Should you bid on your own brand name in AdWords? (2024)

FAQs

Should I bid on my own brand on Google Ads? ›

Bidding on your own brand can optimize marketing spend by: Capturing High-Intent Traffic: Users searching for your brand are more likely to be further along in the buying process, making them more valuable prospects.

By bidding on brand terms, you're able to control the messaging people see about your brand, de-risk your marketing strategies, and control the SERP. Because, hey, even if you don't bid on your own brand terms, your competitors will.

Branded keywords are searched by people who are looking for you and no one else. They're a highly engaged audience — so bidding on these keywords makes it really easy for them to find you and convert. Non-branded keywords, meanwhile, help you reach people who are searching for your product rather than your brand.

You've seen that on average, 1 in 10 visits to your website results in a purchase. If you set a max. CPC bid of US$1, you'll break even (advertising costs = sales). To make a profit, you should spend less than US$1 to get a click on your ad, which means you'll want to set your max.

The reason for bidding on a keyword in the first place is to show up over a competitor's ad. But if you are bidding on the same keyword as the same advertiser, then you're bidding against yourself. The result of this can be two things: You could negatively impact your own Quality Scores.

Yes, it can be a good idea to use your own company name as a keyword in a Google Ads campaign, especially if you want to capture potential customers who are already searching for your brand. It can also help increase brand recognition and credibility.

Bidding on your own auction item, known as shill bidding, is generally unethical and may violate auction rules. Doing so artificially inflates prices and deceives genuine bidders.

What do we mean by bidding on your own brand? Bidding on your own brand in Google Ads means using your company name as a keyword. The example below shows that a Google search for the well-known furniture store Oak Furniture Land returns a Google Ad for the brand we've searched for.

Shill bidding is unfair to buyers and it's illegal in many places in the world. We have this policy to discourage shill bidding and to make it clear what can happen when people don't follow these guidelines.

Make a point to regularly check search results to see if competitors are targeting your keywords. If they are, review their ad copy to see if they're breaking the search engine's code of conduct. That way you can report the ad and have it removed.

How much should you spend on branded keywords? ›

The volume of people searching your brand name will also be limited, so your ad budget will be too. Generally speaking, from our experience running Google ads for 100s of companies, you should only be spending 5-10% of your ad budget on a brand keyword campaign.

There are many benefits to bidding on competitor brand terms, including lower cost per click, less competition, and capturing your competitor's customers!

Bidding on your name can be used as a defensive strategy to prevent this from happening. If competitors bid on your branded terms or name, you can raise their costs simply by bidding on your own name. It's likely that your ad will have a better position, higher CTR, and better Quality Score.

It also highlights the value of a well-designed landing page in converting clicks into customers. Google Ads brand bidding is a powerful strategy that can significantly enhance your brand's visibility and control in the digital marketplace.

Use manual bidding with Cost per Click (CPC) for an effective Google Shopping bidding strategy. Account for all campaign costs, segment products based on costs, and calculate revenue minus associated costs for clearer profit understanding. Consider various factors for successful management.

Smart Bidding works successfully for businesses large and small. Smart Bidding can optimise based on data from all of your campaigns, so even new campaigns without data of their own may see increased performance.