Kraft Crushes All Other CPG Brands In Paid Search [Study]

In a ranking of the top 50 consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers in paid search by ad impressions, Kraft Foods Group overwhelmed the field with more than 20 percent of total CPG ad impressions on Google AdWords with its sites KraftRecipes.com and KraftBrands.com.

With Kraft sites as the bellwether, the list of top 10 CPG advertisers in paid search was dominated by sites offering recipes and meal planning ideas. In all, Kraft Foods Group racked up more than 462 million impressions during the study period between August 2012 and July 2103.

The study also found that within particular CPG categories, a single advertiser tended to dominate the field. For example, with MyCokeRewards.com, LivePositively.com and DietCoke.com, Coca-Cola sites accounted for more than 80 percent of PPC impressions in the carbonated beverages category. The runner-up, Pepsi, claimed just 9 percent of total impressions in that category. AdGooroo found that Pepsi almost exclusively focused its paid search efforts around the brand’s TV sponsorship of the 2013 Super Bowl.

AdGooroo looked at the keywords CPG companies were targeting to try to get a better understanding of what the branding appeal of paid search is for these manufacturers selling low margin items through third-party retailers. The mass appeal of recipe and meal planning information was the biggest draw for CPG food companies looking to reach broad audiences online.

There were, however, some surprising niche targeting tactics found among CPG brands. Popcorn brand Pop Secret, which has a tagline of “The secret to movie night,” employed a paid search strategy focused on movie watching by bidding on keywords including “free movies” and “free movie streaming”. More than 43 percent of the brand’s keywords were movie related, according to AdGooroo.

Also somewhat surprising, was the lack of coupon offers being promoted through paid search among typically coupon-reliant CPG brands. Laundry detergent brands stood out as the only advertisers with “coupon” related terms among their top keywords.

The full report is available for download here.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin was formerly Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.