Ecommerce dynamic duo: paid social and branded search
It is rare to see customers check out right away on a social media platform. It is estimated that only 11% of consumers are buying immediately on social (compared to 44% buying later online). This is why Meta and TikTok are working night and day to find a way to get consumers to check out without having to leave their apps, creating less friction in the purchasing process. But if customers are not all completing the conversion on the app, what are they doing?
A common scenario, specifically for younger generations, is that a customer will view a product on a social media platform and then enter a quick Google search for the product they just saw. This allows them to view the brand’s full website, product ratings, and potential competitors within the search engine results page. With this easy access to the full spread of product knowledge, consumers are making more informed purchases in today’s age than before.
With these customer behaviors in mind, a strong prospecting paid social presence is crucial to attract new customers and generate demand. But once demand is generated, brands will need an effective way to capture it. That’s where branded paid search comes in. To optimize these platforms for results, here’s why paid social and search are the perfect “one-two punch” for marketers hoping to drive online sales.
What is paid social prospecting?
Prospecting in paid social is targeting net-new consumers who have never visited or purchased from your brand. At times, paid social prospecting can be hard for marketers to justify since it is rare to see results directly attributed to these platforms. However, it is vital to include paid social in a holistic media strategy, as it is one of the best contributors to generating consumer demand. In today’s age of aimless scrolling through social media and short attention spans, having a strong presence on paid social platforms like Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok serves as a fantastic first touchpoint for brands to reach their audience as part of a full-funnel strategy.
What is branded paid search?
Branded paid search campaigns are just what they sound like: campaigns in which brands bid on keywords that directly reflect their brand name. A strong brand search presence sets brands up to capture demand that is generated from prospecting efforts. Some brands may feel they shouldn’t be paying to bid on their own brand name. This is often based on the logic of “If the customer was searching for our name anyways, wouldn’t we just capture it organically?” However, more often than not, brands will see stronger performance when organic branded search and paid search are running simultaneously.
The relationship between paid social prospecting & branded search
So, how does paid social prospecting partner with branded paid search? Paid social prospecting ads are at the top of the funnel while branded paid search is at the bottom of the funnel. The top of the funnel strategy targets people who have limited — if not zero — exposure to a brand while the bottom of the funnel strategy targets people who are familiar enough to search for the brand name.
To know if their efforts are driving the right results from these complementary efforts, it’s critical for marketers to home in on key metrics that signal this approach is successfully targeting top-of-funnel audiences. For example:
- Increases in traffic related to the product in prospecting campaigns
- Increases in performance period over period
- Increases in net-new users to the website
- Increases in first-time purchasers
- Increases in click-through rate in branded search campaigns
- Increases in conversion rate in branded search campaigns
Once marketers begin seeing these results, the next step is to conduct a correlation analysis to ensure there is a direct correlation with when the strategy began. If successful, there will be a positive correlation between branded searches and paid social prospecting spend.
Source: paid social/paid search correlation analysis with a Collective Measures client
What this means for marketers
The key to successfully bringing new customers through the funnel is setting up an effective prospecting paid social strategy that generates demand and implementing a strong branded paid search strategy to capture that demand. For those just getting started, expect to see a higher number of net-new customers coming through the door. But if this strategy has already been implemented for your brand, you may instead expect to see a decrease in cost per acquisition over time. When used strategically, these two tactics are truly a match made in heaven.
