Branded vs. Non-Branded Traffic: Which One Drives Better Conversions?

In the world of digital marketing, traffic is essentially the fuel for an online business. Be it an e-commerce store, a content-driven website, or a service-oriented platform, the end objective remains the same: basically, attract visitors, engage them, and then convert them into customers. There are two major kinds of traffic that businesses should focus on: Branded and Non-Branded. The ability to know the differences between branded vs Nonbranded traffic can be quite instrumental in the crafting of your marketing strategy for better conversion rates. To talk about what each of them involves, and their benefits, and check which will work best for conversions in this blog.

What is Branded Traffic?

Branded traffic includes all those users who reach your website by searching for your brand name, product name, or specific branded keywords. This is very intentional traffic, usually users who already know your brand or have been exposed to your marketing efforts in some way.

Examples of Branded Traffic:

• Users search for “Nike running shoes” rather than just “running shoes.”
• A customer searches on Google for “Apple iPhone” instead of just searching on Google for “smartphone”.
• Visitors enter your website URL directly into their web browser.

Qualities of Branded Traffic:

• The intent of visitors who are coming from branded traffic is almost always high. They know what they want and are in search of your brand.
• Loyalty: They are those people who are either repeat customers or a previous user of your brand.
• Better Conversions: The expectation of the branded traffic to your website will result in a higher conversion rate because a greater level of trust is inherent in products and services, which are yours.

What is Non-Branded Traffic?

On the other hand, non-branded traffic includes all of those visitors who land on your website from generic searches that don’t include your brand’s name. This group can also include those people who are searching for products, services, or information that are relevant to your offerings but do not particularly remember the name of the brand.

Examples of Non-Branded Traffic:

• A user looking for the “best running shoes” without specifying the brand.
• A user looking for “affordable smartphones” but not searching for an “Apple iPhone.”
• A potential client is looking for “website design services” but not your agency.

Other Features of Non-Branded Traffic:

• Non-branded traffic expands its reach into the marketplace. It’s possible that part of your market potentially doesn’t even know about you—non-branded search allows you to tap into that traffic.
• Top of Funnel: Typically, it’s users who are at the very top of the marketing funnel—researching and not in buy mode.
• Non-branded traffic represents an opportunity to introduce your brand to new customers, increasing your market reach.

Branded Traffic: The Conversion King?

One of the greatest advantages of branded traffic is that it converts very well. Those users who are making intentional searches on your business brand are definitely better converters, having some trust and familiarity with your business. This traffic is always a result of great brand awareness campaigns, excellent customer experience, and good word of mouth.

Trust and Loyalty

Searchers looking for your brand already have the product or service trust established, resulting in higher conversion rates because this group of searchers is less likely to be stolen by competitors. There is less competition for your branded keywords in the SERPs.

Higher Engagement

Branded traffic is more likely to engage with the website and stay on its pages, view more pages, and thus, with a higher tendency to convert.

Non-Branded Traffic: Stimulating Growth

With the higher conversion rate on branded traffic, non-branded traffic should not be ignored. Non-branded traffic is believed to be responsible for the acquisition of new customers and general brand awareness. Non-branded traffic is most important at the beginning of the buyer’s journey when people are window shopping and in search of information.

Why Non-Branded Traffic is Important

Market Expansion

Non-branded traffic serves to reach out to potential customers who do not know about your brand. Targeting generic keywords will help scoop up a greater audience and expose them to your products or services.

Discovery of a Brand

This surely is a category of discovery, given the fact that users are usually interfacing with your brand for the first time. This is an opportunity to get their attention and drive them most subtly within the marketing funnel.

Non-Branded SEO Benefits

When optimizing for non-branded keywords, your website gets optimized for all search terms. A high level of ranking under relevant non-branded keywords means a constant flow of traffic and increasing chances for converting customers.

Comparison of Branded and Non-Branded Traffic

Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both will be effective in determining which will provide better conversions.

Strengths of Branded Traffic

• Better Conversion Rates
• More often than not, branded traffic has higher conversion rates since your brand already has the grip of trust from the client.
• Since branded traffic is more likely to get converted, the customer acquisition cost is lower through branded keywords.
• If branded traffic keeps coming back, then users will return to the brand where their loyalty rests.

Weaknesses of Branded Traffic

• It captures users who are already aware of the brand. It never covers a new audience.
• Success in receiving branded traffic depends in part on your brand’s reputation and visibility. Less branded traffic will happen to less reputed brands.

Strengths of Non-Branded Traffic

• In non-branded traffic, the possibility of making an appearance in a broader space arises. This means you get an approach to potential customers who do not have any idea about your brand.
• Implementation of non-branded keywords can support opening up the opportunity for newer markets and expansion of the customer reach.
• Non-branded traffic is extremely critical if you want to engage potential customers at the top of the funnel. 

Weaknesses of Non-Branded Traffic 

• Traffic originating from non-branded sources will have lower conversion rates since users are in the research phase or not yet ready to purchase. 
• The keywords are nonbranded, meaning that there is going to be more competition, and due to that, the difficulty level will be high to get on higher SERPs.
• As the conversion rate is lower in converting customers into branded keyword searches, the competition in buying free search term leads may raise the acquisition cost.

Ways to Optimize Branded and Non-Branded Traffic

You should not focus too much on gaining branded or non-branded traffic and should have a balance in your strategies so that the goal of success online can be accomplished. The following are strategies to be developed to optimize both:

Branded Traffic Optimization

• Create more visibility and brand recognition for your business through your branding campaign, which may include social media marketing, influencer partnership, and content marketing.
• Employ email marketing to nurture relations with your already existing customers, which might drive them towards revisiting your website through branded queries.
• Give good customer service with an efficient quality product to build trust and make them recall you for more.
• Use retargeting ads to remind users who have already interacted with your brand to get back to your site and make a purchase.

Optimize Non-Branded Traffic

• You should deep dive into keyword research, where you’ll identify high-volume, relevant, non-branded keywords that go hand in hand with the products or services you’re looking to optimize.
• Create informative and valuable content looking to satisfy the needs and interests of your target audience; e.g. blog posts, guides, and videos that do well in rankings for non-branded keywords. Furthermore, optimization: On-site and off-site search engine optimization for keywords that are non-branded to rank your website. This includes meta-tag optimization, on-site internal linking, and high-quality backlinking.
• Run paid search campaigns targeting non-branded keywords to capture users in the early stages of their buyer’s journey.

Conclusion: Which One Drives Better Conversions?

Which of these converts better—branded traffic or non-branded traffic? The answer depends on your objectives and, hence, your business, target audience, and industry.

Branded traffic is generally great because this refers to targeted traffic, with the user already knowing and trusting the brand. However, its impact falls within a small box: the box of those already familiar with the business.

On the other hand, non-branded traffic introduces your business to an audience otherwise unaware of your brand’s existence. The conversion rates might be considerably low but expansion of market share is necessary for growth.

Rather than leaving a business to make a trade-off between branded or non-branded traffic, this is the mark of a truly savvy business—one that invests in a strategy that manages both. Moreover, if you are building your brand and taking new pockets of audience share through non-branded keywords, then this truly is sustainable—a real online place that drives regular conversions.

Need an injection of conversion-boosting traffic to your website? Our digital marketing experts are ready to assist you with the development of your personalized strategy for balancing branded and non-branded traffic. Let’s team up to move even more visitors down the road into regular, loyal customers.

FAQs

Q1. What is branded vs nonbranded traffic?

Branded traffic, on the one hand, represents the traffic of visitors from searching your brand name or specific branded keywords. Non-branded traffic consists of people who found your website via generic searches that did not contain a mention of a brand.

Q2. Why is the conversion rate higher with branded traffic?

Branded traffic is typically more likely to convert because users who search for your brand will normally have some form of trust or familiarity with your business. They will normally be further along the buyer’s journey and more likely to make a purchase.

Q3. How do I increase branded traffic on a site?

One can increase branded traffic by building brand awareness through marketing campaigns, improving customer experience, leveraging email marketing, and running retargeting ads to bring back missed customers.

Q4. Is non-branded traffic important to my business? 

Yes. Key to new customers and expansion to a new market. It gives you the ability to capture users earlier in their buyers’ journey, which is so key to growth.

Q5. Can I optimize for both branded and non-branded traffic at once?

Very much so. It’s always a balanced exercise to optimize a strategy that targets both the branded and non-branded traffic to get a maximum number of conversions. That way, website, content, and other marketing efforts optimization will award your sustained success online