Pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising is a powerful tool for driving traffic and conversions. But a common question among marketers is whether bidding on your own brand name is a worthwhile investment. After all, if someone is searching for your company specifically, aren’t they likely to find you organically anyway? While it might seem like a waste of precious budget, the answer isn’t always a simple “yes” or “no.” It’s more like a “maybe… and here’s how to find out.”

The Case Against Brand Bidding (The Obvious Argument)

The most straightforward argument against bidding on your own brand terms is that you’re essentially paying for traffic you might already be getting. If someone types your exact company name into Google, there’s a strong chance your website will appear at the top of the organic search results. Why pay for a click you could have received for free?

The Case For Brand Bidding (It’s Not as Simple as It Seems)

Here’s the thing: the digital landscape is competitive. Even if your brand ranks highly organically, competitors might be bidding on your name, stealing potential clicks and sending those potential customers to their sites instead. Plus, a paid ad at the very top can give you more real estate on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), pushing further down any pesky comparison sites or competitor ads.

Beyond that, brand bidding offers some unexpected benefits:

• Control Over Messaging: With brand ads, you control the exact headline, description, and landing page. This allows you to direct users to specific promotions, product pages, or content, ensuring they land exactly where you want them to.
• High Click-Through Rates and Relevance: Brand keywords typically have very high click-through rates and conversion rates, signaling to Google that your ads are highly relevant. This can help improve your Quality Score, which in turn can lower your cost per click overall.
• Defensive Strategy: As mentioned, it prevents competitors from hijacking your searches. Bidding on your brand is a form of digital brand protection.

The Truth: It’s All About Testing

So, is brand bidding a waste or a necessity? Instead of guessing, the best approach is to test. Here’s how:

1. Set Up Separate Campaigns: Don’t mix your brand and non-brand keywords. This is crucial! Keeping these separate allows you to measure their performance independently. If you group them together, brand’s high-conversion rates will make search campaigns look more effective than they really are, obscuring the true impact of your non-brand campaigns.
2. The Pause Test: The core of effective testing is the “pause test.” For a defined period (we suggest at least 2-4 weeks), pause your brand campaigns completely.
3. Track Everything: Measure key metrics:
   • Organic Traffic: How much traffic are you losing to your competitors when you pause your brand ads?
   • Conversion Rates: Are organic conversions impacted? Are competitor conversions increasing?
   • Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): What is your cost per acquisition for brand and non-brand separately? Did it change when you paused brand bidding?
   • Competitor Activity: Are your competitors actively bidding on your brand? How does this change when your brand campaigns are paused?
4. Apply your Findings If pausing brand campaigns led to a significant dip in traffic or conversions, and/or an increase in competitor ads, it’s a reasonable indicator that maintaining your brand campaign is the right approach.

Brand Bidding as a Measurement of Offline Marketing Effectiveness

What many overlook is that brand bidding can be an unexpected tool for measuring the impact of your offline marketing efforts. If you launch a new print ad campaign, radio spot, or billboard, a spike in brand searches online might indicate that your offline marketing has been successful. These spikes are great data points that can help you understand which offline channels are working best.

The Importance of Segregation: Never Mix Brand and Non-Brand Data

This is a critical point: never combine your brand and non-brand sales or leads. Blending these two data streams will paint an inaccurate and overly optimistic picture of your search marketing performance. Brand traffic has different intent and behaviour than non-brand traffic. Tracking them separately ensures you measure the effectiveness of your non-brand campaigns, which are crucial for customer discovery and growth, accurately.

The question of whether to bid on brand terms is not a simple one. It’s not a matter of “waste” or “must-do.” It’s a data-driven decision that should be backed by rigorous testing. By running the pause test, carefully tracking metrics, and recognizing the unique value of brand keyword data, you’ll be able to confidently make informed decisions about your PPC budget. Don’t blindly follow a rule, test and optimize for your business! Do you have any other effective testing methods for PPC? Share them with us in the comments!