1. The very best digital marketers are famous for the money they don’t spend.
But the majority of digital marketers will spend every penny of any budget they are given and then suggest that you cut back on your mass media to fund ever-increasing amounts of online ads. Here’s the problem: although most of the people reached through mass media will be in the market for your product or service someday, comparatively few are in the market right this minute, today.  Mass media is the best tool for getting people to think of you immediately – and feel good about you – when they finally need what you sell.  Google AdWords, on the other hand, are focused almost entirely on people who are in the market right-this-minute, today. But spending more money doesn’t create more “today” customers. There are a finite number on any given day. So why does the online ad buyer think they need ever-increasing amounts of budget for online advertising?

2. Business owners create the problem when they demand, “More leads! More leads! More leads! More leads!” as though there were an infinite number of customers to be had each day. And the digital team responds by saying, “Just give us more money and we’ll buy more keywords!” And those additional keywords, of course, will be unbranded keywords with a high cost and a low conversion rate. “But you asked for more leads and we got you more leads,” says the digital team.

3. Spend an unlimited budget on your branded keywords.  And then use mass media to become the company whose name more and more people type into the search block. Your branded keyword budget should be unlimited for this reason: It’s harvest time and these people typed your name into the search block. Make it easy for them to find you.

4. “Why should I buy branded keywords? If those customers are typing my name into the search block, won’t they find me organically? That’s a good question, a solid question. Just keep in mind that the purchase of your branded keywords doesn’t cause your name to disappear from organic search results. It just gives your customer a second option. So let me ask you this question: Are you certain that all the customers who are looking for you are going to see you in the organic search results? Branded keywords are a low-cost, high-efficiency safety net; a second option that makes you twice as easy to find.

Aroo,
Indy Beagle