Dispelling negative press with paid search

31st March 2008

Paid search can be a good way of countering negative press, suggests a new blog post.

According to E-consultancy, companies who utilise paid links to acknowledge customers searching for bad news about their brand could help transform negative publicity into a positive brand image.

The publication notes that a search for "Virgin airways complaint" brings up a paid link from the company at the top of the page.

While users looking for complaints may not be responsive to conventional marketing techniques, an ad that attempted to respond to the query, asking whether Virgin could do anything to help, could potentially help catch disgruntled customers before the problem escalates.

The article says: "But isn't it possible that turning off broad match and actually serving an ad acknowledging the query and asking if there was anything you could do to help might turn negative PR into positive word of mouth?"

Meanwhile, American Airlines recently launched a new Facebook application in order to read consumer habits more effectively.