What is a Brand Ad in Google Search & Why Might You Need One?
A Brand campaign is when you set up an ad to run in Google Search for when people search for your company name.
If you’re lucky, your website might already show up first in Google Search when somebody searches your business name.
In this case, there’s no particular need to run a Brand Campaign.
However, in some cases like the example below, there may be competitor ads showing up ahead of your own website, which makes running a Brand Campaign worthwhile.
In this case, we can see a Sponsored Search Brand ad for the company that’s being searched. As there are actually 4 ads showing up, if they weren’t running this ad, their website would not be showing up until the 5th result, far down the results page on mobile. This is obviously not ideal for them.
So, why are people’s ads showing up ahead of your website, which folks are searching for? There are a few reasons:
- A competitor may be paying to show up when your business name is searched for (this is allowed in Google Ads).
- Google’s broad “matching” policies may be having competitor ads show up even if the competitor is not specifically bidding on your name.
- The search query or company name includes a term that competitors are actively bidding on (in the example, there would be lots of competitors bidding on the “Plumbing Seattle” keyword.
So, why are people’s ads showing up ahead of your website, which folks are searching for? There are a few reasons:
- A competitor may be paying to show up when your business name is searched for (this is allowed in Google Ads).
- Google’s broad “matching” policies may be having competitor ads show up even if the competitor is not specifically bidding on your name.
- The search query or company name includes a term that competitors are actively bidding on (in the example, there would be lots of competitors bidding on the “Plumbing Seattle” keyword.
So, what to do about it?
The bad news is that if you want to appear ahead of these competitors, you’ll have to pay for your company to show up first, even though the searcher is looking for you.
The good news is that it’s quite cost effective to run Brand ads. While Google ads has a “bidding” model for your ad placement, the good news is that performance factors into your bid.
Because searchers that will see your Brand ad come to Google to find you, your ad will dramatically outperform the competitor ads and that means you’ll typically appear highest but still pay way less than your competitors for your clicks.
Curious or confused about Brand Ads? Looking for some help with Google ads?
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