Brand influence on PPC results

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April 3rd, 2008 by Geoff

For every company, the brand name is the most important. If Wikipedia sold a service they would make a fortune from doing PPC on their brand term – being one of the top five search terms for the best part of 2 years now. Even SMEs will find that their brand name is creating searches in Google and the other top search engines. The more exposure that you have across the internet (and also offline) will help drive brand related searches. Not only this but the more brand awareness advertising you do will drive more direct traffic to your site through typing in your URL.

Why is this important? A strong brand leads to an increase in sales through reputation. Especially when online is concerned, there is growing fears of being ripped off by rogue traders – established brands are trusted and have a reputation for delivering quality of service and quality products.

Here is an example of why branding is so important. Take XL who currently sponsors West Ham FC. They get a massive amount of brand exposure because of the high profile league they are in, however isn’t it a dubious name….? When I first saw their brand name on the football shirts I thought Microsoft had updated the name of MS Excel to something more up-to-date. I was completely wrong. This is actually XL holidays.

Has anyone else noticed recently the update in name on the West Ham branding from XL to XL holidays? This may just be that I have only just noticed it but I am sure this is a recent change. I think this is because people are confusing the brand name with the already well established name of MS Excel, why else would they do it? Just shows the importance of a strong brand name, and also the symbiotic nature it must form between the products or services sold. The same again can be said for B&Q – what a good idea to do their web address as diy.com, thus creating the symbiotic link between brand and industry/service.

How is your brand?

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