What to do when the vast majority of your conversions come from branded keywords, despite a limited budget?

What to do when the vast majority of your conversions come from branded keywords?

It’s a scenario that can occur in paid media campaigns. If this happens to you, these should be the strategies to focus on as your first line of defence.

Reallocate the budget. If non-branded campaigns are not generating the desired conversions, they may need a larger budget to compete effectively. Redistribute part of the budget from branded campaigns to these campaigns to see if additional investment can make a difference.

Optimise your non-branded campaigns. Ensure they are well-targeted and directed at the right audience. Refining geographical, demographic, and device segmentation can be crucial. Review the ad copy and creatives, ensuring they are appropriate and relevant to your audience. Don’t forget to review your keywords, adding ones with sufficient volume and negatives to attract traffic that is more likely to convert.

Another important tactic is retargeting. Implement retargeting campaigns for those users who have already interacted with your site. This can help recover those lost opportunities and increase conversions from your non-branded campaigns.

Constantly run A/B tests with different ad formats, messages, and segmentations to discover what works best. Don’t be afraid to explore new types of campaigns, such as Display or Video, to expand your reach and generate more conversions.

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is another aspect to consider. Improve the landing pages associated with your non-branded campaigns. Ensure they are fast, mobile-optimised, and have clear and specific calls to action. A better user experience can work wonders for your campaigns. Also, keep in mind that the rest of the website can affect campaign performance even if the landing page is perfect.

Monitor the performance of your non-branded campaigns and use the correct attribution models to better understand the value these campaigns bring throughout the customer journey, beyond direct conversions.

What happens when traditional strategies don't work to reduce the excess of branded conversions? When increasing the non-branded budget, adding negative branded keywords, or improving segmentation isn’t enough.

This is where you need to think beyond the obvious and consider this second line of defence, which goes beyond common strategies.

First, consider using your non-branded campaigns to build demand and brand awareness. If direct conversions are not the strength of these campaigns, reorient their objective towards generating interest and recognition, to later capture new demand. It will attract traffic that, even if it doesn’t convert immediately, can be retargeted with more specific and personalised offers.

Another strategy is to diversify your approach at a multichannel level. Don’t limit yourself to Google Ads. Integrate your non-branded campaigns into social media, programmatic advertising, and other channels. This creates a more omnipresent presence that reinforces your brand at every stage of the customer journey.

Additionally, explore targeting specific niches and advanced segmentation. Imagine targeting audiences at specific events, locations where you’ve converted the most, or even near your competitors’ locations in some cases. This hyper-specific approach can lead to conversions that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Use disruptive creative formats compared to what you’ve been doing, and also consider interactive creatives like polls or quizzes, and possibly collaborating with influencers to amplify your message more authentically.

Make use of psychological triggers. Scarcity, urgency, and social proof are tools that can serve you well. Show testimonials, success stories, and create a sense of limited opportunity.

So, if you find yourself trapped in the branded conversions pitfall, don’t give up. Use these less obvious tactics to improve your results.

Have you tried any of these strategies in your campaigns? What were your results?

Points to be reviewed in regular meetings with clients

Maintaining regular meetings with clients ensures they understand both the strategy being followed in managing paid media campaigns and whether the results being achieved are making a difference at a business or commercial level. Here are the key points I usually review with clients:

• General Trend

Analyse whether the overall results are heading in the right direction. Compare current performance with the previous period and with the set objectives.

• Campaign Structure

Verify the campaign structure to ensure they are segmented correctly for each audience.

• Conversion Goals

Check if the conversion goals are being measured correctly and which ones are being used for campaign optimisation. Adjust conversion goals to align with the client's expectations, but not too frequently, only when necessary.

• Key Metrics

Evaluate metrics such as CTR, Cost/Conv., Conversions, Conv. Value/Cost, Cost, Conversion Value, and Clicks. These are some indicative performance metrics and show areas for improvement. Compare different periods to identify trends in time.

• Locations and Regions

Identify the geographical locations of highest and lowest performance. Adjust segmentation based on the results if necessary.

• Ad Scheduling

Ensure ads are shown on optimal days and hours. Adjust scheduling to maximise cost efficiency.

• Devices

Compare performance across mobile devices, tablets, and desktops, and adjust as needed.

• Keywords and Search Terms

Optimise keywords and search terms. Add or exclude as necessary.

• Creatives

Evaluate the performance of visual and textual resources. Create improved versions of the ads based on the results.

• Offers and Incentives

Review the offers and incentives in your ads and landing pages. Show incentives that competitors do not offer and/or adjust promotions and discounts to enhance the appeal of your ads.

• Budget

Ensure the budget is being fully utilised, or adjust as needed.

Reviewing these aspects in regular meetings aligns you more with the client's business goals, while also demonstrating a greater commitment to the success of the campaigns.

How to exclude bad quality leads in Paid Media?

The quality of leads is as important as the quantity, and in some cases, even more so. Attracting poor-quality leads wastes your budget and impacts the overall performance of your campaign. Today, I'm sharing the process I usually follow to improve lead quality:

1. Profile of a Poor-Quality Lead

First, we need to identify what characterises a poor-quality lead. Is it the price? The search intent? The expectations versus what the advert offers? The location? The age? The conversion action? Clearly defining the profile of these leads and what makes them different from good-quality leads is essential in order to take action.

2. Strategies Based on the Profile

With a defined profile, we can implement specific tactics. Some of these include:

Negative Keyword Targeting: Exclude keywords that may be attracting unwanted leads.

Bid and Location Adjustments: Lower bids or exclude locations that generate low-quality leads.

Clear Copy and Creatives: Use clear messages in your ads to set correct expectations and filter out unsuitable leads.

Differentiated Landing Pages: Creating specific landing pages for different audiences can improve lead quality.

Audience Exclusion and Demographic Adjustment: Pause or exclude certain audiences and adjust the demographic criteria of the campaign.

Form-Level Disqualification: Include 1 or 2 mandatory disqualifying questions in your form to filter out poor-quality leads.

3. Continuous Optimisation

The process doesn’t end with implementing some of these strategies. It's important to constantly monitor and adjust the campaigns.

Clearly defining the profile of poor-quality leads and applying specific strategies to exclude them can turn around your paid media campaigns.