I guarantee that if you have run Google Ads, currently run Google Ads, or have sat on a bus next to someone who has, the debate about whether to run ads on your brand terms comes round more often than a Thursday. Your brand campaign is probably your best performer. Cheap clicks, a high conversion rate and a great return on ad spend. It's also the campaign most likely to be flattering your numbers.
So should you bid on your own brand name in Google Ads? For most businesses it's a big, big yes, but not for the reason most agencies give you, and not without checking what it's actually adding.
Your brand ad is the winger, not the whole team
People will google your brand name because they've heard of you from a friend who thought your service was sleeker than an otter's back. Or they've seen your amazing online presence that stopped them doomscrolling, or your breathtaking ad that made them slam on the brakes and made the owner of the Ford Fiesta behind them late for work. No part of your marketing works independently. Your brand campaign may be the winger who scores a try after the hardworking forward won the scrum, but if you passed the ball and no one was there, that would be costly. No try was scored by a winger who wasn't there, and no sale was made by a brand ad that wasn't there.
What eBay found when they switched it off
The best known test of this comes from eBay. In 2012 their researchers stopped bidding on searches containing the word "eBay" on some platforms and carried on elsewhere. Sales didn't fall. People who would have clicked the ad clicked the free organic result instead, so the ads had mostly been charging eBay for traffic it already owned.
But that's eBay. Everyone knows eBay. It's one of the biggest companies in the world, it ranks first organically and few competitors bid on it. Don't let your ego convince you that your brand is the same just because your Aunty June in Newcastle shared your page on Facebook, or you got a mention on your local business forum. That isn't a household name. That's a good week.
Later research found the picture is very different for other retailers. When a brand stops bidding on its own name, competitors can step in and pick up the people searching for it. Your name is far easier to hijack than eBay's.
Why most small businesses should still bid on brand
Competitors can bid on your name. If they do and you don't, their ad sits at the top of the page and your organic listing gets pushed down. That's the most common reason I'd keep brand ads running.
Your organic listing isn't always first. Directories, review sites, comparison pages, resellers or someone with a similar name can all outrank you for your own name.
You control the message. With an ad you choose the headline, the offer, the landing page and the extensions. With an organic listing you get whatever Google decides to show.
The cost of being wrong is lopsided. Brand clicks are usually cheap. Losing an enquiry to a competitor sitting above you is not, and neither is the customer you never land because they found a company that was easier to find. That cost never shows up in your reports, because you never see the customer you lost.
So grow up and bid on your brand. Unless you're eBay, someone else will happily take your customers if you don't. Don't switch it off because of a study about a company the size of eBay, and if you do want to cut it back, test it first.
If you want to know what your brand ads are really adding, or whether your account is flattering its numbers, that's what my Google Ads audit covers. Get in touch and we'll talk it through.
