Settling the biggest debate in Search

Client: Asda

To pay or not to pay? Paid search is a critical part of modern marketing. Since the rise of Covid it’s one of the only channels to see an increase in spend. Yet one debate still rages in the world of performance marketing; should you pay for branded keywords?

On one side the detractors say no. Why would you pay for paid ads if someone is searching for your brand? On the other side supporters scream yes. It’s commercial suicide to leave your search results unprotected, allowing competitors to steal your traffic. The problem is, brands only know that competitors are bidding on their brand name after the fact, but not specifically when. So clients have had to take a leap of faith. Go all in or step all out. Our team approached the challenge and devised a surprisingly cunning solution. Using a custom script linked to a selection of search APIs we created Search Harmony. Search Harmony monitored activity, ready to respond at a moment’s notice. As brands like Amazon bid on our name, the system automatically bids against them, upweighting the bidding limit to ensure we won. But when no one else was bidding, we switched off paid search and used organic listings to convert the traffic for free. The success was staggering. Search Harmony allowed us to save 14% of the budget and reinvest it in other channels, generating 72% of additional sales. We exceeded sales targets by 10% while reducing budget by 24%.