Every account has two kinds of search campaigns: brand (people searching for your business name) and non-brand (people searching for what you sell, but not by name). They behave totally differently and need to be reported separately. Most accounts mix them and arrive at lies.
Definitions
- Brand keywords — your company name, product names, founder name, exact match phrases like "[your company] reviews" or "[your company] login."
- Non-brand keywords — generic terms like "ad management software," "plumber San Antonio," or "best running shoes."
Why brand campaigns look amazing
Brand campaigns almost always show 10-30× higher conversion rates than non-brand. Of course — these searchers already know you. They're typing your name to find your site. They were going to convert anyway. The ad is just charging you to put a paid result above the organic one.
So why does anyone run brand campaigns?
Three legitimate reasons:
1. Defense against competitors
Competitors can bid on your brand name. If they do and you don't, their ad shows above your organic listing. You lose 10-30% of branded traffic to them. Bidding on your own brand pushes them off.
2. Brand control
Your paid ad headline, sitelinks, and offer are fully under your control. Organic listings are at Google's mercy. If you have a specific landing page or current promotion you want branded searchers to see, paid wins.
3. Branded long-tail
"[Brand] login" and "[Brand] customer support" are easier to win in paid than to rank organically. Cheap clicks, useful for support deflection.
How to report brand vs non-brand honestly
Always split them into separate campaigns. Always. Mixing them hides the real CPA of your acquisition spend.
When reporting:
- Show non-brand CPA / ROAS as the "real" performance number.
- Show brand CPA separately, and note it's defense / control, not net new acquisition.
- Treat brand spend as a cost of doing business, not a lever to scale.
The structure
- Campaign 1 — Brand. Exact match on your brand and key product names. Tiny budget (you'll get cheap CPCs and high CTR; cap by impression share, not budget). Specific landing pages.
- Campaign 2 — Non-brand: high intent. Bottom-funnel keywords like "[your category] software," "buy [product]," "[product] near me." This is where you optimize CPA.
- Campaign 3 — Non-brand: research. Top-funnel keywords like "how to do [thing your product does]." Lower conversion rate, but it's where new awareness happens. Lower bids, longer attribution windows.
- Campaign 4 — Competitor. Optional. Bid on competitor names. Legal but risky — they'll often retaliate. Make sure your landing page is clearly differentiated, never deceptive.
The Performance Max problem
By default, Performance Max campaigns ALSO bid on your brand. The reported CPA looks great because it's mostly branded conversions claimed by PMax instead of branded campaign. Add your brand keywords as negative campaign-level keywords in your PMax campaign (Google added this feature in 2023). Now PMax has to find non-brand traffic to spend on, and its true performance becomes visible.
How much should you spend on brand?
Rule of thumb: if your brand campaign spends more than 5-10% of total search budget, you're either over-bidding or you have a competitor problem. Adjust bids down or expand non-brand to bring the ratio back.