When creating an SEO campaign for your business that fetches positive results, conventional practices recommend using keywords that have the best chance of leading search engine users to your website. You want consumers to be able to find you easily online, so it makes sense to utilize only keywords that are most relevant and best used to single out what you have to offer.
If you have built countless campaigns around proven tested strategies and thought up all kinds of techniques to build a steady following among Internet users, you may be currently exploring other strategies that can help you achieve better marketing results. It may not be something that all businesses would like to try straight off the bat, but have you ever considered using your competitors’ names as keywords?
Thinking out of the box
Your business is sure to have plenty of formidable competition within your niche. You might think that the biggest players may have the advantage because they have bigger budgets for their advertising and online campaigns, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. Sometimes, all it takes is some creativity in modifying campaigns to work to your advantage.
What if you could use the names of your rivals as keywords, so that if Web users type in those company names in search engines, they would be directed to your website instead?
Why do it?
Your primary goal for this campaign strategy is to appear as a viable alternative to more established brands. This gives you an opportunity to present your products and services as a better choice compared to the industry giants—higher quality, friendlier price point, better features. And you will be giving your brand more exposure so that more consumers will know about you.
If you’d like to get into this strategy, here are some key points to keep in mind:
Take time to conduct A/B testing
It’s always smart to test the waters first instead of throwing out established campaigns that are working fine in favor of something you still need to learn about. You need to discover as much about this strategy’s unique requirements and details to determine whether it will truly work for you.
Make sure your ads are distinct
You’re given a chance to be seen side by side with your competitors—make sure that your ads clearly stand out. Offer a lower price or a more noticeable product—a unique selling proposition—so you can easily grab the consumer’s attention.
Watch your brand name’s cost per click
It may be on the rise, and your competition’s may be increasing as well (thanks to your campaign). This could motivate them to come up with an even stronger campaign, which means you will need to be on your toes and remain competitive.
Be mindful about staying away from dynamic keyword insertion
At this point, you have gathered your keyword list including some of competitors’ names and have come up with a winning set up. Your generic ads describe the specific brand features without actually mentioning your competitors’ brand names. However, if your campaigns are typically set up to include “Dynamic Keyword Insertion” or DKI, you will want to disable it in this particular case. The way DKI works is basically taking any of your keywords matching the search query and fitting them into the 25 character limit of the headline in your ad.
For that reason, if you’re still using DKI, it is very likely that the headline of your ads could be showing your competitors’ brand names and that could be a big potential problem. Not only would you be exposed to potential legal action from your competitors, but the search results can also have a negative impact on your credibility. It’s never a good practice to use DKI for your ad groups when you’re using your competitors’ names or brands included as keywords.
Observe your quality score
Another downside to this strategy may be that your quality score from Google goes down since you’re using keywords that are not relevant to your business.
Your online marketing success depends on many different factors. It may be worth thoroughly exploring the action of using competitors’ names as keywords first before going ahead and leaving your older campaigns behind.
Search engine advertising offers a cost-effective solution that can help build brand awareness, increase traffic to your website and boost your online sales. And, because you pay only if people click your ads, every dollar of your budget goes toward bringing new prospects to your company. If you need assistance with your PPC campaigns, be sure to contact our SEO Team at MGR and we’ll help you get started with it and manage it for you on a monthly basis. All of our programs are month-to-month and you can start and stop anytime you want.
Thank you for reading. Until next time, this is Manuel Gil del Real (MGR).
