Brand vs. Non-Brand: Measurement Is Key, from Search Engine Watch.
As search professionals, we all know that measuring our campaigns is the first key to developing a strong and competitive presence in search. Without a consistent and planned measurement framework, we’re unable to uncover or make impactful optimizations to our search campaigns. But what if I told you that you might be incorrectly measuring your efforts in search?
Top line measurement should always tie back to your goals for the channel, like 10 percent revenue growth year-over-year (YoY), and your primary KPIs, whether that is cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per lead (CPL), return on ad spend (ROAS), etc. A great report that provides more detail, will also include secondary and diagnostic KPIs, and will help call out any issues. However, there should be a difference in how you measure top line performance for your brand vs. your non-brand search efforts. Sounds simple, I know, but most advertisers actually forget that these two campaign types serve completely different goals.
So, what’s the difference? Brand searches are seen as high-intent and almost always lead to a high ROAS if managed correctly. If a searcher is looking for your brand, they are lower down the conversion funnel and closer to purchase. Non-brand searches show less intent for a searcher, but showing your ads on these terms can create awareness for your brand. Non-brand campaigns don’t typically drive a high ROAS, so I like to segment my brand and non-brand campaigns into different reports and measure them separately.
