Can branded keyword campaigns deliver incremental sales?

Branded keywords are often used as an example of non-incremental advertising. But how could bidding on a shopper who is searching for your brand be incremental?

While there is value from a brand defense perspective, preventing potential revenue loss by blocking your competitors from showing up for your keywords, do branded keywords drive additional revenue?

Here's what we found when we compared the incremental return on investment (iROI) for search campaigns that targeted branded keywords for a large consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand. The results have been grouped by the type of product those campaigns support.

Branded keyword campaigns supporting core stock-keeping units (SKUs) or single packs didn’t drive incremental sales very efficiently. There was still some value in those campaigns in brand defense, but in general, the advertiser was overspending on those campaigns.

The interesting learning was that campaigns supporting new innovation products or larger multi-packs were very efficient at driving incremental revenue. These campaigns were cross-selling and upselling shoppers into higher average selling price products, creating net revenue growth that would otherwise not have happened without advertising.

Branded keywords can be incremental, but it has more to do with product strategy and assortment.

Based on these learnings, the brand continued to spend on branded keywords, but shifted dollars from campaigns supporting core SKUs into those supporting their innovation products.