How to Increase Brand Awareness with Paid Search

When it comes to promoting your business, getting your brand noticed by the right people at the right time is key. After all, it’s the first step of the sales funnel. 

Why is brand awareness important?

Before we look at how to make your brand more visible to potential customers, it’s important to understand why it should be a fundamental part of your digital marketing strategy. 

A strong brand awareness will help differentiate you from competitors, encourage return customers and result in an increase in market share and sales. People who become familiar and comfortable with your brand are much more likely to buy from you compared to a competitor they have never heard of.  

Increase brand awareness with paid search

Paid search is a proven and effective way to increase brand awareness. Not sure where to start? Implement these techniques into your marketing strategy and start benefiting from more brand exposure.  

Run specific brand awareness campaigns

Brand awareness campaigns need goals in order to be focused and effective. The purpose of a brand awareness campaign is to get your brand in front of as many relevant people as possible. 

Common goals to increase brand awareness include achieving a higher post engagement, boosting CTR and improving click volume.

Brand engagement campaigns can help your company:

• Increase interactions with your brand

• Achieve positive brand associations

• Increase your brand loyalty

Once you have set a goal, decide who you’re trying to target with your campaign and research which platform they are most likely to use and when.  Don’t forget to track your results so you can measure your ROI and make any improvements for next time. 

Run optimised Facebook, Twitter and Instagram ads 

Optimise your paid search campaigns with keywords and phrases that will target users’ search queries. Brainstorm and create a keyword list that includes important keywords for your brand, products and services.  

Here are our top tips to ensure your ads are fully optimised: 

• Create ad groups using multiple ads

• Clearly state your product’s USP on your ad

• Use language your customers will understand

• Speak directly to your audience

• Only include relevant content

• List the price of your product or service

• Include a call to action

Give native advertising a go

Consumers are becoming more sceptical of traditional advertisement methods, making banner ads and other marketing techniques less effective. 

Native advertising is one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness. Native advertising is paid content that appears as normal, natural content in your social network news feeds.  

Types of native ads include:

• In-Feed/in-content: replicates the design of the website or social platform where they appear
• Paid search units: ads that appear at the top of search engine results
• Content recommendation ads: content ads usually placed below content with a title such as ‘Sponsored Stories’ or ‘Recommended for You’
• Promoted listings: products that are listed at the top of ecommerce websites such as Amazon
• In-ad: appear as standard display ads that contain relevant content for the publisher

Use YouTube Ads to increase brand awareness

YouTube is the second most visited website according to Alexa. People love videos, making them a great way to get your brand noticed. With over two billion monthly users, YouTube is the perfect platform to get your company seen by a huge audience. 

There are many different types of video ad formats that you can choose from depending on your campaign goal, including:

• Discovery ads: created in video thumbnail form that includes some text
• Bumper ads: non-skippable ads that play before, during or after a video
• Outstream ads: videos that are created specifically for mobile devices and tablets that start automatically without sound
• Skippable in-steam ads: video ads that play before, during or after a video that can be skipped after five seconds
• Non-skippable in-stream ads: video ads that play before, during or after a video that are shorter than 15 seconds and cannot be skipped

Partner with influencers

With the right platform, influencer and strategy your company can accelerate brand awareness and growth. Influencers have a lot of power over their followers, allowing you to reach new audiences with ease.

Running a competition on your social platforms in partnership with a social media influencer will significantly increase your brand awareness. Influencer marketing campaigns get a lot of interest and engagement, meaning your post will be seen by a wider audience than it would normally. For long-term campaigns consider launching a brand ambassador program.

The job of a brand ambassador is to share your company’s story with as many people as possible using their already established social media following and credibility. The power of brand ambassadors can be seen from the way they build a loyal community, which can be used as a strong marketing tool to promote your business with.

Take advantage of the Google Display Network

Google’s Display Network can help you find new customers, engage with existing clients and drive more conversions using automation through a network of over two million websites. The tool looks through a directory of website partners to find people that fit with your ideal customer profile. You can customise who you target to make your brand as visible as possible. 

The display network allows you to use a variety of ad formats including text, image and video ads, which gives you the opportunity to drive traffic, conversions and sales.

Before setting up your display advertising campaign, collect the following information to make it as successful and targeted as possible:

• Which websites your target audience visit the most
• A list of keywords associated with your products or services
• Your location

Leveraging the Google Display Network will accelerate your brand reach and help you target the right audience. 

Harness the power of paid search to increase brand awareness 

Paid search should play a key role in building a more recognisable brand.

Investing in your company’s brand awareness doesn’t have to be a chore. We can help you transform your marketing strategy and paid search efforts to drive sales and uncover new business opportunities. Speak to one of our experts for more information.