The Branding Value of Search

As early as 2005, we’ve been writing articles saying that the SERPs provide branding as well as direct response. Here is some recent survey data from Google and Yahoo! illustrating this.

Google commissioned a study through Media Screen to measure the impact of paid search ads on organic search terms for four consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories: cosmetic, beverage, food/snack, and household/laundry.

Respondents were asked to complete a brand survey to measure the brand impact on aided awareness, unaided awareness, purchase intent, and purchase consideration after being exposed to search results.

Key findings:

When the test brand appeared in paid search positions, unaided awareness and purchase intent increased for that brand.

The survey also observed the impact on competitive brands and found: When the test brand appeared in paid search positions, unaided and aided awareness decreased for other brands.

Yahoo! did a similar study with Media Vest and found that a sponsored search link has a positive impact on unaided awareness. Conclusions were that search provides branding for consumer packaged goods.

Source: Google CPG Blog

Note: There are other studies and sources to support the branding value of search; if interested contact me directly.