The brand bidding bind
February 13th, 2009
Our FD with some insight on brand keyword bidding.
According to recent research by Forrester European online marketing is predicted to continue growing this year (albeit at a slower rate).
However as you’d expect, clients will be even more scrutinising on getting value for money (and rightly so). Further to this, I noticed that research by the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) showed the cost of bidding on major brands is getting increasingly more expensive. They tracked 90 core brand terms over a 21 month period, which showed a consistent increase in cost-per-click and declines in click-through rate. Not a good combination.
Whilst the decision by Google to allow bidding on competitor terms may be good for the search engines’ bottom line, they need to be careful that the decision doesn’t come back to bite them. Whilst its unlikely that major companies will stop using Google, they might be more inclined to look at other channels if it continues to get more and more difficult to see a payback.
The focus on return on investment for clients is nothing new for us as it has always been a priority for everyone at Oban. 
Cheers! Grant.
