This holds true for an array of our clients, with branded search coming out on top against generic search and display campaigns in terms of Cost per Acquisition (CPA) attained.

From the above chart, it’s clear that from an anecdotal sample, display as a conversion driven platform is comparatively less successful than search campaigns. As a result we will from time to time see clients cut their display budgets due to the perception that display underperforms.

It is however vital to consider the full attribution model and specifically the role that the brand awareness raised by display campaigns plays in driving branded search volumes which we know are incredibly successful at generating conversions.

The reliance of branded search volume on display advertising

In the graph below the correlation between spend on display channels with the impressions served by branded search campaigns is charted for a major B2B client operating globally in a niche market. The impressions served by our branded search campaigns is in this case a solid metric to quantify branded search volumes. The number of impressions served won’t always be a good indicator of brand search volume – in this case it is as our brand campaign budgets were unlimited and a consistent search impression share was maintained.

As can be observed, the volume of searches for branded terms links directly with the amount spent on display campaigns, thereby exhibiting how vital it is to capture users’ interest and remain top of mind throughout the purchasing cycle.

It is thus recommended that media spend not be limited to channels at the bottom of the purchase funnel; establishing a well-balanced media plan that takes the full purchasing cycle and attribution model into consideration would be a far better choice.

Display advertising thus continues to play a key role in driving not only brand awareness — but also sales.