What exactly "monthly searches" from Google Adwords teach us?

[vtmoz]

I have noticed that monthly searches of our "brand" in last five years is almost same. But I can see our competitors have increased their brand searched for monthly in last few years. They are gaining popularity slowly where we are not. What are the other things we can learn when users searching for our brand are not increasing?

Thanks

[donsilvernail]

Hi vtmoz,

If people are searching directly for a brand it means that this brand is on front of their mind when they are searching for the products and service supplied by this brand.

How to brands gain exposure and increase searches for their brands directly. I think this is probably more of an out reach campaign. Social media, tv ads, radio ads, literature such as rack cards and circulars sent through mail.

Maybe there social media strategy is directly engaging with the client base and their message is sinking in.

If competitors brands are increasing monthly search and yours is not, it is time to increase your brands exposure.

Thanks,

Don

[timcbambrick]

Hi vtmoz,

This is an interesting question.

To me, there are 2 big nuances here which are important to understanding to properly answer your question:

1. What industry are you in? If you were a restaurant that just opened 12 months ago, then you would hope that branded searches are increasing over time as this would correlate with an increase in awareness/demand for your offering. However, if you were a tow truck company, something that people only contact when they need it - then you wouldn't expect branded searches to change much.
2. Where do you currently spend your budget? If you are spending in on direct response advertising like unbranded PPC then you wouldn't expect it to move the needle much on branded search. However, if you were investing heavily in 'branding' and 'awareness' type advertising then you would want branded searches to be increasing.

Hopefully, this helps.

[elerman]

I believe you already understand the answer. Through my experience with google Adwords, and learning much of my Adwords campaign skills for marketing veterans such Tommy Griffith. My understanding is that Monthly Searches are to be treated more as trends rather than accurate numbers. However, those trends seem to be precise and a meaningful to gauge size and market share.

I am going to suggest you dig into what kind of brand awareness campaigns your competitors have been executing on and what kind of marketing they're doing in general.

My observation is that given the total market share size combined with your marketing efforts and churn rate 5000 search is a rough estimate of what your brand is capable of acquiring in regards to Search Share at a given period of time.

Perhaps you should modify or get started on a brand awareness strategy.