Brand Bidding

What Is Brand Bidding?

When competitors bid on your brand name and their ads appear above your organic result, you lose potential customers who are already searching for you. The good news: brand keywords are extremely affordable because Google recognizes your high relevance and sets the Quality Score accordingly high. The ROI is typically outstanding since these users already have purchase intent.

Brand bidding is the strategy of placing bids on brand names in Google Ads — either on your own brand name or on competitors’ brand names. With brand bidding on your own name, you want to ensure your ad appears when users search for your company. This is especially important because competitors might otherwise bid on your brand name and their ads could appear above your organic result. Brand bidding is an affordable, high-converting channel since users already have purchase intent.

Technically, this works as follows: you create keywords with your brand name in Google Ads and bid on them to ensure your ad gets the top position. The Quality Score for brand keywords is normally very high, as Google recognizes that brand name ads are relevant. This means you pay less per click than for generic keywords. Bidding on competitors’ brand names is more complex — it’s only allowed if you don’t cause users to think you are the other brand. Google has strict guidelines on this area.

In practice, brand bidding is especially recommended for larger companies with well-known names. Bid on your own brand name to ensure you get the top position and capture clicks from targeted searchers. The ROI is normally very high because these users already have purchase intent. Use meaningful ad copy that clearly shows what you offer. Competitor brand bidding should only be considered if you can ethically justify it and comply with Google’s guidelines.