If your company is running pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, you probably already know the basics. Research buyer-intent keywords, offer your per-click rate bid, write a compelling text ad, create a landing page with a powerful call-to-action, and you’re almost good to go.

But before you press the “start” button, you need to consider whether including branded keywords would make sense for your business. I know – you’re probably wondering “Why on earth would I pay good money to reach someone who is already looking for my brand?” While that’s a very good point, there is a definite upside to adding branded keywords that you should be aware of especially if you’re already ranking well in the organic search results.

Branded Keywords Keep Your Competitors from Stealing Your Traffic
A fairly common, if somewhat underhanded, tactic in PPC advertising is to bid on the branded keywords of successful competitors.

• The better you rank organically for your branded keywords, the greater the likelihood that one or more of your competitors will bid for your branded terms in an attempt to siphon off traffic and customers that by all rights should be going to you.
• In many instances, competitors who successfully outbid you for your brand name may be able to push your organic listing further down or even off the search results page.

Branded Keywords Can Help You Dominate the Search Results
By bidding on your own branded terms, you’re assured of ranking at the top of the search results page. The cost-per-click (CPC) rate is typically low, and between your PPC listings and organic results you’ll be in a position to dominate the page. The more search page real estate you own, the more visibility your brand will have – and the more clicks you’re likely to generate. Search page domination can also help push your competitor’s ads or any negative customer reviews that you might have received further down the page.

Bidding on Your Branded Keywords is Affordable
Due to the minimal competition for branded keywords, bidding on your own branded keywords is typically very affordable. And because branded searches are extremely relevant to your brand, they usually earn high click-through rate (CTR) and quality scores that are applied to your overall PPC account averages. Google rewards advertisers who have high quality scores with lower CPC rates, which means that bidding on branded keywords can help improve the return on investment on all of your PPC campaigns.

Branded Keywords Help You Weather the Uncertainty of Organic Search Algorithms
Because of the constantly changing search ranking algorithms, you have no assurance that your branded keywords will continue to rank well in the organic search results. While PPC advertising has no direct effect on how well your web pages will fare in the organic results, branded PPC keywords will help keep your brand at or near the top of the search results whenever consumers search for your company by name.

Branded PPC Allows You to Send Visitors to any Landing Page You Choose
Whenever someone conducts a search for your brand name, they will usually be sent to your home page because that’s typically the first result that comes up. The only problem is that your home page may not be the best place to promote a special offer. With branded PPC, you can change the landing page destination at will, and direct visitors to a page that features the specific call-to-action offer of your choice.