2008/01/08

The PPC Branding Myth

The PPC Branding Myth
Author: Halstatt Pires

PPC is touted as many providing many things to the site owner. The use of a PPC campaign as a way to build a brand is one. In most cases, branding with PPC is a waste of money.

Branding is the marketing strategy of getting the word out on a product or company. Your goal is to get people to recognize a particular phrase as meaning something. The most famous brand in the world is probably Coke. Why? Well, think about it for a minute. Most people refer to practically any type of soft drink as Coke. Instead of asking for a soda, they ask for a Coke. Talk about a successful marketing effort!

Obviously, just about every company under the sun would want the kind of branding Coca Cola has pulled off. Feeding into this vein, many PPC search engines and services providing PPC management tout the fact a PPC campaign can help you build your brand. Ah, it all sounds so perfect.

There is one problem, however. Brands are not built through advertising. Brands are built through PUBLICITY. Sorry, but you can’t buy your way to success. Don’t believe me? Consider Amazon, the online bookstore.

When was the last time you saw an Amazon PPC advertisement? How about an Amazon television advertisement? You might see television ads around Christmas, but Amazon pretty much limits it’s advertising to snail mail, joint partnerships and newspaper inserts. Why? It already has brand recognition from all the publicity it did early on. If you think books online, you think Amazon. The same goes for EBay in the online auction market.

The simple truth is brands are not established by paid advertising. The only time advertising such as PPC comes into the picture is to support a brand. This means the brand is already established and you want to keep the name out there. This is what Coca Cola is doing with its advertising for Coke.

There are many reasons to pursue a PPC campaign for your site. Establishing a brand is not one of them.

Halstatt Pires provides PPC campaign management services at MarketingTitan.com.

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