In today’s blog post, I want to get into Performance Max brand bidding on Google Ads.
If you’ve ever wondered whether or not you should be bidding on your own branded keywords—and how to go about it—this one’s for you.
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The Age-Old Debate: To Bid or Not to Bid on Your Own Brand?
Whether or not to bid on your own brand keywords has been a hot topic of debate for years. It might seem like a no-brainer to avoid spending money on clicks you might get for free through organic search. But true account performance does not always align with human intuition. Things are not always the way they seem.
Let’s break it down.
Are You Really Going to Get All the Clicks?
Some people argue that there’s no need to bid on your own brand because those clicks are yours anyway. But let’s think about it: Are you really getting 100% of the clicks for your branded search terms?
The reality is, no form of marketing gets a 100% click-through rate (CTR). Studies show that organic branded search listings typically have a CTR of around 30% to 50%. This means that even when people search specifically for your brand, more than half of them may not click on your organic listing.
How to Check Your Brand CTR
Don’t just take my word for it—check your brand’s CTR in Google Search Console. Here’s how:
Log in to Google Search Console and click on “Performance.”
Scroll down to see your search queries.
Divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions to get your CTR.
For example, my brand keyword “Big Flare” had 22 clicks and 137 impressions in the timeframe I looked at, which gives a CTR of about 16%. That’s a far cry from 100%.
Even if your brand CTR is higher than mine (and I hope that it is because frankly, I’m embarrassed at mine), it’s likely nowhere near 100%, meaning you could be missing out on a lot of potential traffic.
The Value of Brand Bidding in Performance Max
This is where brand bidding in Performance Max campaigns comes into play. By bidding on your brand, you can capture a significant portion of those clicks that you’re otherwise missing.
Let’s look at some examples:
Urban Outfitters: They bid on their brand in the shopping section and hold the top spot for paid search. Notice that with this setup, the entire area above the fold is dominated by them. This dominance likely boosts their overall CTR and helps keep potential customers focused on their offerings.
Temu: On the other hand, Temu doesn’t bid on their brand, leaving space for other content like Q&A boxes above the fold that could potentially damage their reputation. By not bidding on their brand, they risk losing control over what users see when they search for them. Even worse, what you can see at the bottom of the above screen grab is a Q&A box where people are asking questions about whether they are a trustworthy brand (the answer was not good for them) and about why they are so cheap (also had another not-good-for-them answer).
Shopping Ads Brand Bidding
Brand bidding isn’t just about CTR—it also impacts your conversion rate, especially when it comes to Shopping Ads.
A simple rule of thumb in conversion rate optimisation is that the more clicks a user has to make to reach the checkout, the lower the conversion rate.
Imagine someone searches your brand then clicks on a shopping ad. They go straight to the product page of the product they were interested in. Nice.
Now imagine they click on an organic brand listing. They might end up on the homepage, then they have to browse around the site to find something they are interested in. Then they click on that, then they get to the product page. This second scenario has introduced more clicks in their journey, and thus a lower overall conversion rate.
TL;DR - when someone searches for your Brand, if they see a Shopping Ad and click on it, they are going to have a higher conversion rate on your site because they got taken directly to the product page for the product they were interested in. Shopping Ads on your brand raise not just your CTR, but your conversion rate too.
How to Approach Brand Bidding in Google Ads
Now, let’s talk about how to implement brand bidding effectively.
Branded Search Ads Strategy
For branded search ads, I recommend creating a dedicated search campaign rather than letting Performance Max handle it. Include all possible variations and misspellings of your brand keywords in this campaign. This approach allows you to set higher ROAS targets—typically around 1000% for a branded search term—ensuring that even if some sales would have happened organically, you’re still getting a great return.
Branded Shopping Ads Strategy
For branded shopping ads, I usually let Performance Max handle them in a blended campaign (brand and non brand in the same campaign), adjusting my ROAS targets accordingly. If your target is 1000% for branded terms in Search and 200% for non-branded in Search, aim for something in the middle for a blended PMax campaign, like 400% for the overall campaign. This accounts for the mix of branded and non-branded traffic.
Splitting Branded Shopping Out of Performance Max
There is a way to split your branded shopping ads out of Performance Max and into a separate campaign, but it isn’t a perfect solution. It’s a bit messy, as the segmentation isn’t always clean. However, if you want more control, you can add a brand exclusion to Performance Max and set up a standard shopping campaign without the exclusion to catch the branded terms.
Brand bidding in Google Ads isn’t an all-or-nothing decision
While some of the clicks and sales from branded ads might have happened organically, others are incremental. By bidding on your brand, especially in a Performance Max campaign, you’re likely to capture more clicks, increase your CTR, and boost your conversion rate. You just need to make sure to bid the right amount, with a sufficiently high ROAS target, to reflect the fact that you were going to get some (but not all) of that brand traffic anyway.
Brand bidding in Performance Max campaigns can significantly increase your click-through rate and conversion rate. By taking a strategic approach—dedicating specific campaigns to branded keywords and adjusting ROAS targets—you can make the most of your brand’s visibility and drive more sales. Whether or not to bid on your own brand isn’t a black-and-white issue, but with the right strategy, it can certainly be worth it.