The idea of advertising for your own brand name in Google Ads seemingly evokes the most Shakespearean of all questions.
To bid or not to bid?
The answer is always yes assuming you apply an adequate level of method to your madness.
While the goal of this blog is not to advocate for bidding on your brand name (I am assuming you have already reached that conclusion), it is instead intended to assist with squeezing the highest possible value out of every penny spent.
Why Add Negative Keywords
Brand campaigns, despite being highly granular from a keyword perspective, can still produce a disappointingly high number of wasteful clicks. Frequently, those clicks come from people who are seeking employment with your company as opposed to people interested in buying your product. Wasteful clicks also occur when people seek out basic information about your company, its history, its culture and its most prominent employees. In all of these cases it behooves you to avoid spending money - unless, of course, you are the envy of the paid search world and budget is no factor whatsoever to you. The rest of us desire and ravenously utilize as many high-quality negative keywords as possible.
To feed this desire I have created a list of the best negative keywords to apply to your brand campaign in either AdWords orBing Ads. They can be adequately summarized in three categories: those who are seeking employment with your company, those are who are seeking more information about your employees and those who are seeking more information about your company culture and benefits. Once again, these are not people who are seeking out your product or service, therefore implementing these negative keywords will increase your conversion rate and improve your overall cost per conversion metrics.
Logic regarding your brand name still applies - so if your brand name includes one of the keywords below, please exclude it from your list.
SEEKING EMPLOYMENT:
application applications career careers careerbuilder careerbuilders craigslist craigs list employ employment employer employers full time fulltime full-time hire hired hires hiring hr human resources indeed intern interns interning internship internships job jobs jobvite monster occupation occupations part time parttime part-time recruit recruiter recruiters recruiting recruitment resume resumes simplyhired smartrecruiter smartrecruiters work working ziprecruiter ziprecruiters
SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES:
ceo cfo cmo coo cto chief employed employee employees founder founders founded linkedin linked in owns owner owners president presidents vp
SEEKING INFO ABOUT OFFICE CULTURE/BENEFITS:
benefit benefits bonus bonuses coverage coverages culture dental glass door glassdoor holiday holidays insurance medical pay payscale salary salaries vision
Logic regarding your brand name still applies - so if your brand name includes one of the keywords below, please exclude it from your own account.
By implementing this list you are taking yet another step toward preventing wasteful spend - a goal that all business, but especially small budgeted businesses, should always be striving toward. Good luck!