3 ms·
> If I search Google for something, and the result comes up as both an ad and a non-ad, I click on the non-ad link Slightly off-topic, but I do something a lit
by corin_ 12y ago
> If I search Google for something, and the result comes up as both an ad and a non-ad, I click on the non-ad link
Slightly off-topic, but I do something a little different as my own "screw you" to stupid advertisers.
If I see an advert in my search results that I'll find useful, I don't mind clicking it. For example if I search "London cinema" and a certain cinema has paid to be up there that I'm actually interested in, why not click it. If they were already in the organic results above the fold, I'll click organic to save them their ad budget.
However if I see an advert that's targeting their own brand name that I just searched (for example if I searched "Y Combinator" and saw YC had both top organic spot and a paid ad above) then I'll specifically click on the paid spot to cost them money. Just because you'd be amazed how many people in how many ad agencies make themselves look good to clients by using their own brands to push up results. Yes, if you have a paid advert for when people are already looking specifically for you of course you'll bump up your overall performance for search budgets.
(There is an argument - which may be correct at times - for needing to bid on your own brand / product names so as to outbid competitors aiming for them, but I've never yet been shown any data to actually justify the cost.)
- rfergie 12y agoI have done a few tests on this brand bidding thing. A couple of writeups can be found at: http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/unforseen-risks-when-stopping-brand-bidding/ http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/unforseen-risks-when-stopping... http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/Richard-Fergie-at-Biddable-World/ http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/Richard-Fergie-at-Biddable-Wo...
- corin_ 12y agoThanks, good links but you don't demonstrate (though I presume in your case its the case, otherwise you made a poor decision) to what extent you lose clicks by stopping vs. the money you waste by bidding on your brand.
- rfergie 12y agoCan't remember the exact figures any more, but for the first example (where we did stop brand) it was something like for every £1 spent on brand AdWords generated £3 from brand queries (organic + PPC). At this ROI the money could be better spent in other channels. But as you can read in the post there were unforeseen consequences which I can go into more detail on this if you email me. I've also seen it where £1 spent on brand generated £18 in incremental revenue so in this case it was worth keeping on.