Why should I bid on keywords I'm already ranking for?

Conventional wisdom in Internet marketing circles dictates that the best and most efficient results are achieved when a campaign is managed in an integrated and comprehensive manner. In practical terms, what this means is not running a paid search or natural search campaign in isolation, but rather insuring that both strategies are implemented in concert.

While this approach makes sense, bolstering qualified traffic by leveraging keywords for which the client does not rank organically, this does create the situation whereby efforts appear to be duplicated, with the client ranking both naturally as well as on the paid search side for the same keywords.

The question is then raised, is this not a waste of money?

The strategic reasons for bidding on keywords that are already achieving high natural search rankings are several:

1. Brand Promotion
1. Control the message – While natural search rankings may have been achieved, the search engine determines the actual wording of the listing. With paid search, the marketer controls the message that is displayed. As such, this message can be crafted in a compelling manner and changed to reflect seasonal adjustments.
2. Build credibility – Among the great challenges for online marketers is overcoming the credibility gap. In short, how do you convince users that your offering is a valid one and not fraudulent? While most of this is addressed by the overall user experience on the website and beyond, appearing in both the natural and paid search results starts the process of building credibility with the users before they even arrive at the website. This leads to a greater chance of the user taking the actions desired by the marketer once they reach the website.

2. Brand Protection
1. Crowd out competitors – By bidding on keywords for which natural search rankings are already achieved, the marketer occupies valuable online real estate that may otherwise be taken by competitors. This helps prevent the competition from associating themselves with your brand.
2. Force the competitors to spend more – When the marketer bids on keywords, the competition are automatically forced to bid a higher amount than would otherwise have been the case. This ties up a portion of the competitors budget that would otherwise have been used elsewhere.

The results of this strategy are borne out in an e-commerce campaign that GDMI has been managing on behalf of a retailer of video equipment for the extreme sports industry. This client is one of the best-established online retailers in this industry, with many highly competitive natural search rankings.

Managing Integrated SEM Campaigns.

GDMI has been managing an integrated campaign on behalf of this client, combining both paid and natural search marketing. While the brand protection aspects of the campaign have been clear, with the client occupying a great deal of online real estate and crowding out the competition, what has been most striking is the conversion rates for the keywords that the client also ranks for organically (a conversion is identified as a completed online sale).

When the client ranks naturally for a keyword, the conversion rate in the paid search campaign since the start of the campaign has been double that of a near identical keyword that the client does not rank for naturally.

As such, it is clear that while bidding on keywords for which a client ranks naturally does cost money, it is a highly effective and efficient strategy to employ.