{"id":21221,"date":"2015-01-12T11:13:40","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T19:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=21221"},"modified":"2021-08-13T03:47:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T10:47:16","slug":"save-marketing-money-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/save-marketing-money-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Save Marketing Money By Being Nice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Raining<\/p>\n

We have tried a myriad of ways to promote<\/a> the Backblaze online backup service<\/a>. While most people sign up “organically”\u2014through a suggestion from a friend or after reading an article\u2014we do spend many thousands of dollars monthly on Google Adwords alone. For years, we have tweaked ad copy, keywords, targeting, and more to optimize our ad spend. This month, I decided to try something different: being nice. And guess what, it worked.<\/p>\n

The Two Types of AdWords<\/h2>\n

While there are an infinite number of ways to look at ads in Adwords, there is one critical division: unbranded versus branded.<\/p>\n

Unbranded AdWords Keywords<\/h2>\n

Unbranded ads are what most people think of when they imagine advertising on Google. Search for \u201csports car\u201d and you\u2019ll see:<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/p>\n

The first two items are ads from Jaguar and Mazda hoping to interest you in one of their sports cars. (The third item is the first \u2018organic\u2019 result which is not a paid ad.) These ads target people who have potentially never heard of the Jaguar F-Type and didn\u2019t know that Mazda sells convertible sports cars; these companies want to introduce what they offer to new people.<\/p>\n

Branded AdWords Keywords<\/h2>\n

Branded ads, on the other hand, are ones which target people searching for a specific company\u2019s product. In this example, I would search for \u201cJaguar F-Type:\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/p>\n

Since I know I am looking for this particular car, all the ads are offering me exactly this car (as is the first ‘organic’ listing.) The second and third ads are regional car dealerships promoting particular offers to get me to buy from them. However, you\u2019ll notice that the first ad is from Jaguar promoting this car.<\/p>\n

Why would Jaguar spend money advertising this car to me when I have already shown explicitly that I\u2019m interested in this car and already know that? Because there have been many studies<\/a> to show that people often click on the ads even if the first ‘organic’ result is exactly what they are looking for.<\/p>\n

Backblaze does this, as well. Search for \u201cBackblaze\u201d and you\u2019ll see:<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/p>\n

Even though you already know Backblaze, and typed in a search specifically looking for Backblaze, and the first ‘organic’ result is the Backblaze home page… We still pay Google to have an ad show as the first result.<\/p>\n

The Arms Race<\/h2>\n

Of course, since potential customers looking to back up their computers are searching for \u201cBackblaze,\u201d other companies see this as an opportunity to advertise to them as well. Since the Backblaze website is incredibly relevant to the search \u201cBackblaze,\u201d our cost to advertise to people searching for us is quite low per click. But when other companies start advertising for the term \u201cBackblaze,\u201d our costs start to increase as Google\u2019s algorithms see a bidding war.<\/p>\n

Over the last few months, two other online backup companies started advertising for our branded keywords, increasing the times their ads show up from approximately 0% of the time to 75%+ of searches.<\/p>\n

Seeing this, my initial reaction was: \u201cIf they\u2019re going to advertise for our terms, we\u2019ll advertise for theirs. Our product is good. Our conversion rates are good. Our retention rates are good. We\u2019ll crush them!\u201d<\/p>\n

But if we do this, what will actually happen?<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll spend a bunch of money bidding up our keywords and stealing some of our customers.
\nWe\u2019ll spend a bunch of money bidding up their keywords and stealing some of their customers.<\/p>\n

All of us will end up paying Google a lot of money, but end up with the same net number of customers.<\/p>\n

De-Escalation of Brand Keyword Wars<\/h2>\n

Instead, I tried a different approach and sent the email below to the other companies.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Hey, I noticed you\u2019ve recently started advertising under our branded terms.
\nI would like to request that you stop.<\/p>\n

As you probably know, 90% of computer users don\u2019t use online backup services.<\/a> As such, your company, Backblaze, and the other online backup companies have a huge opportunity in signing up new customers. By advertising under our branded terms, you are instead chasing the much smaller opportunity of trying to steal customers who are already planning to sign up for Backblaze.<\/p>\n

If you continue to advertise under our branded terms, obviously we\u2019ll need to start advertising under yours. In the process, you\u2019ll take some of our customers and we\u2019ll take some of yours. The net effect for both of us will be approximately zero\u2026but we\u2019ll both end up paying Google in the process.<\/p>\n

So, how about you sign up your customers and the 90% who aren\u2019t doing anything. We\u2019ll sign up our customers and the 90% who aren\u2019t doing anything. And we\u2019ll let Google make money off other companies.<\/p>\n

Yes?<\/p>\n

Thanks,<\/p>\n

Gleb<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

Two days later, I received the following reply:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

I would like to thank you for your candid and common-sense approach. As you rightly pointed out in your email, the net effect of bidding on each other\u2019s branded keywords is zero. After inquiry, we have advised the business to cease bidding on Backblaze branded terms and received confirmation of the same as of approximately 7:30pm EST on Thursday, December 4. While we are competitors, we appreciate the open dialogue you started which provided a swift resolution in both our interests. Thank you.<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

Being Nice<\/h2>\n

We work hard to build a great product, a great experience, and a great company, and we work doggedly to let people know we exist so they don\u2019t lose data<\/a>. Being aggressive in business and marketing is critical to grow a business. But sometimes it\u2019s more effective to take a step a back and realize not everything is zero-sum.<\/p>\n

Have you ever had the opportunity to do better by simply being nice?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have tried a myriad of ways to promote the Backblaze online backup service. While most people sign up “organically”\u2014through a suggestion from a friend or after reading an article\u2014we do spend many thousands of dollars monthly on Google Adwords alone. For years, we have tweaked ad copy, keywords, targeting, and more to optimize our… Continue reading How to Save Marketing Money By Being Nice<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[470],"class_list":["post-21221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","tag-newsletter","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdWords Brand Keywords Tips - Saving Money the Right Way<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We have tried a myriad of ways to promote the Backblaze online backup service. 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Gleb has served as a member of our board of directors since 2009 and as chairperson since January 2021. Prior to Backblaze, Gleb was the senior director of product management at SonicWall and the vice president of products at MailFrontier, which was acquired by SonicWall. 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